St. Petersburg, Fla., (4 March 2023) – Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) drivers Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud were hoping to see their progress through the St. Pete weekend translate in qualifying, but a tough Saturday session left them to start 15th and 25th respectively for Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Pete (12:00pm ET, NBC, SiriusXM Ch. 160).
The team showed speed in Friday’s practice runs on the 1.8-mile street course with Pagenaud closing out the first day of action fifth fastest in the No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda. With high hopes to continue that pace in qualifying, Pagenaud was running in the top-five in his opening qualifying session before he slid gently into the Turn Four tire barrier while on a quick lap, bringing out a red flag and ending his day with just 12-seconds left in the session.
Castroneves and the No. 06 AutoNation / SiriusXM crew made big process overnight with the Brazilian getting back up to speed for practice on Saturday morning. The three-time winner on the street of St. Petersburg briefly went to P1 in Group 1 qualifying and was sitting fifth before the red flag halted the session with 12-seconds remaining.
A new-for-2023 rule would allow the drivers to all get one more lap to post a fast time following the red flag. Going back out with a second set of scuffed Firestone Guayule tires, Castroneves unfortunately just missed the cut off to finish eighth in Group 1 which puts him 15th on the grid for Sunday’s race.
The 100-lap Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will air on NBC on Sunday starting at Noon ET. SiriusXM will also host live IndyCar Radio coverage of both sessions on XM Ch. 160.
Driver Quotes:
Simon Pagenaud (No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda)
“Unfortunately it was not the qualifying that I wanted or expected to start the season off. I simply attacked too much. I felt like we were in a bit of a danger zone, so I felt like we really needed to attack and it was just too much for the rear of the car and unfortunately I couldn’t make the corner. Very unfortunate to start at the back of the grid, but the car has felt good all weekend and I think we can have the pace in the race. I look forward to recovering tomorrow.”
Helio Castroneves (No. 06 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda)
“From yesterday to today was a big improvement of course. The interesting thing is with the new rules we can use two different Guayule [alternate] tires in qualifying. I had a huge difference from one set to the other, it was about eight-tenths, which is a big deal. The red flag kind of upset us little bit because we had good momentum. I’ll tell you what, there were a lot of fast cars out there, but it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. Where going to be working hard to get the No. 06 AutoNation, SiriusXM, Arctic Wolf, Cliffs machine up through the field for tomorrow’s race.”
Only one week following the Indianapolis 500 which saw MSR finished seventh and eighth, the team will take to the streets in Sunday’s Detroit Grand Prix.
Pagenaud raced at Belle Isle 17 times from 2012 through 2021 and won his very first INDYCAR race at Belle Isle in 2013. In addition, he has four podium finishes in Detroit. He also captured poles for both of the 2016 races.
“Detroit brings me a lot of memories, that’s where the fence climb started. I raced for so many years with Roger (Penske) and made friends as well. It’ll be great to do the last race on Belle Isle before we move to racing downtown next year. I’m looking forward to going back and hopefully climbing the fence again.”
“I’m getting ready for Detroit, which is a very important place to me. It’s where I won my first INDYCAR race in the past. We’re going with Meyer Shank Racing and for the last year at Belle Isle as we go next year to the streets of downtown Detroit. Meanwhile, the goal is to go and win that race. We have an awesome race car for the street course, so we’re hoping we can go and get that top spot for the last one at Belle Isle.”
MSR remains in the thick of the battle for the IMSA DPi championship, trailing the leaders by only 32 points on the strength of back-to-back second-place finishes at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and Mid-Ohio. The team opened the season by winning the 60th Rolex 24 At Daytona, joined by Castroneves and Pagenaud. The team placed fifth in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, and then saw a potential podium finish slip away in the final two minutes with a fourth-place finish at Long Beach.
MSR is a two-time winner at Belle Isle, taking GTD honors in 2017 and 2018. The 2017 win was the very first victory for the Acura NSX GT3 in North America.
“We’re coming off the back of some pretty strong results, but we know Detroit is a track that probably favors the Cadillacs a bit more. But we were strong in Long Beach so we know we have a solid car on street courses. If we can work it out between now and then, hopefully we can close that gap in the championship. It’s important to maximize our points and close that gap to the 10 car.”
“Detroit is another street track, another set of challenges compared to the last two events. I think we need to look back at how we performed at Long Beach. It will be a bit of a tough weekend for us as Detroit is a track that is more suited to the Cadillacs. But nonetheless we showed a lot of promise in Long Beach and hopefully we can carry that direction into Detroit. I’m looking forward to it – it’s actually the only track on the calendar that I don’t know. So I’ll need to get my bearings and get up to speed a bit more quickly, and it’s not an easy track, it’s actually quite challenging. But I know we’ll go into the weekend as we always do and hopefully we’ll have another good result.” 