LONG BEACH, Calif., (21 April 2024) – Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) continued building on one of the early success stories of the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season as MSR newcomer Felix Rosenqvist started from pole and finished ninth in Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Teammate Tom Blomqvist experienced early damage to his front wing and played catch up to cross the line 22nd.
The weekend started with Rosenqvist’s No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda atop the qualifying results as MSR earned its first series pole. On Sunday, the team set another team standard, as the ninth-place result added to MSR’s 25 career top ten finishes.
After leading one lap, Rosenqvist dropped off the lead, but stayed in the top five through the first half of the race as he managed an issue with his brakes. He stayed out with the lead group when a Lap 17 caution split the field in half from a fuel strategy standpoint, but ran with the leaders through the 85 trips around the 1.968-mile Long Beach street course.
The Swedish-born driver started the day’s final stint from 12th place, rejoining the fray after a stop on Lap 60. He fought his way towards the top five over the last 25 laps of the day before settling for a hard-fought ninth-place result.
His teammate Blomqvist (No. 66 AutoNation / Arctic Wolf Honda) had another afternoon of education in his rookie year of INDYCAR racing. The former IMSA Champion took the green flag from a career-best 15th on the grid. A typical Long Beach traffic jam caused Blomqvist to make contact, damaging the front wing. A Lap 17 caution period saw the team service the car to refuel and change tires as well as ascertain the damage ahead of making a nose change.
As the race went green, Blomqvist returned to the track in clean air as the team worked to optimize the fuel strategy as the race ran green all the way to the finish, with Blomqvist crossing the line 22nd.
Rosenqvist’s finish kept him in seventh in the provisional season standings after two championship events. His 50 points has him just 11 markers out of a spot in the top five.
MSR will trade the concrete canyons of Long Beach for the relatively open spaces of Barber Motorsports Park outside of Birmingham, Alabama as the series heads to the 2.3-mile permanent road course next week for the Children’s Grand Prix of Alabama.
Meyer Shank Racing Driver Quotes:
Felix Rosenqvist: “The opening segment is where we essentially lost the race. We had some issues with the brakes: they were running really hot, so I was really off on my bias and had to chase it. We really lacked braking performance, which meant I kept getting passed in turn one, inside and outside. Without braking confidence, you can’t protect and you can’t go forward. But the team did well despite that, we kept our heads cool – even though it sucked to go plummeting down the field. We are looking at the big picture and a top ten result for the team is still really great for us. Of course we would have liked to translate the pole into a win, but this is good momentum for everyone.”
Tom Blomqvist: “It was not a great day for us. It all went wrong at the start: we got stuck in a traffic jam at the fountain which did some damage to the wing. That messed things up a bit. It’s just one of those days in motorsport where you have to learn a lot so you don’t repeat those mistakes. We changed the wing, but we probably did it at the wrong time and that put us a lap down and our race was over. Though we’re obviously frustrated with how the weekend’s gone, we’ve got to take the small positives from it.”
