Armstrong Steps Up at Meyer Shank Racing
Photo: Matt Fraver
/Penske Entertainment
By Dennis Krause
With a number of attractive seats open for next season in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, Marcus Armstrong has decided to stay put at Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb Agajanian. For the 25-year-old Kiwi, it really wasn’t much of a decision to make.
“Well, it's a fantastic team, and that's obviously where I've been the last two years, and I'm very happy with where I am and the situation that I've found myself in.
“And of course I'm very grateful for the opportunity; there's no doubt about it,” Armstrong added. “We have all the ingredients to go out there and win. We have shown that. And even if you look at the statistics this year, I feel like we've had a strong car in every single circuit really, maybe apart from Mid-Ohio frankly.
“But the 500, (teammate) Felix (Rosenqvist) won it and I was fifth. So I feel like, as a unit, as a team, we're in a strong position, and like I said, we're only getting better. We've got a young engineering corps. My engineers, frankly, are not much older than I am, so we're all getting better together, and it's going to be fun.”
Meyer Shank Racing has a technical alliance with Chip Ganassi Racing. Once Scott Dixon announced he would be leaving the Ganassi team at the end of the year, it seemed like Armstrong would possibly be headed back to the Ganassi team.
Armstrong says that wasn’t the case.
“Obviously I've driven for Chip, so obviously there was a line of communication, but ultimately Chip calls the shots. But ultimately, very, very happy where I am. That's the point.”
Armstrong will switch from the No.66 Honda next season to the No.60, a car number that’s very special to team owner, Mike Shank.
“Yes, it is obviously -- you know, the perception is that it's, I suppose, the team car, but if I'm honest, it's business as usual. Like I'm going to win with the 66 or the 60; that's my mindset.”
Photo: Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment
But Armstrong says he won’t be switching teams.
“I've actually -- you know, obviously we're changing the numbers, but I've specifically requested to keep the guys that I work with now, the guys and girls, because they're just such a great group of people, and crew chief Jimmy Looper is a big component of that. Everybody, they're just a good bunch of guys, so I've asked to keep them all together.
“We'll obviously see what the situation brings. Obviously Mike and MSR aren't doing IMSA next year, so there's going to be a lot of great people about inside the team. So we'll see how the team is stacked. But I'm very happy with how it is at the moment.”
With a new teammate next year, Armstrong will likely slide into the role of being the team leader.
“It's been cool to have Felix. Felix has been a great teammate and a great source of wisdom.
“He's been just a really good friend. We've had a good time together. Whoever is in the 66 car next year is going to be somebody who's very deserving of being in a top seat. I don't know who it's going to be, but I'm looking forward to finding out like the rest of you, but no doubt it's going to be somebody who thoroughly deserves it and is going to be hopefully somebody who's technically -- has technical knowledge and experience at the Indy Motor Speedway too, which would be great for me, so we can work together and win races.’
Winning races is something Armstrong has yet to do in the INDYCAR series. He was leading at both Indianapolis and Road America within sight of the checkered flag, yet couldn’t seal the deal. According to Armstrong, it’s a delicate balance of looking back, learning from mistakes and focusing on the next race.
“To be fair, after Road America I moved on fairly quickly because it was just completely out of my control and also my team's control. It wasn't -- frankly, it was a lot easier to move on from that than the 500.
David Malukas (l) and Armstrong (r) take the final lap restart at this year’s Indianapolis 500.
Photo: Walt Kuhn/Penske Entertainment
“Ultimately, we just want to maximize every single weekend. It is sometimes tricky with the resource we have available just because of a scheduling point of view where we're just going from one race to the next to the next. It is tricky to really comprehend every single aspect of the previous weekend and put forward a plan of attack because ultimately we're just humans. We're trying to do our best every week, but it's also difficult to be that productive. We do our very best.
“I feel like every weekend we just try and do our best, and soon enough it's going to come around, but we need to be doing it more consistently because that Alex Palou guy seems to do it every weekend.”
Armstrong’s next chance to get that first win comes Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway and the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix. Fifth at both Phoenix and Indy this season, the former Ferrari Driver Academy member has become a factor on ovals. To date, he’s scored the sixth most points on ovals this season.
“Well, it's funny because I remember two years ago the big thing was how am I going to adapt to an oval,” Armstrong noted.
“Number one, strong car. That is the fundamental piece of the puzzle that we have. I have strong teammates as well. So we're all kind of pushing towards the same goal. But I also enjoy it; that's the thing. I mean, I enjoy street courses and road courses too. It's like I grew up doing that. Certainly on an oval, it's a lot about momentum. It's almost like going back to karting because you're playing with momentum, and you're being very intuitive.
“I feel like -- I actually joked at the start of the year that my first win would be on an oval, but I'm sort of contradicting myself because I also thought my first win was going to be at Road America. Either way, I feel very confident for this weekend.”
As far as what it will take to be winning, and running up front consistently, Armstrong says that’s a tricky question.
“If we knew, we would be doing that.
“We need to be good on our preparation. I feel like we always perform well on race day, we just need to be starting up the front. So I feel like we need to be -- I feel like I need to be doing a better job to put us in that position.
“The team itself, I feel like they're doing a great job in pit lane and everything else. We need to get the basics right on the technical aspect, on the engineering side.
“Fundamentally it's down to me to improve on Saturdays and for all of us to execute on Sundays as we've been doing.”
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.