Indianapolis, Ind. (27 July 2022) – Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) will be heading back to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the third time this year for Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix on the IMS road course (12:00pm ET, NBC, SiriusXM Ch. 160).
The INDYCAR race weekend will be a part of the Brickyard weekend in combination with NASCAR as each series will run on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.
Simon Pagenaud nearly won in his last outing at IMS with MSR in the No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda in May, finishing second in the GMR Grand Prix. That race was followed by the Indianapolis 500 two weeks later on the iconic 2.5-mile oval, where Helio Castroneves finished seventh in the No. 06 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda and Pagenaud 8th.
This will be the 13th race of the 17-event season, and is also the fourth race in a three-weekend stretch, with the team coming off a street race in Toronto and a doubleheader on the short Iowa Speedway oval.
Pagenaud has enjoyed lots of success on the Brickyard’s road circuit, winning three times in 12 starts. Pagenaud won the debut event at the IMS road course in 2014 and went on to win from the pole in 2016 on the way to winning the IndyCar championship. Pagenaud most recently won at the IMS road course in 2019 just two weeks before winning the 2019 Indianapolis 500.
Castroneves is a 10-time competitor on the Indy road course, scoring two podium finishes – a third place finish in 2014 and a second in 2016. Castroneves had his best start in 2017 after qualifying on the front row in second.
Castroneves has enjoyed more success on the oval for the historic 500-mile event, winning four times in 22 races – including MSR’s first IndyCar victory in 2021. The fourth member of the elusive “four-time winner” club has eight top-three finishes, four poles and led 325 laps in the Indy 500.
The IMS road course also holds a special place in MSR’s history as it was the location where the team scored its first-ever IndyCar podium finish. MSR finished third in a rain soaked 2019 event.
The quick two-day event will start with a 90-minute practice on Friday beginning at 9:30 a.m. (all times ET), followed by qualifying at 1 p.m. NBC will host live coverage of the Gallagher Grand Prix starting at 12:00pm ET on Saturday. SiriusXM will also host live radio coverage on SiriusXM Ch. 160.
Driver Quotes:
Simon Pagenaud:
“I love Indianapolis and it is one of my favorite places to go. I’ve been very successful there in the past and obviously we had a second place finish in May in the rain. I’m always hoping for rain – it’s the best kind of races for me. However, if it is dry, no problem. I’m pretty happy with our road course package right now, we have made big improvements this year. We’re going to go there and try our best and try to get another podium.”
Helio Castroneves:
“I’m of course looking forward to going back to Indy, it’s one of my favorite tracks that we go to. And it will be a really fun weekend with NASCAR there as well. The team is really strong at Indy so I know that we have the potential to do very well there and of course Simon got a podium in May. So I’m really looking forward to heading back there after a reset from Iowa.”
