Motorsport: IndyCar rookie Marcus Armstrong ready for ‘tank’ warfare

Marcus Armstrong is the leading rookie. Photo / Getty Images

Marcus Armstrong is looking forward to racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time this weekend in his “tank”.

The 22-year-old is in his first season of IndyCar, racing for the four-car Chip Ganassi team which includes fellow Kiwi Scott Dixon.

Armstrong is not contesting five of the 17 races on ovals, which means he will miss the Indianapolis 500 in two weeks.

But he is taking part in this weekend’s round on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course, mainly on the infield but also incorporating part of the famed oval.

“I haven’t driven on the Indy circuit before,” Armstrong told the Weekend Herald. “The road course is quite a cool layout and also challenging. The surface is smooth, like European circuits I have experience on.

“There won’t be that much tyre management this weekend and it’ll be quite a flat-out race.

“It’ll be a high intensity race and it looks like it might be a bit wet, which will make the race interesting. And chaos can bring opportunities.”

IndyCar is renowned for hard racing, with plenty of wheel banging and wall nudging. The cars are much more robust than their European cousins, which at times encourages drivers to have a lunge in an effort to gain a place or two.

“The cars are like tanks [compared with Formula One and F2 cars] and you can hit someone, and most of the time, not damage the car, unlike an F1 car, where you can easily break a corner or front wing off.

“Here, it’s robust and safe, which gives me the confidence to race hard, and that’s one of the ingredients towards making good racing in America.”

Armstrong is 17th overall and the leading rookie despite missing one of this season’s four races. His best finish is eighth at Long Beach last month, plus two 11th places.

“We’ve been staying out of trouble so far and it helps that the car is so good and fast. I don’t have anything other than my job to do and the car works well on high fuel and used tyres. We do, though, have to do better in qualifying.

“It’s cool to be the leading rookie, but that’s not what I’m focused on. Obviously we’re not going to win the championship with me not doing the ovals but I’m comparing myself against my well-established and experienced teammates.

“I’m focused on benchmarking myself against them and getting the best out of myself and the team.”

Everything is compressed for all the teams this weekend, with practice closely followed by qualifying.

“We need to hit the ground running. We’re really going to have to crack on straight away, as the rest of the field know this track like the back of their hands.”