Elkhart Lake, Wisc. – (18 June 2023) – A total team effort from the entire Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) squad propelled the two-car team to its best results of the 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, finishing 14th and 15th in Sunday’s Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America.
Simon Pagenaud (No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda) came from 20th on the starting grid and used a strong car and steady driving to work into the top half of the field through the first 20 laps. He suffered a setback soon after however, when he went off course while fighting Marcus Ericsson for 12th, resulting in a grass-cutting excursion that cost him nine spots.
A lap 24 caution flag set the stage for the No. 60 pink and black clad MSR pit crew to pick the Frenchman up soon after, using lightning-fast pit work to take six positions back, promoting Pagenaud back to 15th on the subsequent restart. He was one of the few drivers that was able to coax some performance out of the red Firestone alternate tires and made his way to 13th before his final pit stop.
Meanwhile, Helio Castroneves (No. 06 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda) had a tough start to the weekend after qualifying 26th on Saturday, but the 55-lap race saw him advance 11 positions.
Castroneves overcame a bobble during his second stop and gained seven spots on his second stint to move up to 17th. The four-time Indianapolis 500 winner used his experience to continue the chase over the final 20 laps around the 4.048-mile Road America circuit, chasing his teammate down as the two ran within two-seconds of each other over the waning laps.
Pagenaud made his crew’s quick pit work pay off, using calm hands to avoid incidents that some of his competitors faced in the waning laps to come home in 14th, while Castroneves matched his season best, duplicating the 15th-place result he posted in the Indy 500.
MSR will have a week off as they prepare for their home race as the Pataskala, Ohio-based team heads to nearby Lexington for the July 2 Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Driver Quotes:
Simon Pagenaud:
“The result is not what I would like, because the car was phenomenal. The race was run well, the strategy was great, the pit stops were amazing. But unfortunately, what really cost us today was when Ericsson went off track. He came back onto the racing line and hit my rear going into a fast corner, which ended up pushing me off track. I was running with Dixon at that point and he finished fourth, so I believe that’s where we could have been. But it gives me a lot of hope for the future – we’ve made major improvements over the last several races. We still have a few things to work on, like speed and acceleration, but once we get that, we’ll be in good shape. Lots of positives as we head to Iowa to go testing. Then we get a weekend off!”
Helio Castroneves:
“The 06 crew did a phenomenal job. We had a little incident in the pits – the hose got tangled in the front wing – and I was ready to leave, so unfortunately we got a penalty from that. The race was amazing for us otherwise, we had really great pace. Moving from 26th to 15th definitely shows that we had speed in the car and that’s very promising.”
