INDIANAPOLIS – Meyer Shank Racing of Pataskala has won only two IndyCar races in the team’s career. Both have come in the Indianapolis 500.
Felix Rosenqvist won a chaotic, twice-interrupted 110th Indianapolis on May 24, rocketing past David Malukas in the closest finish in race history.
The 34-year-old from Sweden edged Malukas by .0233 of a second to cap a one-lap shootout May 24 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and eclipse Al Unser Jr.’s 1992 record of .043 over Scott Goodyear.
The victory was Rosenqvist’s second in the NTT IndyCar Series. Rosenqvist’s first came in the first half of a 2020 doubleheader weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Helio Castroneves gave Meyer Shank Racing its other Indy 500 victory in 2021.
The race included 70 lead changes and competing pit strategies among two sets of leaders.
Scott McLaughlin, one of Malukas’ Team Penske teammates, finished third, with Pato O’Ward fourth and Marcus Armstrong, one of Rosenqvist’s teammates, fifth.
Standing in Victory Lane with the milk and the wreath, Rosenqvist could barely put it into words.
“It’s a mix of having dreamt about it a lot and not really daring to think that you can actually do it today,” Rosenqvist said. “The last five years I’ve been in the front and I’ve had a good enough car probably to win it, but today there was just something more. Meyer Shank Racing and Honda built an absolute rocket this month. Everything was just rolling so well. It’s not what you think it will be. It’s even better.”
A crash by rookie Caio Collet off the second turn on the 192nd lap brought out the red flag and set up a four-lap dash. When Mick Schumacher nicked the wall in the first turn after the restart, the yellow came back out, leading to race restarting with the white flag.
Mike Shank, the owner of Meyer Shank Racing, had one message for his drivers on the coming restart: “Push like hell.”
Malukas lept to the lead on the restart and snaked back and forth across on both straights before Rosenqvist powered to the outside from four car lengths back in turn four.
Rosenqvist was among those who had topped off their fuel tanks under the caution with 70 laps to go, setting themselves up for the possibility of one more stop. Malukas and McLaughlin and defending winner Alex Palou were all committed to two more at that point.
The final caution erased any question regarding Rosenqvist’s fuel.
Despite bleak forecasts in the preceding days and even on race morning, two bands of rain mostly skirted the track, allowing the show to go off as scheduled and go the distance even with two red flags.
It was first interrupted for a 12-minutes red flag after 105 laps when pop-up sprinkles dampened the asphalt, and then a yellow followed 10 laps later for more moisture.
By that point, the action was pure chaos, with wild moves down the front stretch and even a solo crash by two-time winner Josef Newgarden just after the race went green at the end of the 125th lap.
One of the big storylines of the day took a disappointing turn on the 18th lap when Katherine Legge – in position to become the first woman to race the Indy/NASCAR double – was caught up in crash. Ryan Hunter-Reay spun off turn 2, and Legge dived to the left to avoid hitting him broadside, a move that put her into the inside wall.
Another disappeared just before the scheduled midpoint, when 2016 winner Alexander Rossi had to hop out as smoke poured from the rear on pit. Rossi, who had crashed six days earlier, was racing after suffering an injury that left him unable to put weight on his right foot. He needed help getting onto the stage for introductions.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Felix Rosenqvist, Pataskala’s Meyer Shank team, win closest Indy 500 finish
Reporting by Dave Kallmann, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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