- Felix Rosenqvist finishes fifth, Marcus Armstrong finishes seventh
- First dual top-10 result for MSR since Mid-Ohio 2022
- Both MSR cars started in top 10 for second consecutive race
Thermal, Calif. – (23 March 2025) – Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) put together one of its strongest NTT INDYCAR SERIES weekends of the last few seasons, putting both of its cars in the top 10 for the first time since 2022 in claiming fifth and seventh in Sunday’s Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix.
Felix Rosenqvist (No. 60 SiriusXM Honda) fought back after losing some early positions and earned a season-best fifth-place finish to lead the MSR results. The Swede was joined in the top 10 by teammate Marcus Armstrong (No. 66 SiriusXM / Root Insurance Honda), whose seventh-place result marked his first top 10 since joining the Ohio-based team in the offseason.
The race results were buoyed by another solid qualifying session as both cars (Armstrong, 7th; Rosenqvist, 9th) started in the top 10. The qualifying result saw Rosenqvist start 10th or better for the fifth consecutive race, dating back to the end of the 2024 season and is the first time that MSR has started an INDYCAR SERIES season with back-to-back double top-10 qualifiers.
The team stayed true to its strategy on a very warm day in Thermal, California where the 17-turn, 3.067-mile circuit made tire choices a key component of the plan. Both MSR Hondas started on the harder black-walled Firestone tires and Armstrong ran well, but Rosenqvist dropped five spots on the opening stint before using the softer, grippier red sidewalled shoes for the rest of the 95-lap race.
Rosenqvist made the added grip pay off as the veteran battled back into the top 10 and was in sixth after the completion of the final round of pit stops. Both MSR cars showed late-race speed as well, with Rosenqvist climbing into the top five with less than five laps to go. Armstrong ran in the top 10 all day long as well and vaulted to seventh with two passes in the waning laps. The strong finishes were the third and fourth top-10 placings of the season and were the 39th and 40th in MSR team history.
The team will have a few weeks to plan for continued success as the INDYCAR SERIES season resumes with an April 13 trip to Southern California for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, which is the oldest street-course event on the schedule.
Meyer Shank Racing Driver Quotes:
Felix Rosenqvist: “It was a weird one, we really struggled on the blacks in the first stint. Luckily we got off them pretty quick cause we struggled and then we just did the whole race on reds. We were the opposite on reds, we were really good, one of the strongest cars I think. We capitalized on that and picked up a few cars in the end and ended P5. I would say that’s a pretty good day from P9. It was a game of patience, kind of just going a little bit slower than you want to, to be quick at the end. It was a game of chess.”
Marcus Armstrong: “It was a long race, so I really struggled on used alternates. I wasn’t happy with the balance of the car, but we slowly made adjustments through the race and then put some new reds on at the end and we were pretty rapid. It’s a shame that the used tire runs were so tricky, but I’m glad that we made up some ground at the end and finished where we started.”
