It's no secret that Meyer Shank Racing, winners of the 2021 Indy 500 with Helio Castroneves, had been in search of a breakthrough performance in recent seasons.
After an absolutely disastrous 2023 campaign, they bounced back in 2024 with the hire of Arrow McLaren castoff Felix Rosenqvist. Both driver and team experienced a resurgence, but a win did not accompany said resurgence.
In 2025, year number one of a new technical alliance with reigning series champions Chip Ganassi Racing, the team took another step forward, with Rosenqvist sixth in the point standings and teammate Marcus Armstrong eighth, notably placing both drivers ahead of the entire Team Penske organization, an organization that still won twice in a down year.
But again, it came without a win.
Armstrong is still seeking his first career series win, but 2025 was also only his second full season in the series. Rosenqvist's winless 2025 campaign, meanwhile, was his fifth winless season in a row, and while the sixth place points finish was nice, the fact that he had gone more than five years without a victory led to questions about whether he had already reached his ceiling.
In this year's Indy 500 qualifying, Rosenqvist was fastest in round one by a wide margin. He was fastest in the second round by a wide margin. Yet in the Firestone Fast Six, he failed to even qualify on the front row.
Same as it ever was.
He was fastest up until the Firestone Fast Six in 2023 as well, and although he did still qualify on the front row, it wasn't good enough for pole. In 2025, he was again fastest in the top 12 session, yet he again couldn't even put the car on the front row.
He wasn't built for the big moments. He wasn't built to handle the pressure when it mattered most.
Or at least that's what you were supposed to think.
But when it really mattered most was race day. When it really mattered most was lap 200. When it really mattered most was turn four. When it really mattered most was coming to the checkered flag.
Where it really mattered most was the all-time record 0.0233-second gap over the second-place car, as Rosenqvist, nearly six years removed from his one and only IndyCar victory, became an Indy 500 champion with only the third pass for the win on the front straightaway of the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Speedway, Indiana oval ever.
Let's just say that his alleged "ceiling" was raised. Maybe by about 500 times over.
Rosenqvist's No. 60 Honda is one that many have had their eye on as IndyCar silly season prepares to pick up steam heading into the summer stretch; it's no secret that a lot of teams don't truly start having those serious discussion until after the month of May.
Suffice it to say that the only serious discussions that need to be had within Meyer Shank Racing right now are about an increase in salary for the 34-year-old Swedish driver. Because whatever hot seat he might have been on is no longer a legitimate silly season talking point.
Car No. 60 is currently unavailable.
And with the confidence boost he most assuredly gained by riding the outside for pretty much the entirety of lap 200, with multiple "pass of the century" candidates in that 2.5-mile stretch to etch his name into the history books, don't be surprised if the typical strong "almost" runs he's had over the past five-plus seasons start converting to victories.
The Indy 500 win boosted Rosenqvist from 11th to seventh in the IndyCar championship standings, and it boosted him from 12th to second in the oval standings, after he had never previously won an IndyCar oval race.
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