Photo: Joe Skibinski
Meyer Shank Racing has called on reigning Indy Nxt champion Linus Lundqvist again to race in IndyCar, with their regular driver Simon Pagenaud still not cleared to return.
Lundqvist will drive the team’s #60 car at the Gateway oval this weekend, having already raced it on the streets of Nashville and on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.
He qualified 11th for his IndyCar debut in Nashville, and ran as high as third and took the fastest lap of the race before crashing out. At IMS he qualified 14th and went on to finish 12th.
MSR had called upon Conor Daly to stand in for the concussed Pagenaud in the oval races prior to that, but last week Daly joined Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and that increased Lundqvist’s chances of being back in the cockpit this weekend.
“I’m extremely happy to be joining MSR again in St. Louis this weekend,” said Lundqvist. “The last few weekends in Nashville and Indy have been the time of my life and I can’t wait to continue to work with this team.
“We’ve been through some challenging race formats; a street course in Nashville, a road course at Indy, and now an oval in St. Louis. There will be a lot to learn once again.”
Lundqvist has driven an Indy car on an oval before, having tested for RLLR at Texas Motor Speedway in April.
“No doubt it’s going to be tough and tricky, but I know the team will give me a good car,” Lundqvist added. “We’re aiming for another solid result, building on what we achieved at Indy. I’m also very much looking forward to working with Helio as a team-mate. Working with him on an oval is something that every driver would want to do and I’m just going to learn from it as much as I can this weekend.”