“All in the details” as Rosenqvist takes MSR’s first IndyCar podium since 2022

Credit: Chris Owens

Ignoring last year’s $1 Million Challenge exhibition event, not since the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in May of 2022 had Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) stood on an IndyCar podium. 

Simon Pagenaud finished second on that occasion. But MSR hit a lull from that point, notching only a single top-10 finish and two top-10 starts in the entirety of 2023. Heading into 2024 though, the addition of Felix Rosenqvist was transformative.

Within six races, Rosenqvist had finished in the top 10 five times, as well as qualifying on the front row for the first two races of the season - including a first pole for the team at Long Beach. Largely owing to misfortune, things tailed off a little as the season progressed and Rosenqvist finished 12th in the standings. But MSR were competitive again.

Switching technical alliance from Andretti Global to Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) for 2025, the team has only continued to go from strength to strength.

Rosenqvist matched his start to 2024 with five top-10 results in six races before two tougher rounds, with MSR now firing on two cylinders with new-for-2025 addition Marcus Armstrong in the top 10 four times in the first eight rounds.

But Round 9 at Road America - the location of Rosenqvist’s sole career victory in the No.10 car for CGR in 2020 - felt like the weekend the team’s turnaround really deserved.

A reward for his leadership across the last 18 months, Rosenqvist returned to the podium for the first time since his penultimate race for Arrow McLaren in 2023. But even more significantly, it ended a three-plus-year podium drought for the MSR team. On top of that, Armstrong’s fifth-place finish made the day all the sweeter.

“The team has just been on fire,” Rosenqvist said. “I really feel like they deserve this result. It’s been an unlucky couple of races for us; we haven’t really been able to string it together. Really happy for [co-owners] Mike [Shank] and Jim [Meyer] and everyone in the team fighting out there in the heat today. It’s a good one.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

In the final 11 rounds of 2024, Rosenqvist started inside the top 10 on eight occasions but only had a solitary top-10 finish after his excellent first six rounds. But after an innocent DNF in Detroit and loss of nine positions from seventh to 16th at Gateway this year, his Road America podium quells parallels being drawn to last year. 

“It’s been ironic,” said Rosenqvist of his start to the year on Friday. “It has been a little bit of copy/paste from last year. We had two tough weekends after Indy [in] Detroit and St. Louis. In general we’ve been quicker, though. We had more pace to show. 

“I’m not super worried about it. It was a little learning lesson last year. We’re in good shape.”

Making sure execution in every aspect is to a high standard - both on track and procedurally - has been an important place of emphasis for MSR amid the team’s revolution.

“It’s all in the details,” Rosenqvist said. “We had really good pace all year, especially in the races. The car was just on fire in the race [at Road America]. It was so good. 

“Qualifying has been pretty good as well; not as good as last year maybe but enough to do good results and to be consistently in the top 10 in qualifying. It just comes down to execution, strategy, pit stops. We probably had the best strategy in the field [at Road America]. The pit stops were really good. 

“You need to do restarts, in-laps, out-laps, pit stops, strategy. That’s the low-hanging fruit. Everyone is quick out there. If everyone is in the same situation on fuel and tyres, it’s hard to make the difference.”

Rosenqvist had victory in his sights in the closing laps at Road America. Similar to when he chased down Pato O’Ward to win in 2020, he spent the closing laps driving flat-out in pursuit of Álex Palou, who was piloting the car in which Rosenqvist was successful five years ago. 

Credit: Dominic Loyer

But despite a fuel save and Rosenqvist being free to push, Palou maintained an unbeatable pace. Rosenqvist set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap but ultimately had to settle for second and lost out to Palou by little over two seconds

“It was kind of déjà-vu from my first win here with Pato,” Rosenqvist said. “I could see the red car, the Álex car, was just getting bigger and bigger. He was on black [harder primary tyres] at the end. I don’t think he had a massive fuel target but the blacks were worse.

“But I was just a little too far away and I think he probably had something in the bag, knowing Álex. He did, like always, a really good race. I think he didn’t really have a perfect race; he was in the midfield a couple of times. I think everyone was, though. There were three strategies going on and at some point everyone had to kind of eat it.”

Rosenqvist felt strong through practice before making an error trying to take the Carousel flat in qualifying, meaning he was confined to starting 12th after advancing from the opening round. 

But he was still well-placed for the race. The team made all of the correct decisions and Rosenqvist expertly executed the strategy he was dealt amid the frenzied strategic game.

“I knew we had good pace in the car,” he said. “We nailed a prediction on the tyres. We thought it was going to be a red [softer alternate tyre] race. Both of them were good enough for a stint; the red was just a bit quicker and you could also save a bit of fuel on the red without really losing the pace. With the black you had to push it a bit more. 

“We did two black stints in the beginning and we held on pretty good. Especially in the restarts, it seemed like the blacks were pretty good. They faded a bit when you got up to speed.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

The crucial call from Rosenqvist’s No.60 team came by neglecting to stop under the Lap 22-23 caution, forming another alternate strategy to make up what transpired to be a podium - completed by AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci - of three entirely different gameplans.

Rosenqvist jumped Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood when he stopped for the second time in the race in the laps following the mid-race yellow period, and after a spin for Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard, the Swede inherited the lead of the strategy.

“We didn’t have to save any fuel and we had two new reds [to end the race],” Rosenqvist said. “We were just doing quali laps every lap and that’s when we ended where we ended. It was really good and super proud of all the guys. 

“It’s a hot day out there. It was tough for everyone: pit crew, engineering, and computers and all that kind of stuff. Happy we made it to the finish.”

Rosenqvist has recorded two top-10 championship finishes in his six years in IndyCar - sixth being his career-best as a rookie with CGR in 2019, plus eighth with Arrow McLaren in 2022. But a second-place result at one of his favourite tracks leaves him fourth in the current standings past the midway point of the 2025 season. 

“It’s a great place to have a podium,” he said. “This is one of the absolute highlights of the year.”