Debut outing for Malukas saw him finish 16th after contact while running 10th
Monterey, Calif. (23 June 2024) – Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) saw an up-and-down day with finishes on an uptick as both drivers made up ground on a late restart to earn top-16 finishes in Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Felix Rosenqvist (No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda) recovered from an early-race off-track excursion and race circumstances that scrambled his pit strategy to finish a solid 11th, narrowly missing his sixth top-10 finish on the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season.
Meanwhile, new MSR driver David Malukas (No. 66 AutoNation / Arctic Wolf Honda) showed no ill effects of his preseason injury and answered any questions about his conditioning with three late-race passes that led to a 16th-place finish.
Rosenqvist earned his first top-three qualifying result since winning the pole at Long Beach and ran at the sharp end of the grid early. The team opted to stay on the same pit strategy as the leaders, enabling Roenqvist to run in the top 10 through the first half of the 95-lap event.
Malukas started 12th but got on a different strategy early in the event and made the most of it, finding himself in the top three during pit cycles on two different occasions. The strategy call put him in the top 10 after the final stops, but a cut right front tire after contact with the No. 5 car forced a pit stop that dropped Malukas deep in the field in the waning laps.
Melee swirled throughout the 2.238-mile Laguna Seca layout over the final 20 laps however, as spins and contact caused three separate caution periods that bunched the field. Rosenqvist started 12th on the final restart with four laps to go while Malukas took the green in 19th, and each driver was able to move up over the final orbits to improve their place at the checkered flag. The 16th-place spot for Malukas was the best result for the No. 66 car since the season opener in St. Pete (15th).
The team will have a week off leading into the season’s most demanding stretch, with a run of four races in three weeks that starts with the July 7 Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, to be run at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.
Meyer Shank Racing Driver Quotes:
Felix Rosenqvist: “Up and down day today. I thought we started pretty well on the blacks and had a pretty ‘in control’ stint. We took the yellow and came in and then had to do some fuel save and I just didn’t have the pace. I couldn’t keep up with the guys who ended up up good on that strategy. I was struggling a bit with (brake) locking, I just felt like we got worse through the race. But we got some decent points after recovering ok at the end, I think we were 15th at one point. Disappointing day, I think we wanted more especially after that first stint but we’ll just look at everything and work on coming back stronger at Mid Ohio.”
David Malukas: “Definitely a bummer to finish where we did especially with the pace we had, I think we were tracking to be about 8th. But I guess for us to be sad about this result is ok when we really just set out to finish. I know know for me I just wanted to get across the line. But overall it was a great first outing with a new team and a new hand especially coming into MSR which has been in mid-season form. Hopefully we can just keep progressing and move onto Mid-Ohio.”
