PATASKALA, Ohio — Meyer Shank Racing will pause the Ohio-based organization’s championship-winning IMSA campaign for the 2024 season to fully focus on the team’s growing NTT IndyCar Series program.
MSR has competed in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship since 2004, becoming one of the most prolific and successful teams in the sport with more race starts than any other organization in the modern era.
The previous IMSA round at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway marked MSR’s 350th start in North American sports car competition, having also competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The team has grown from a race-winning privateer effort into a full-fledged factory operation, earning IMSA championships with Acura in 2019, 2020, and again in 2022. With two wins so far this year, Meyer Shank Racing heads to the season finale event with a mathematical chance at another IMSA title.
MSR has continued to build it’s IMSA program, which is well recognized as being the best-of-the-best, with milestone victories in cornerstone events. The team captured overall victories in the 2012, 2022, and 2023 Rolex 24 At Daytona at Daytona (Fla.) In’l Speedway, two Petit Le Mans overall wins (2016 & 2022) at Road Atlanta as well as victories in the Six Hours of the Glen at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l in 2017 and 2019.
Despite the news, MSR Owners Mike Shank and Jim Meyer set a high priority on keeping the IMSA staff on-board, all of whom will continue to work with MSR and be prepared for the team’s IMSA return.
“Making the decision to take a year away from IMSA was not an easy one by any means,” said Shank. “Our guys live and breathe this team, and have committed most of their lives to working on these cars and traveling to races – and many of them have been with us for nearly 20 years. For Jim (Meyer) and I, our main focus was getting our guys set and making sure they were all going to be OK, which we were able to do.
“There are a lot of projects that we have going at the shop, and of course some of the guys will be helping with our growing IndyCar program. The third Indianapolis 500 entry for Helio (CastroneveS) is a very big deal and I’m glad to have the right people in place to help us be as ready as possible for him to go get that fifth one. And then when we need to prepare for the IMSA program, we’ll still have this great group together and ready to go.,” Shank continued.
“I have so many people to thank who have had such an impact on me and how this team has grown – Jim France has been a supporter of us since we joined the series in 2004 and he’s someone that I cannot thank enough. Jon Ikeda, David Salters and everyone at Honda, HPD, and Acura, gave MSR a shot and trusted us to run this program for the last few years and we have accomplished some pretty awesome things since running together.
“All of my crew and drivers who have been with us – and we have a pretty large list – I can’t thank them enough. Most of these guys have changed my life since I started this team in Grand-Am. Like I said, we are not going anywhere, we’ll be gone for now, but definitely not forever. Taking next year to step back and focus on our IndyCar program will be important for us as a team.”