Thermal, Calif. (24 March 2024) – Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) continued to turn heads in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES this week following up a successful season opener with another strong performance at the series’ newest exhibition race – the Thermal $1 Million Challenge.
Felix Rosenqvist was a force all weekend in the series’ trip to the private road course near Palm Springs, California taking his No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda to a $250,000 payday after finishing third in the non-points event.
The No. 60 car that carried the livery of Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bon Jovi and his SiriusXM Bon Jovi Radio (Ch. 312) roared to the win in the first heat of the day, getting away clean at the start and holding off Scott McLaughlin over the last of the 10 laps that made up the opening race. The finish put Rosenqvist on the outside of the front row for the feature.
The Swedish driver dropped back to third on the start of the opening 10-lap segment of the feature race, which became largely processional as many drivers opted to save their Firestone tires for the final 10-lap shootout that came after the halftime break. Rosenqvist started the final segment in that third spot and fought off advances to finish on the podium and earn a check for $250,000.
His teammate Tom Blomqvist (No. 66 AutoNation / Arctic Wolf Honda) started fifth in his heat race after a strong qualifying run and spent the first three laps fighting off a trio of cars for the final transfer spot to the final. The rookie battled bravely but yielded a pair of spots on the fourth trip around the 17-turn, 3.067-mile road course and settled for eighth in his heat. Blomqvist does walk away from the weekend with a $23,000 payout.
The team will have a few weeks to figure out what to do with today’s winnings as the series is off for nearly a month. The INDYCAR SERIES resumes its season with a trip to Southern California with the April 21 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 an awesome weekend. We kept cool and did our own thing and maximized the weekend. We won the heat race but I couldn’t really follow Alex (Palou) and Scott (McLaughlin) but overall I’m super pleased for the team, this weekend was a big statement for us moving forward.”
Tom Blomqvist: “That was actually a hard race. I got a little love tap at the start of the race which messed me up a bit and I lost a position. I thought the format was actually quite exciting and there was definitely a bit of energy around, but it’s of course tough when you don’t make it through to the final round. Overall, it was a pretty fun weekend and we made some progress, now we’re ready to head to Long Beach.”
