IndyCar heads to the Nashville Superspeedway this weekend for round 12 of the season, and Marcus Armstrong is ready for another oval track race. Heading into the weekend, Armstrong has netted himself 2 top-5 finishes on ovals: Phoenix and the Indy 500.
The Kiwi driver was open in his excitement ahead of Sunday’s race when speaking to Pit Debrief and other media outlets, though he did express some disappointment about moving away from Nashville’s streets.
“This place is pretty cool. Initially, I was a little disappointed we were going away from downtown Nashville, but I would say that this has been one of my favorite tracks. It’s fast and quite a tricky place to master. We’ve had strong cars there, so naturally, you enjoy it a lot when you have a quick car there.
“The racing itself is very, I would say fun, for lack of a better word. It’s cool, side by side. This year we’re actually, for whatever reason, removing some downforce. It’s obviously a series mandate, which I don’t agree with, but I feel like the racing there is always good side-by-side action, especially after a high-line session.”
Armstrong’s choice to stay at MSR for the 2027 IndyCar season
Earlier this month, amidst a slew of driver changes for the 2027 IndyCar season, Marcus Armstrong signed a contract extension with Meyer Shank Racing. This contract sees the 25-year-old driver stay with the team for multiple years.
Additionally, Armstrong will pilot the No. 60 MSR machine, moving across from the No. 66 following Felix Rosenqvist’s move to Arrow McLaren for 2027.
When asked about it, Armstrong was clear in his resoning to stay with MSR, despite open spots at other teams, such as CGR.
“Why I signed it? Well, it’s a fantastic team, and that’s obviously where I’ve been the last two years, and I’m very happy with where I am and the situation that I’ve found myself in. And of course I’m very grateful for the opportunity; there’s no doubt about it. We have all the ingredients to go out there and win. We have shown that. And even if you look at the statistics this year, I feel like we’ve had a strong car in every single circuit really, maybe apart from Mid-Ohio frankly.
“I feel like, as a unit, as a team, we’re in a strong position, and like I said, we’re only getting better. We’ve got a young engineering corps. My engineers, frankly, are not much older than I am, so we’re all getting better together, and it’s going to be fun.”
Armstrong’s strength on ovals
When it comes to oval tracks, there are a few drivers IndyCar fans would consider specialists, such as Josef Newgarden and Pato O’Ward. However, Marcus Armstrong could slowly be start to considered amongst those drivers, as he is ranked 6th on the IndyCar grid when it comes to points scored on ovals.
When asked by Pit Debrief why oval tracks seem to fit his strengths as a driver, Armstrong lsaid that there was a certain humor to the question, given his racing history before IndyCar. Prior to racing in it, Armstrong had never raced on an oval track and needed to adapt quickly following his move across from Europe.
“Well, it’s funny you say that because I remember two years ago the big thing was how am I going to adapt to an oval.
“Number one, strong car. That is the fundamental piece of the puzzle that we have. I have strong teammates as well. So we’re all kind of pushing towards the same goal. But I also enjoy it; that’s the thing. I mean, I enjoy street courses and road courses too. It’s like I grew up doing that. Certainly on an oval, it’s a lot about momentum. It’s almost like going back to karting because you’re playing with momentum, and you’re being very intuitive.”
Close but not quite yet for Armstrong in IndyCar
Though he’s been having a great season thus far, Marcus Armstrong has yet to stand on the top step of the IndyCar podium. He was right in the mix at the Indianapolis 500 before losing out on the restart to his MSR teammate Felix Rosenqvist as the pair had a thrilling duel to decide to who got a run on Malukas. Additionally, he came the closest most recently at Road America, but lost the lead when his engine cruelly failed with 4 laps to go.
Despite these agonizing close calls, Armstrong remains hopeful that his maiden win is close, especially as the grid heads to another oval track in Nashville, a track type he’s done remarkably well at this season.
Responding to Pit Debrief, Armstrong spoke about how he would feel if this weekend ended with his first win, and what he and his MSR team need to do to stand on top of the podium come Sunday evening.
“Somehow I would be pissed off if I was leading on lap 225 because that’s the distance of the race last year. So we need to be leading on lap 300. Now, we’re going to do our very best to do that. We always have a game plan leading into the weekend, but as I said, ovals, we’ve had a strong package so far this year.
“We need to nail everything, be on top of the little things.
“Like at Gateway, we let a very strong weekend slip away, just with a few things that weren’t ideal on strategy and whatnot, but this weekend we just need to be patient as well because it’s such a long race. It’s going to be — the order on lap 1 will be completely different by lap 150 and totally different again by 300. That’s just the nature of short oval racing.”
Differences from debut
Marcus Armstrong made his NTT IndyCar Series debut in 2023 with Chip Ganassi Racing, fresh out of a transition from Europe and Formula 2. Since joining IndyCar, the Kiwi has recorded a personal-best finish of 8th in the championship standings and landed on the podium twice, finishing 3rd both times.
Armstrong described to Pit Debrief how he’s changed as a driver since his series debut almost a full four seasons ago, noting that IndyCar exposes all the weaknesses a driver has, whereas European series focus on one aspect; IndyCar focuses on multiple.
He further doubled down, going on to say how much his team has helped him grow and learn as a driver.
“IndyCar, it exposes every single weakness you have as a driver, whether that be over one lap in qualifying, racing, fuel saving, technically with the engineers, you name it. It exposes that weakness and makes it very blatant. When there’s a torch being shone on it, you certainly become aware and work on it.
“In 2023, I was just fresh out of Europe, where the whole thing is about tyres, tyres, tyres, tyre saving. I think I’ve grown a lot technically in terms of understanding the car and from an engineering point of view.
“I’m lucky to have such a good team around me where we give each other the appropriate amount of shite and help each other learn.”
