You can probably count on one hand the number of times the name Marcus Armstrong has been mentioned on IndyCar race broadcasts this year, minus the mentions related to his violent Indy 500 practice crash that left him in the Bump Day qualifying session just fighting to make it into the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing".
Yet the 24-year-old New Zealander, who is in his first year with Meyer Shank Racing after spending a partial season and just one full season with Chip Ganassi Racing, has quietly emerged a threat to run at the front at pretty much every type of venue on the calendar.
And quite frankly, if not for this year being yet another year of Alex Palou being head and shoulders above the rest, Armstrong's recent run of success, which started the week after the Indy 500 in Detroit, would be getting much more attention.
This past weekend at Iowa Speedway, fans were finally forced to take notice of the driver of the No. 66 Honda, who completed Honda's first podium sweep at the four-turn, 0.894-mile (1.439-kilometer) Newton, Iowa oval since Chevrolet re-entered the series in 2012.
He finished behind Palou and Scott Dixon, two of his former teammates, and still two of his pseudo teammates, given Meyer Shank Racing's new technical alliance with Chip Ganassi's team.
But for those thinking this was the first time he's been relevant this year, think again.
In a very Dixon-like way, Armstrong has quietly racked up six consecutive top 10 finishes after the Indy 500, something no other driver can say. He placed sixth on the streets of Detroit, ninth on the short oval at Gateway, fifth at Road America, and seventh at Mid-Ohio before finishes of ninth and third at Iowa.
It's an average finish of 6.5, third-best in the series, during that stretch, and a stretch that has seen him score the fifth-most points, vaulting him from 16th to seventh in the championship standings.
Yet here's the thing: when fans are asked who their picks are for the next first-time winner, you almost never (if ever) hear Armstrong's name mentioned.
David Malukas. Santino Ferrucci. Christian Rasmussen. Heck, even long-time journeyman Conor Daly. Those are the go-to names when this topic comes up.
But never mind the guy who is seventh in the championship, trailing only Palou, O'Ward, and Dixon in top 10 finishes, and in the form of his life at a team that only two years ago felt like an afterthought.
Felix Rosenqvist has been given a ton of credit for bringing Meyer Shank Racing back to where they belong after a horrendous 2023 season, and deservedly so. The Rosenqvist-MSR pairing was a match made in heaven between driver and team both looking to rediscover themselves after several significant shortcomings with previous "relationships", shall we say.
But now Armstrong is quietly just one position and 31 points behind the former Ganassi and McLaren driver, and he has finished at least four spots ahead of him in four of the last six races to remain well within striking distance of a top five points finish with five races remaining on this year's schedule.
The remaining schedule should favor Armstrong as well. His two Toronto street race finishes are seventh and fifth, he finished eighth in his first Laguna Seca start two years ago, he finished in fifth at Portland International Speedway last year, and he closed the year with a quiet seventh at Nashville Superspeedway. The only outlier is the Milwaukee Mile, but even there, he impressively qualified third before an opening-lap crash.
There's no reason to believe he can't continue to string together solid results, and perhaps one of these times, he will indeed become the series' first first-time winner since Christian Lundgaard won in Toronto two summers ago.
All upcoming IndyCar races are set to be shown live on Fox, so begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action!