{"id":5577,"date":"2023-03-05T18:42:32","date_gmt":"2023-03-05T23:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=5577"},"modified":"2023-03-06T08:37:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T13:37:00","slug":"first-lap-melee-ends-indy-car-series-season-opener-for-meyer-shank-racing-duo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/05\/first-lap-melee-ends-indy-car-series-season-opener-for-meyer-shank-racing-duo\/","title":{"rendered":"First-lap Melee Ends Indy Car Series Season Opener For Meyer Shank Racing Duo"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Petersburg, Fla., (5 March 2023)<\/strong> \u2013 Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) drivers Helio Castroneves (No. 06 AutoNation \/ SiriusXM Honda) and Simon Pagenaud (No. 60 AutoNation \/ SiriusXM Honda) saw their 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season opener end after a single lap when a crash on the tight street course claimed both cars.<\/p>\n

\"\"Both Castroneves and Pagenaud were eliminated in a six-car crash just after the start of Sunday\u2019s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, leaving them unable to continue. Castroneves, who started 15th<\/sup>, made it through the first corner and was picking through the tight opening complex of curves when cars started to slow in response to a competitors\u2019 wall contact ahead.<\/p>\n

The three-time St. Petersburg winner started to slow just before he was hit from behind, spinning him into the wall and leaving the Brazilian unable to continue due to the damage.<\/p>\n

Pagenaud, who started 25th<\/sup> after contact left him unable to post a qualifying time Saturday, found himself without an escape route in the melee, as an available opening to his right closed quickly when a competitor bounced from his left and took off the left side of his MSR machine.<\/p>\n

The resulting damage also ended Pagenaud\u2019s day, leaving the Frenchman to finish 26th<\/sup> while Castroneves placed 23rd<\/sup>. The team will have almost a full month to rebuild the cars and prepare for the next round of the series, which will take place on the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway oval on April 2.<\/p>\n

Driver Quotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Helio Castroneves (No. 06 AutoNation \/ SiriusXM Honda) – Started 15<\/strong>th<\/sup><\/strong>, Finished 23<\/strong>rd<\/sup><\/strong> (Lap 1 Contact):\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>Great work by the AMR Safety Group, it is a shame that I had to try them out so early in the year. I have no idea what happened, I got hit from behind and then I saw a lot of cars flying around. It shows how the safety in these cars has improved, because that was a big crash and to see everybody come out of it OK is great.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Simon Pagenaud (No. 60 AutoNation \/ SiriusXM Honda) – Started 25<\/strong>th<\/sup><\/strong>, Finished 26<\/strong>th<\/sup><\/strong> (Lap 1 Contact):\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>I kind of expected (the crash) to be honest. It has been a tricky area all weekend. I had no room to go. I thought I was going to get through. I thought I had made it. Unfortunately, I am paying a high price for yesterday\u2019s mistake in qualifying. But we will regroup, we have fast cars at Meyer Shank Racing and we\u2019ll be alright.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Petersburg, Fla., (5 March 2023) \u2013 Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) drivers Helio Castroneves (No. 06 AutoNation \/ SiriusXM Honda) and Simon Pagenaud (No. 60 AutoNation [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-meyer-shank-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5577"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5585,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5577\/revisions\/5585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}