LEEDS, Ala. — Felix Rosenqvist, driver of the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Indy car is scheduled to make his 100th NTT IndyCar Series start this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park.
In the midst of his sixth season in the series, Rosenqvist met with the media Wednesday in advance of the fourth race of the IndyCar Series campaign.
“It feels a bit unreal, to be honest. It kind of brings you back a little bit to when you were a kid, you were dreaming about driving in IndyCar,” Rosenqvist said of his pending 100th race. “Even my first years in IndyCar, obviously nothing you take for granted, racing in one of the top leagues of the world. Now, yeah, it’s been like a fast forward.
“One hundred is a big number. That’s a lot of hours in the car (smiling),” Rosenqvist said with a smile. “No, it’s cool. It’s cool. As I say, it’s nothing that I take for granted. I think it’s literally the coolest job in the world you can have.
It’s also nice that I feel actually better than ever in the series, as well. I probably had my best start in a year that I had. Yeah, exciting stuff.”
Indeed, Rosenqvist has enjoyed a fast start this season. With three consecutive top-10 finishes, he ranks fourth in the standings.
“It’s been solid. We haven’t really had any bad weekends,” Rosenqvist said. “We definitely stepped up a bit from last year. Last year also had a good start of the season. I think it’s always how you maintain that through the season.
“Still early days, but we’re feeling pretty good about things. We think our race pace is a bit stronger this year. Yeah, we feel like we’re in a good spot to actually do a bit better, as well. I think all of us, we’re always looking. We can improve things here and there. That certainly goes for this season as well.
“It’s not like we’ve been perfect. We still have a long ways to go in certain areas. But very exciting start.”
Possibly the difference in Rosenqvist’s fast start is that Meyer Shank Racing is now aligned with Chip Ganassi Racing as a technical partner after several seasons working with Andretti Global.
“That’s a big thing we’ve been working on in the offseason,” Rosenqvist said. “We know we’ve had speed, which we had all year, all season, last year. We probably were one of the strongest qualifiers in the field. We maintained that part this year.
“But I feel like we’re better in the races. We got to the point now, okay, we have this speed, how do we get the points. It’s always in the small things. It’s pit stops, strategy, tire deg, race pace, just how you flow through the weekend.
“I think the work has paid off so far in that aspect.”
Rosenqvist has a positive approach heading to Barber Motorsports Park this weekend,” he said.
“I’m not going to tell you that I’m going to go and win Barber. There’s nothing really saying we couldn’t. I think we’re getting stronger and stronger every race. I think we’re definitely now a podium contender consistently. I think it’s going to come. Just going to keep doing what we’re doing.”
