Oilpressure

On Monday afternoon, I saw where Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) was planning an announcement for Friday morning at IMS. Being the positive and upbeat person that I am, I was hoping this would be to announce that Simon Pagenaud would be returning to the car this weekend. Then I saw the time of the scheduled announcement (11:00 am) and the time of the first IndyCar practice for the weekend (9:00 am), and I realized that was probably not it. Plus, I had put my theory out to a group text I’m in with people more on the inside than I am. They weren’t surer what the announcement was to be, but that didn’t stop them from quickly telling me how wrong I was.

When that theory was shut down, I went to the opposite end of the spectrum and feared that the announcement would be that Pagenaud would miss the remainder of the season with his recovery taking longer than expected. Fortunately, that theory was shut down as well. First, Meyer Shank Racing announced yesterday morning that rookie driver Linus Lundqvist would return to the cockpit of the No. 60 car he drove last weekend in Nashville. Except for the minor issue of stuffing his car into the wall with nine laps remaining, Lundqvist did an exceptional job in the car.

Shortly after that announcement, Pagenaud posted a video on Twitter (I’m not calling it “X” – that sounds like a porn site). He was standing and spoke very well; saying he was feeling good, but admitted it was not much fun watching races from his couch at home. He acknowledged that Lundqvist did a good job in the car and was anxious to see him on the track in the Gallagher Grand Prix this weekend at IMS.

I was glad Pagenaud put that out there. There has been a lot of speculation on his condition among fans, who have suddenly become neurological experts. Pagenaud stressed that he was being patient and this was taking longer than expected. Seeing him standing up and speaking clearly was a good sign to some fans that have been coming to outrageous conclusions on Pagenaud’s health.

I’ve decided that Friday’s announcement has nothing to do with Pagenaud or the No. 60 car, since we already know that Lundqvist will be in the car this weekend. That means it must have to do with the No. 06 car that has been driven fulltime for the past two seasons by Helio Castroneves.

I have always been a big fan of Helio Castroneves. I was ecstatic when he won his fourth Indianapolis 500 in 2021, in his first appearance with MSR. In fact, it was the first time they have ever run a second car alongside Jack Harvey. Helio ran a handful of races after that in the car, before they were to announce who would be in that car fulltime for 2022.

We now know that Jack Harvey chose to move on to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for 2022, opening the seat that was eventually filled by Simon Pagenaud. Helio Castroneves was eventually named to drive the No. 06 fulltime for 2022. On paper, this looked like a dream team. The tandem of Pagenaud and Castroneves had won two of the previous three Indianapolis 500s. Pagenaud also had an IndyCar championship on his resume, while Castroneves was one of only four drivers in history to win the Indianapolis 500 four times.

I was skeptical, not regarding Pagenaud – but as much as I liked Castroneves, I always felt hiring him fulltime was an emotional decision. This team had one IndyCar win in their history, and that came at the hands of Castroneves in the biggest race in the world. I understand the temptation to hire such an accomplished driver, but Helio had not driven fulltime in the series since 2017. His last four races in that partial season with MSR in 2021, he had finishes of twenty-first, twenty-third, twenty-fourth and twentieth. Yet, they filled that second seat with Castroneves, seemingly based on the fact he had given them an Indianapolis 500 win.

As we all know now, it has not gone well for either driver. Castroneves finished eighteenth in 2022 and is currently twentieth in points this season. Pagenaud finished fifteenth in 2022, but was twenty-fourth entering the Mid-Ohio weekend where he sustained his injury in a terrifying crash.

Neither of these former Penske drivers is considered youthful. Pagenaud is thirty-nine and Castroneves is forty-eight. In today’s IndyCar world, Pagenaud is old and Castroneves is ancient. To be fair, I don’t think either driver suddenly forgot how to drive last season, but teams tend to look at the driver when things aren’t going well.

I think fans have assumed for a while now that Helio Castroneves will not be coming back to MSR’s fulltime IndyCar program in 2024. Most likely, Friday’s announcement will be that Tom Blomqvist will move over from MSR’s IMSA program and pilot the No. 06 that Castroneves has driven the past two seasons. Like his deal with Team Penske, I think Helio will move to the MSR IMSA program fulltime. Will there be an Indianapolis 500 ride for Castroneves in a third car going forward? I would bet there will be. Helio may not be that competitive at a lot of tracks, but he still knows his way around IMS. I think that would be an arrangement that Helio could live with.

What about the No. 60 car? Some fans have even speculated that the MSR cars are so bad that Pagenaud never wants to climb back in another one, and he is dragging out his recovery. I think that’s quite a stretch. If he wanted to stay in IndyCar, I think he would do whatever he could to get back in. Others think that Pagenaud has decided to move on to IMSA as well.

While I would hate to see a former IndyCar and Indianapolis 500 champion leave the sport, it would not surprise me. But I don’t think Pagenaud’s future has been decided and will certainly not be the topic for Friday. But I do think the scenario of Blomqvist and Castroneves swapping seats is what we will hear about on Friday morning. Then again, I usually get myself in trouble, when I try to predict the future,

George Phillips

This entry was posted on August 9, 2023 at 4:04 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.