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Armstrong showing Shank just what he wanted to see

Mike Shank had been saying it for a few weeks. Leading into Iowa, Marcus Armstrong’s IndyCar team co-owner said it again.

“On the Armstrong side, I just want to see something,” Shank told RACER. “He is doing so well right now and I don’t want to derail him of anything, but if there’s a goal, it would be to get that earth-moving something. Get a pole, get a podium. You do that for him right now, and man, he’s going to be hard to stop. Honestly, he’s just one really cool thing – whatever it would be in that realm – away from really taking off.”

Indeed, Armstrong’s run to third on Sunday at the Farm To Fresh 275 at Iowa Speedway was the successful launch Shank and fellow owner Jim Meyer were seeking. The pilot of the No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda secured the best oval finish of his young IndyCar career, matched his career-best finish of third, and moved to seventh in the drivers’ championship, directly behind veteran teammate Felix Rosenqvist, to give MSR its strongest competitive standing to date.

In the New Zealander’s first partial season with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2023, and again as he went full-time in 2024, Armstrong showed immense promise at times, but inconsistency was pervasive as the good was almost always followed by something bad.

One stretch saw consecutive finishes of fifth, 30th, third, 26th, 22nd, 17th, 10th, 19th and fifth, which spoke to the 24-year-old’s raw ability when mistakes or adversity was avoided. The last five races of 2024 were off to a great start with an eighth and a fifth before a 21st and 26th were recorded.

The finale at Nashville Speedway delivered a rebound with a seventh-place finish, and having done just enough to earn a return invitation, Armstrong was moved from CGR – as the reigning champions downsized their program – to MSR, which signed a technical support agreement with Ganassi entering 2025.

Amid the big fluctuations, Armstong produced five top fives for CGR, and with a clear goal from Shank to find the kind of consistency that would turn the Kiwi into a steady championship contender, he’s been executing at an impressively high level. Armstrong’s last six races are stacked with top 10s from Detroit through Iowa where he’s ridden runs to sixth, ninth, fifth, seventh, ninth and third to become one of the season’s standout performers.

Three of the top 10s are on short ovals, which is another aspect of Armstrong’s game that has propelled the No. 66 MSR Honda forward in the standings.

“I feel really comfy on ovals,” Armstrong told RACER. “Short ovals, it’s something that I really enjoy and I feel like it comes quite naturally to me. Obviously, I’ve got a great car to drive, so I can’t be too cocky about it, but I thought it was going to be a strong weekend, and I was really disappointed with my qualifying because we were just outside the top 10 in both races.

“I was expecting a lot more, really, but I just had confidence in the car on both race days and the boys on pit lane were pretty bloody good as well. We overtook (Scott) Dixon on pit lane one time. So that was pretty cool. Fine margins. We raced to the line and I probably beat them out by about a millimeter.”

Working with Angela Ashmore, his CGR engineer from 2024, has been instrumental in Armstrong’s newfound consistency. Her talent and experience, along with her driver’s rapid growth across 31 IndyCar races, has allowed the duo to build on what they started last year and develop into a combo that gives MSR a true two-car force at nearly every stop on the schedule.

“Consistency, it’s hard when you’re learning IndyCar because of the variables,” he said. “Not only the fact that we go to three different types of tracks, but also the amount of variables throughout the weekend and the races, of course, is so strategically difficult to nail.”

“You could be leading the whole race and then a few things go wrong, badly timed yellows, and it’s over. There’s so many variables. So for me and Angela, we work really hard to give ourselves the best chance of succeeding when we get to the track. Most of our work is already done by the time we get there. We’ll have a meeting on the on the Monday or Tuesday, depending on the schedule, of the week before, and then we do another strategy meeting before we head off to the event, which is usually on the Wednesday.

“A lot of it is just chit-chatting through scenarios, really. And I made a point of making sure we sit down for these meetings this year because I felt like that was one of my biggest weaknesses last year, just understanding the rhythm of the races. Obviously, when you’re a Scott Dixon, you can probably read the race from lap two, but I felt like that was something that I needed to work on. So I made a point of making sure we properly do our homework this year and earn the results.

“So I think a lot of what we’re now seeing in our results if from what we do away from the track, just trying to understand the nuances of each race weekend, the nuances of the technical differences like Iowa, obviously different aero package, different engine setting, etc., and just doing our best to prepare ourselves for what’s going to happen. Me doing better there is what’s ultimately helping the consistency as well. Everyone’s got to buy into it – it’s not only me. And they are. I feel like the whole engineering crew that I’ve got on my car, they’re just chomping at the bit to get results.”

As much as his speed, Armstrong is happy with the team building at MSR. Joe Skibinski/IMS Photo

Armstrong is fond of the surroundings within the MSR/CGR family.

“That’s sort of a team culture as well that Mike Shank and Jim Meyer have brought on board for their entire squad,” he said. “You know, it takes management to properly get everyone on board, to buy into the hard work, the ‘It’s going to pay off’ sort of mentality. And by no means are we there yet – we’re certainly on our way.”

On Monday, Shank complimented Armstrong for rising to the challenge he was given at Iowa and, in another nod of appreciation, for taking the first steps in becoming a team leader.

“With Marcus, I said to him at the beginning of the weekend, ‘Give give me something. I feel like you’re doing so good, Marcus, but give me something,’ and he did. I mean, the kid is delivering, and it’s undeniable. He’s way under the radar, right, in my opinion, and it could be interesting going forward, because now he’s confident,” Shank said.

“And it was the coolest thing I saw. We’re sitting there on the grid on Sunday, and I’ve never seen him do this. He got the whole 66 group together and did a ‘rah, rah’ speech right before the race, which is great. He did it, though, right? It wasn’t me or Jim. He led it, all on his own. And I could tell right there, oh boy, he’s ready to go do something big. He’s in a different place. And I loved it. I loved every second of it. That’s what we’re looking for.”