Detroit, Mich. (2 June 2024) – Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) made Sunday lemonade out of a bushel of Saturday’s lemons as Felix Rosenqvist (No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda) came from 22nd on the grid to finish a hard-fought eighth in today’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.
After sustaining damage from contact early on in the race, Helio Castroneves (No. 66 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda) held on to finish 25th.
Rosenqvist overcame his first rough qualifying session of the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season to score his fifth top-10 result of the campaign, gaining 14 spots over 100 trips around the 1.645-mile, nine-turn street course located in downtown Detroit.
The Swedish veteran made his way through the field by avoiding the maelstrom that swirled around the first 50 laps of the day. Seven caution periods and a brief rain shower scrambled pit strategies and upended track position all day, but Rosenqvist dodged the numerous incidents to claw his way through the field. His charge was helped by strong tire management and a key strategy call as MSR eschewed a tire change to make up ground on his last pit stop, and Rosenqvist made his Firestone primary tires last over the final 56 laps.
Castroneves made his first non-oval start of the season after taking over for rookie Tom Blomqvist for the next two races and had some good fortune early, climbing seven positions to 18th by skirting a first-lap accident. The optimistic outlook didn’t last long however as Castroneves spun after being hit from behind by the No. 14 car on Lap 17, causing a broken right-rear tow link that cost the No. 66 MSR team five laps to repair. He returned to the track and finished five laps down in 25th.
Rosenqvist’s workmanlike effort made him one of just six drivers to have as many as five top-10 results over the year’s first six points-paying races. The driver of the No. 60 car that carried the livery of SiriusXM channel Smokey’s Soul Town (SiriusXM Channel 74) honoring Motown legend Smokey Robinson, is provisionally ninth in the points, but is now just 10 markers out of a berth in the top five.
MSR was fortunate to have Smokey Robinson on-site on Sunday, with the Motown legend seeing his personalized livery in person in addition to serving as Detroit Grand Prix Grand Marshal.
MSR will wrap up a spate of three races in three weeks next Sunday as it travels to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America.
Meyer Shank Racing Driver Quotes:
Felix Rosenqvist – Started 22nd, finished 8th: “We finished P8 which I’ll take. We had a puncture on the first lap and then we were actually really quick on the reds and then the tires just went off [pace], and then it started raining. Everyone kind of ended up on the same program and we were around P8, P9. We just kind of hung there. We didn’t have great pace and we trimmed a lot, so we were good on the straights. We got hit a couple of times so we had damage so I was just focused on bringing it home. It was a great points day for the team overall.”
Helio Castroneves – Started 26th, finished 25th: “Wow, what a race. It was unfortunate that we got hit toward the beginning of the race and we had some damage in the rear. But good work from the guys to get it fixed and send me back out. Unfortunately after that we were just kind of running in the back and since we were a few laps down, we were just focusing on bringing the car home at the end. I don’t think we necessarily had the car to win today, but I think we could have hung around the top 12.”
