ON THE MOVE
Indy 500 champion Rosenqvist to race for new team in 2027
Felix Rosenqvist drinks milk on May 24 after winning the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
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Indianapolis 500 champion Felix Rosenqvist is leaving Meyer Shank Racing after the 2026 season, the team's co-owner Mike Shank confirmed to the Indianapolis Star on Wednesday.
One month after an exhilarating last-lap pass that gave Rosenqvist the biggest win of his career, he's departing the team after three seasons. Rosenqvist will defend his Indy 500 title with another team, becoming the first driver to do so since Takuma Sato joined Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in 2018 after winning the Indy 500 for Andretti Global in 2017.
"Our hope was to be able to keep him," Shank said. "It's very, very difficult to win the Indianapolis 500, and Felix has always been very strong there for us."
Shank said that before the Indy 500, the team didn't expect to lose Rosenqvist. But exactly one month after the race, Rosenqvist's exit has been confirmed.
"I do think that him winning and the way he won probably woke up some people that didn't think about him a lot," Shank said. "Everyone kind of knows he's strong at the 500, right? So I think the way he won, which was quite dramatic and really cool. … I think that woke some people up, and I guess he had a decision to make after that."
Rosenqvist is sixth in IndyCar's championship after finishing sixth last year as well. Last year was the highest MSR had ever finished in a season since the team began having full-time entries in 2020. Rosenqvist began his IndyCar career with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2019 and 2020 before joining Arrow McLaren from 2021 to 2023.
The Indy 500 was just the second IndyCar win ever for MSR, which won the 2021 Indy 500 with Helio Castroneves, who's now a minority owner of the team. MSR has twice had other opportunities to win this year, with Rosenqvist coming second to Alex Palou at the Grand Prix of Long Beach and Rosenqvist and Marcus Armstrong combining to lead 32 of the 55 laps at Sunday's Grand Prix at Road America.
Armstrong, the team's other full-time driver, is also in a contract year. Although he's only 11th in the championship, Armstrong — who's just 25 — has been impressive in spurts this season. MSR is still talking to Armstrong to figure out an extension.
"I mean, we have a lot of work to do over the next month or two to decide who's going to drive for us," Shank said. "Marcus has done an outstanding job for us for almost two seasons now. I'm very, very happy with Marcus. So we are talking to many people, as you can imagine. We feel we have a very good seat that is available."
With one domino fallen, MSR could look very different to start 2027, though Shank feels MSR has "more momentum than we've ever had before as a team."
Shank himself referred to MSR as "an upper mid-pack team" when Rosenqvist won the Indy 500, so Rosenqvist is likely off to one of the elite teams that compete for IndyCar championships more consistently than MSR at the moment.
"Our hope was to be able to keep him. It's very, very difficult to win the Indianapolis 500, and Felix has always been very strong there for us...I think the way he won, which was quite dramatic and really cool. ... I think that woke some people up, and I guess he had a decision to make after that."
Mike Shank, Co-owner of Felix Rosenqvist racing
