Rosenqvist Reaches INDYCAR Milestone

Photo: Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment

By Dennis Krause

This weekend’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix powered by AmFirst at Barber Motorsports Park marks Felix Rosenqvist’s 100th start in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. According to Rosenqvist, it’s a significant milestone in his racing career.

“It is, right. It feels a bit unreal, to be honest. It kind of brings you back a little bit to when you were a kid, you were dreaming about driving in INDYCAR. Even my first years in INDYCAR, obviously nothing you take for granted, racing in one of the top leagues of the world. Now, yeah, it's been like a fast forward.

“100 is a big number. That's a lot of hours in the car (smiling). No, it's cool. It's cool. As I say, it's nothing that I take for granted. I think it's literally the coolest job in the world you can have.

“It's also nice that I feel actually better than ever in the series, as well. I probably had my best start in a year that I had. Yeah, exciting stuff.”

To that point, the driver of the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda sits fourth in the championship standings with three straight top-10 finishes, including a fourth at Long Beach.

“As you say, it's been solid. We haven't really had any bad weekends. We definitely stepped up a bit from last year. Last year also had a good start of the season. I think it's always how you maintain that through the season.

“Still early days, but we're feeling pretty good about things. We think our race pace is a bit stronger this year. We feel like we're in a good spot to actually do a bit better, as well. I think all of us, we're always looking. We can improve things here and there. That certainly goes for this season as well.

“It's not like we've been perfect. We still have a long ways to go in certain areas. But very exciting start.”

Rosenqvist hopes MSR’s new technical partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing will help maintain his current point-scoring form rather than see his results taper off as they did a year ago.

“That's a big thing we’ve been working on in the off-season. We know we've had speed, which we had all year, all season, last year. We probably were one of the strongest qualifiers in the field. We maintained that part this year.

“But I feel like we're better in the races. We got to the point now, okay, we have this speed, how do we get the points. It's always in the small things. It's pit stops, strategy, tire deg, race pace, just how you flow through the weekend.

“I think the work has paid off so far in that aspect. I think sitting fifth in points last year around this time, it was kind of hard to see what we could have done better because I feel like we just kind of nailed the first weekends.

“Now it's more like, hey, we can probably be a bit better still. Even as we're sitting good in the points, we still see some low-hanging fruit. That's the big difference. We know now we're kind of quick. We're working on all the important areas.

“It's so hard to explain, but in INDYCAR, one little thing... In some of these races, if you lose one second on the in-lap, it can spiral you into losing five positions if you’re fighting in the top five. We're focusing on that. We know we're fast. We also have the race pace that we had last year. It’s pretty exciting.”

When he entered the series in 2019, the Swede wasn’t sure he’d still be competitive in the series 100 races later.

“I don't know. Yes and no. It's a pretty big number. Time just seems to fly by. I didn't think at the time I'd get this old. Seven years. But it's cool. It's a special series in that way. I've done some other series for a long time. This one just seems to keep you on your toes all the time. You just keep learning and keep digging. In a way you always feel like a rookie because it's kind of hard to just rely on your experience.

“I think Indy is one of the places you do. For other tracks, you just have to go clean sheet into every weekend and adapt. There's always a different tire, different this and that.

“I think it's impressive the guys have made it really long in the series, like 10-plus years. It's definitely tough to compete with the young guns coming into the series, all the challenges that the series throws at you every weekend. In that sense I feel proud about it. I'm also planning to stay for another hundred.”

As far as career highlights, the driver of the Rosenqvist points to July 12, 2020 when he scored his first and only series win at Elkhart Lake’s Road America.

“I think winning my only race in Road America is the highlight. It was a pretty cool race. I think it was almost green the whole way. I had a good battle with my buddy Pato (O’Ward) in the end of the race. It was a special race, for sure.

“Seems like ages ago. I feel like the hunger for a new win is greater than the joy of the last one. Yeah, I think that’s the biggest one. I always enjoy doing (the) Indy 500. I think I'm super privileged to be in a position to be a competitor there, having some chances at least to have the car enough to win the race, which is very rare. That's also brought me some very special memories.

“Again, I think the biggest memories are probably to come, so…”

Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.

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