Indycar: Kiwi Marcus Armstrong to join Meyer Shank Racing for 2025 season

Marcus Armstrong will drive for Meyer Shank Racing in 2025. Photo / Getty Images

Next season will have a change of scenery for Kiwi Indycar driver Marcus Armstrong.

After two years with Chip Ganassi Racing, the 24-year-old will move to Meyer Shank Racing in 2025, partnering Felix Rosenqvist in the team’s two-car line-up.

The move comes after Armstrong’s first full season driving in the series. Though he raced in 2023 and won the Rookie of the Year title, he did not drive on oval tracks that season. That limited him to 12 starts, though he secured five top-10 finishes in those 12 races.

In 2024, he stepped up to the full 17-race programme, with three top-five finishes including his maiden Indycar podium with a third-place finish in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

“I’m very proud to be joining Meyer Shank Racing in 2025. I had a great feeling when I met both Mike Shank and Jim Meyer, their passion for performance and meticulous work ethic was obvious from our first conversation and I want to thank them both for this opportunity,” Armstrong said.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone at Meyer Shank Racing over the off season, with the goal of hitting the ground running at the first race of the season in [St Petersburg].”

Armstrong finished 14th in the standings this season with 298 points, improving from 20th in his rookie campaign.

“This year, I got closer to where I want to be performance-wise, including oval racing for the first time, and I’m looking forward to continuing to push up the order with Meyer Shank Racing. We want to be at the front, fighting for wins, and I believe we have the recipe to do it.”

Meyer Shank Racing ran four drivers in Indycar this season. Rosenqvist raced a full schedule in No 60, while New Zealand-raised driver Tom Blomqvist drove the first six races of the season in the No 66 car before being replaced by American David Malukas. Brazilian Helio Castroneves also raced the No 66 for two races, while entered the Indy 500 as a third entry for the team, racing No 06.

Armstrong said he would be maintaining his core engineering group to give him momentum as he joins Meyer Shank, with the team announcing a new engineering alliance with Chip Ganassi Racing last month.

The move comes as IndyCar is set to bring in a new charter system which will limit owners to three cars per team. In 2024, Armstrong was one of five cars in the Chip Ganassi Racing stable, alongside fellow Kiwi Scott Dixon, series winner Alex Palou, and rookie duo Linus Lundqvist and Kyffin Simpson - the former winning Rookie of the Year honours for 2024.

“We’re very excited to welcome Marcus on board,” team principal Mike Shank said. “He’s really shown a lot of growth and consistency in his first two years in Indycar, which is really difficult to do.

“This series is probably one of the most competitive series out there and he has proven himself to be a real contender. We are going to do everything we can to give him the car and the tools to produce results next year.”

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.