{"id":6208,"date":"2023-07-15T11:36:39","date_gmt":"2023-07-15T15:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=6208"},"modified":"2023-07-17T11:38:37","modified_gmt":"2023-07-17T15:38:37","slug":"blomqvist-makes-big-gains-with-meyer-shank-racing-in-indycar-debut-in-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/15\/blomqvist-makes-big-gains-with-meyer-shank-racing-in-indycar-debut-in-toronto\/","title":{"rendered":"Blomqvist Makes Big Gains with Meyer Shank Racing in INDYCAR Debut in Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday qualifying puts MSR Hondas 13th and 20th<\/em><\/p>\n

Toronto, Ontario (15 July 2023) – After recruiting Tom Blomqvist on short notice to substitute for the recovering Simon Pagenaud in Toronto following a brutal accident at Mid-Ohio, the 2022 IMSA Champion has impressed the team with his rapid gains that he has made in his INDYCAR SERIES debut.<\/p>\n

With just one single day of INDYCAR testing under his belt (October 2021) ahead of the weekend, Blomqvist made the most of the Toronto track time as he clocked in 63 laps before his first INDYCAR qualifying run on Saturday. And to add to his already growing lists of firsts, Blomqvist had the added challenge of a sudden downpour just minutes before he was set to take the track for his 10-minute qualifying session.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rain definitely spiced things up for my baptism of fire, let\u2019s say,\u201d said Blomqvist. \u201cI survived, which is the most important thing. I am learning every step of the way. I think now I have about two hours and 10-minutes of driving in the car, so it\u2019s always a steep learning curve for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bringing the No. 60 AutoNation \/ SiriusXM Honda home in one piece after a tricky session, Blomqvist qualified 20th out of IndyCar\u2019s 27 car field. Of the 27 drivers racing in Toronto, 15 of them qualified 18th or lower in their debut INDYCAR race, with eight of them starting 20th or lower.<\/p>\n

The NBC broadcast team (the race will be aired on Peacock on Sunday, 1:30pm ET) pointed out that multi-discipline standouts including Kevin Magnussen, Scott McLoughlin and Jimmie Johnson all started 21st in their respective debut IndyCar races.<\/p>\n

Tasked with learning a new car and new race series on one of the most difficult circuits on the calendar, Blomqvist\u2019s efforts have not gone unnoticed by MSR owner Mike Shank.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put him in the car as a test, I wanted to see how he adapted to something that was totally different,\u201d said Shank. \u201cI know he can be hard on himself – all drivers want to be up front – but we are happy with where he is at. He is progressing just like we wanted him to and making all the right strides to keep improving. We\u2019ve definitely thrown a lot at him and it\u2019s been like drinking from a fire hose for him, but he\u2019s doing great, and just where we thought he would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blomqvist\u2019s MSR teammate Helio Castroneves will start on the seventh row in 13th after just missing out on the transfer by seven one-hundredths of a second in his No. 06 AutoNation \/ SiriusXM Honda.\u00a0The qualifying run marks\u00a0his his best qualifying result of the season.<\/p>\n

Not only is Castroneves focusing on his own season, but he has been a valued resource for Blomqvist as he continues to learn the nuances of IndyCar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to say, INDYCAR is the most competitive series in the world that I have competed in, in a long time,\u201d said Castroneves. \u201cHe\u2019s [Tom] done an incredible job jumping in, not hitting the walls, giving feedback and most importantly getting the experience. Now, throwing in the rain during qualifying he has really shown his potential. I know the team doesn\u2019t have expectations for him this weekend, they just want to see him improve and take in as much as he can, and I think he is doing just that. I\u2019m really happy to see him get this experience and do what he\u2019s doing and I think he\u2019s only going to improve during the race tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meyer Shank Racing will look to regroup overnight and get prepared for Sunday\u2019s 85-lap Honda Indy Toronto with live coverage beginning at 1:30pm ET on Peacock. SiriusXM will also host live IndyCar Radio coverage on XM Ch. 160.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday qualifying puts MSR Hondas 13th and 20th Toronto, Ontario (15 July 2023) – After recruiting Tom Blomqvist on short notice to substitute for the recovering [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6208","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\/6208","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=6208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6210,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6208\/revisions\/6210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}