The saying goes that a rising tide raises all ships and Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) lent some credence to it on Saturday. The team built on Felix Rosenqvist’s (No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda) strong early season to qualifying both of its cars in the top 12 for the first time since 2022.
Rosenqvist led the way in qualifying for Sunday’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix, taking the fifth spot in the final session, while his rookie teammate, Tom Blomqvist had the best qualifying result of his nascent INDYCAR SERIES career, as he took his No. 66 AutoNation / Arctic Wolf Honda to 12th on the starting grid.
Rosenqvist’s result followed a big team effort on Saturday, as the MSR squad executed a preventative engine change in short order following the second practice session. The change paid off as the team had the No. 60 entry fired up and ready to run just minutes ahead of the green flag flying to kick off the qualifying session.
Both MSR drivers raced their way into the second qualifying session as Rosenqvist ran fifth with Blomqvist taking the sixth and final transfer position. The Top 12 qualifying run was the first time that the team had both off its cars transfer since the 2022 season finale at Laguna Seca when Helio Castroneves (12th) and Simon Pagenaud (10th) turned the trick.
The results moved them into the 12-car second qualifying session, where Blomqvist sealed his career-best 12th position in Sunday’s starting lineup with a best time of 1:06.3781 (124.723 mph) around the 2.3-mile Barber layout.
Rosenqvist moved into the Firestone Fast Six for the third time in as many races this year after placing sixth in Q2. He then logged a best lap of 1:06.4524 (124.600 mph) in the final session to qualify fifth. The fifth-place spot marks the third consecutive time Rosenqvist’s MSR machine will start in the top five, marking the first time in the team’s history that it has accomplished the feat.
Sunday’s 90-lap Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix will air on NBC and Peacock starting at 1:00 ET. SiriusXM will also host live IndyCar Radio coverage on XM Ch. 218.
Meyer Shank Racing Driver Quotes:
Felix Rosenqvist: “I’d say that was a pretty good qualifying effort. We had to do an engine change so we basically missed most of practice two and we had a telemetry issue in practice one. The weekend has been really rough, so we said that if we make it into the Top 12 we would be really happy, so to make the Fast Six we didn’t really expect it. I feel like we made the most out of it and it puts us in a good position to do something in the race tomorrow.”
Tom Blomqvist: “First top-12 for me so that’s a positive. My engineer (Ron Borhorst) told me before the start of the year that as long as we keep moving up race by race, we’ll be doing well. We’re just chipping away at it. This weekend has been tough for us, the track hasn’t really suited our package as well as it did at St. Pete and Long Beach. Nonetheless it’s still my best qualifying and every event, it’s getting better and better for me. Felix has been doing fantastic and I’m excited that we keep making progress.”
MSR PR
