Armstrong’s Road America Victory Bid Ends in Heartbreak with Four Laps To Go

Elkhart Lake, Wis. (June 21, 2026) – Marcus Armstrong was under four laps away from capturing his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory when heartbreak struck in Sunday’s XPEL Grand Prix at Road America.

After leading the field by more than a second in the closing stages, an apparent engine issue forced the No. 66 Remax Honda to the sidelines with four laps remaining, ending what had been a dominant performance by the young New Zealander and Meyer Shank Racing.

Armstrong was among the fastest drivers all weekend, placing the No. 66 Honda at or near the top of the timing charts throughout practice and qualifying. Flawless pit stops and a well-executed race strategy kept Armstrong firmly in contention throughout the 55-lap event, never running lower than third position. Following the final round of pit stops, Armstrong emerged as the race leader and steadily built a comfortable advantage over the field.

With his first INDYCAR victory within reach, Armstrong's day came to a devastating end when an engine issue struck in the closing laps, forcing an early retirement from the race.

On the other side of the Meyer Shank Racing garage, Felix Rosenqvist was also in the mix at the front of the field in the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda - which featured SiriusXM Alt Nation (ch. 36) and YUNGBLUD Radio. However, a caution on Lap 30 altered the strategy for the Indianapolis 500 winner at a critical point in the race.

As Rosenqvist prepared to make his second pit stop, the yellow flag was displayed, forcing him to remain on track and delaying his stop by two laps. The timing of the caution shuffled the running order and put Felix back to P11.

While pushing to recover on the restart, Rosenqvist ran wide and surrendered additional positions. Despite the setback, the Swede continued to charge forward and fought his way back into the top 10, crossing the finish line in eighth place.

Meyer Shank Racing will now turn its attention to its home race weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, July 3-5, looking to build on the speed shown throughout the Road America weekend.

Meyer Shank Racing Driver Quotes:

Marcus Armstrong: “It was all smooth sailing, and I came out of turn 6 and the engine started stopping like it was out of fuel, but clearly it wasn't. And then it just completely died. We’ll have to speak to Honda to see what the issue was, but there was no indication that there was something wrong. I’m massively proud of the guys and girls on this team. We had the quickest car today and I think we had the quickest car all weekend. My engineers did everything right, my pit crew as well. I’m just gutted really.”

Felix Rosenqvist: “P8 in the end, it was a good recovery. We were pretty much three-seconds in the clear in the lead. And then I don’t know what happened with that ECR car, but he stopped and it went yellow when we were one second away from pitting. That put us back in the mid-field and then I made a mistake and lost even more spots. It was a good recovery. I think one of our [MSR] cars would have, should have won that race. But sometimes that’s how it goes.”