Meyer Shank Racing confirmed on Tuesday that they will step away from IMSA competition in 2024 to concentrate on their NTT INDYCAR SERIES programme.
The team, who had a difficult season in 2023, have an all new line-up for 2024 with Felix Rosenqvist and Tom Blomqvist competing full-time for the team in theNTT INDYCAR SERIES while team co-owner Helio Castroneves will compete in the Indianapolis 500.
Speaking about the decision to step away from IMSA in 2024, Mike Shank said:
Making the decision to take a year away from IMSA was not an easy one by any means. “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 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.
“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.”