Rosenqvist finishes 7th, Blomqvist 17th
St. Petersburg, Fla. (10 March 2024) – Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) wasted no time in putting a difficult 2023 season in the rear-view mirror as it launched the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season on Sunday at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The team came home with Felix Rosenqvist finishing seventh, while teammate Tom Blomqvist finished 17th in his official full-season INDYCAR debut.
Rosenqvist’s MSR debut this weekend set the tone for a competitive campaign, putting his No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda on the front row during qualifying on Saturday and running with the leaders all day on his way to a seventh-place finish.
Rosenqvist made the most of his strong qualifying performance and shadowed eventual race winner Josef Newgarden for the first 30 laps leading into the first set of pit stops. He ran in the top five for most of the 100 trips around the 1.8-mile street course before settling for seventh.
His finish was the best for MSR since Toronto in 2022 which produced a seventh place result and marked the 30th top-10 finish since MSR started in INDYCAR.
His teammate Blomqvist (No. 66 AutoNation / Arctic Wolf Honda) started his first full INDYCAR season in solid fashion, holding his own after starting 17th, completing all 100 laps and finishing 17th in just his fourth series start. The British-born driver carded his first-ever top-20 finish and his finish was the best of his nascent career.
The excitement wasn’t just on track on Sunday – Meyer Shank Racing also hosted Rock Icon, Jon Bon Jovi on race day. Prior to him getting in INDYCAR’s Fastest Seat in Sports, Jon Bon Jovi joined MSR to take an up close look at the No. 60 car which featured SiriusXM’s Bon Jovi Radio (Ch. 312) on the side pod.
MSR will have a week to recover before the series heads to The Thermal Club on March 22 for a unique, made-for-TV racing exhibition. The special event set near Palm Springs, California will include a qualifying session on Saturday and two heat races on Sunday with the top six from each heat advancing to an All-Star showcase. While championship points will not be on the line, the event will feature a multimillion-dollar purse with $1,000,000 of that going to the winner.
Meyer Shank Racing Driver Quotes:
Felix Rosenqvist: “We started on the alternate tire and I’m not sure that was the right strategy. At that point you are not sure if they are going to hold on or not, so you can’t be super aggressive the first stint. Then it seemed like after that a lot of people used their alternate tires. We only had one set and had to stick it out on blacks. We had one little hiccup in the pits, that cost us a little bit. Considering all that we had a pretty solid day, maybe a top five in it. I’m super happy with the whole team effort at Meyer Shank Racing. Brilliant first week together even if it was only P7. We went into the weekend just saying if we get a top ten we are in it and solid points to start out the season.”
Tom Blomqvist: “It was good to finish the race today. It was going okay, I thought I was hanging in there quite comfortably saving fuel. The last stint we went back to a black tire and just had no grip whatsoever. It was a bit of a disaster that final stint, lost some positions and I made a mistake which cost me dearly there at the end. Physically I felt miles better, obviously it’s always challenging, these cars. I’m pretty happy with that, but you obviously want to be farther up the field and just work on performance and go from there really. All in all it was a solid weekend to build upon. I learned a lot today, to get that race under my belt. It was a tough race, but we got through and just looking ahead now.”
