DETROIT — Chip Ganassi Racing driver Marcus Armstrong collected his first podium finish in the NTT IndyCar Series during Sunday’s Detroit Grand Prix.
Armstrong ran second during the closing laps and ultimately finished third after he was passed by Marcus Ericsson.
“I’m very pleased,” said the second-year driver. “I mean, in my opinion, it’s been a long time coming, even though this is my second season.
Yeah, it was a difficult one. Obviously it was pretty chaotic. I think being a strategist today was more stressful than being a driver. I have to give a big shout-out to my strategist, Taylor Kiel. He always places me perfectly to maximize the situation we found.
Ultimately on the last stint, I was having to achieve quite a big fuel number, as was Scott. But Scott does what Scott does. I actually ran out of fuel as I came across the line,” Armstrong reported. “So we timed it perfectly. Otherwise, I would have fought Marcus a little bit harder in the end. It was necessary just to sort of coast in and take the podium.”
• Meyer Shank Racing Honda driver Felix Rosenqvist raced from 22nd to finish eighth.
“We finished P8 which I’ll take,” Rosenqvist said. “We had a puncture on the first lap and then we were actually really quick on the reds and then the tires just went off [pace], and then it started raining. Everyone kind of ended up on the same program and we were around P8, P9. We just kind of hung there.
“We didn’t have great pace and we trimmed a lot, so we were good on the straights. We got hit a couple of times so we had damage so I was just focused on bringing it home. It was a great points day for the team overall.”
• A tumultuous weekend in Detroit ended in a ninth-place finish for A.J. Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci, who posted his second consecutive top-10 finish.
Ferrucci was involved in an incident with Kyle Kirkwood during practice on Saturday and then played a role in earlier race shunt that involved himself and Helio Castroneves. But Ferruci fought his way back through the field to finish ninth.
“First off, really want to apologize to Helio (Castroneves). That’s one of my closest friends in racing and we blatantly got into the back of him and ruined his day for all of those guys, so I’m sorry for that,” Ferrucci said. “For us, hell of a rebound getting wrecked at the start, to a stop and go penalty, back to last twice, the rain. I mean, hell of a strategy on the stand from the boys to put us back into ninth. I’m just really proud of this Sexton Properties Chevrolet team. It was a solid race day considering all of the emotions of this weekend, and can’t wait to get on to Road America.”
• Alexander Rossi felt fortunate to finish fifth in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
“It’s been a really hard weekend, so there’s a lot of relief from that one because it’s been really hard so far,” Rossi said. “The team did an amazing job with the strategy. We made some strong changes overnight and were able to weather everything. I think we had good pace as well as good strategy. I’m just thankful for being able to bounce back and everyone sticking with it this weekend.”
• Théo Pourchaire collected his first IndyCar Series to-10 finish in 10th for Arrow McLaren.
“Today was the first top-10 finish in my NTT IndyCar Series career. It’s not a bad result, but I am frustrated because I think I could have competed for a win or a podium,” Pourchaire said. “I was right there on pace, or even quicker, than the No. 9 through the first part of the race. Then, we were not lucky with the strategy and I made a mistake on a restart.”
• Will Power was the best finishing Team Penske driver in sixth.
“That’s a good day. It was very tough, really. All sorts of stuff going on,” Power said. “Felt like Nashville. That’s, I mean, you’ve got everything in there. Rain, everything. Happy to get back to sixth, and go from there, and see what we could do. That is a good points day, man. I knew when it was that sort of race, (Scott) Dixon was going to win it somehow. We just wanted to salvage something.”