“I think when your team boss comes to see you and says that’s probably the best drive he’s seen in INDYCAR, he’s been around for a long time, Michael (Andretti), you take that as a win,” Romain Grosjean said following his runner-up finish at Barber.

At the time, Grosjean was on a path to returning to Andretti Autosport. Without a contract in place for 2024 yet, it was seeming like a formality.

Both sides said they’d talk in May but by the end of the month, a new deal should be put in place. Now, nearly two years to the date that Grosjean was announced that he’d move from Dale Coyne Racing to Andretti Autosport for 2022, the brief stint is now over.

Bruce Martin and NBC Sports is reporting that Grosjean confirmed that he won’t be coming back in 2024.

It’s a wild set of circumstances that has been a tumultuous experience. So much friction and as you could see after qualifying on Saturday with emotions coming in a outburst on the timing stand that this isn’t working.

That’s a stark comparison to the words they were saying in late April.

“I think we want to be a championship contender at the end of the year, so we used two mulligans in the season, so we’ve got to be here every race,” he also said in Barber.

“We’ve shown that the pace is there, which helps a lot to be at the front, but 100 percent want to score some points and finish the race. If it’s first, second, third, fourth, fifth, we don’t know, but what we know is we need to keep scoring points and be consistent for the championship.

“Last year joined a team to try to win races, score poles and win the championship. I was struggling with the balance. I just couldn’t get it to do what I wanted. Of course that plays a big role in your personality or the way you look. It’s always nice to be on pole. You smile.

“Yeah, what we do is a passion job, and at the end it has a big effect on the way we are. But no, there’s two personalities, there’s the driver and there’s the dad back home, and those two lives are kind of separated.

“I think we’ve shown that we’ve got a very strong baseline, very strong package this year on street course and road course, and oval is getting good, as well.

“I think we definitely found something at the end of last year, winter testing.

“I think as a driver, you feel it very quickly. If you can drive the car fast, even if you make small mistakes, the lap time is still there, so you kind of know if you put it all together, it’s going to be good. Yes, we’ve got good momentum, we’ve got a good group of people, so it’s a car that they — I’ve got all the strengths of the car I loved in ’21 with all the strengths of the car I loved in ’22, and we’ve kind of put it together and that’s worked well for us.”

The wheels then fell off. He came into the Month of May fifth in points, 15 out of the lead. After 2 runner-up finishes coming into May, he’s had just 1 top 10 finish in the last 11 races. That’s dropped him to 12th in points and between the struggles, the crashes and the drama, Andretti has had enough.

Coming into Indy, Grosjean’s average finish was 9.0. In the last 11 races, it’s 16.72.

He’s crashed out while battling for the lead in St. Pete. He crashed out while running in the top 5 with two laps remaining in Texas. He crashed in the Indy 500. He crashed in Detroit while running in the top 10. He crashed in Toronto.

Mistake compounded by more mistakes has left this relationship soured. It’s a shame because he was the feel good story coming to Indy Car after a frightening crash in 2020 in F1. Remarkably, he walked out of a fireball. He came to America in hopes of making a new dream come to life.

He landed with DCR for 2021 on a part-time basis. A pole at Indy for the May road course race, a pair of runner-up finishes and a feel good storyline led him to Andretti.

 He had four top five finishes, six top 10’s and 53 laps led in 13 races. For Andretti, it was a struggle. Last year he only had 3 top five finishes, seven top 10’s, three laps led last year. He did so in 17 races.

This year, two top fives, three top 10’s, 94 laps led in 15 races.

Andretti’s four car future is depended on Devlin DeFrancesco and if he can get the 29 car back to the top 22 in the leaders circle standings. He’s -4 right now and chasing Tom Blomqvist who’s making his second career start, Juri Vips who’s making his series debut and rookie Agustin Canapino.

If the 29 car gets into the top 22 in entrant points, then Andretti will likely bring the 29 car back in 2024. If it doesn’t, then there’s a good chance the team scales back to 3 full-time cars and has just Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson in them.

Which if you connect the dots, that means that Felix Rosenqvist and David Malukas aren’t going to land at Andretti since both say they have deals done and in place. They couldn’t say that if a 4th Andretti car was in play.

When asked about his 2024 plans, Roseqnvist said, “I think you’ll know soon. If you wait a little bit more, you’ll get your answer.”

When asked when that would be?

“Between two and six. Between two and six,” he said.

He meant that as in days. So between Sunday’s BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland (3 p.m. ET, NBC, INDYCAR Radio Network) and the open test date in Laguna Seca, we’ll know Rosenqvist’s plans.

Is the 2-and-6 a play on words? He’s in the 6 now. However, some are speculating that he’s leaving McLaren and the most likely destination that I’ve been hearing is either Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing or Meyer Shank Racing.

MSR has been the top team I’ve heard with him teaming with Tom Blomqvist. The car is No. 06 now but could it be No. 62?

Still, Rosenqvist seems to have found a landing spot to stay here for which he was wondering at this time last season what his path would be.

He has been year-to-year with Arrow McLaren Racing and last June, it looked like when they announced he had signed a multi-year deal, he was likely going over to Formula E. However, he honestly didn’t want to go back to that series. He wanted to stay. But with McLaren thinking they had a deal with Alex Palou, the writing was on the wall.

Palou was coming over to take Rosenqvist’s ride. But, with legal litigation between Palou and Chip Ganassi Racing, it allowed a path for Rosenqvist to maybe stay after all.

His deal with McLaren was a wild one. If he found a ride by a certain date to stay, then he could. With that date nearing a deadline and Palou’s situation being foggy, McLaren elected to option Rosenqvist to stay with the camp but in his current ride for 2023. However, it was another one-year deal with all signs pointing to Palou joining in 2024 now.

With this drama coming each season, Rosenqvist was over it. It was time to look outside the camp to find a more stable future.

It sounds like he’s found something…

DeFrancesco sounds like he’s moving to Dale Coyne Racing.

Another domino is RLL and their 30 seat. While the 15 seat is technically open, I’ve heard it’s all a formality that Graham Rahal will be returning. I don’t see where else he’d go anyhow as both he and the team want to make it work. With Christian Lundgaard back, who joins them?

Juri Vips being thrust into the final two races shows how highly the team regards him so don’t sleep on this being their three-car team for 2024.

McLaren has an interest in Callum Ilott. I’ve heard from multiple sources that McLaren and Juncos Hollinger Racing are going to form an alliance like the recently announced Foyt and Penske deal or what MSR and Andretti have. It gives them the extra space to house extra cars now. Does Ilott shift over to McLaren or stay in the 77 another year? Does Agustin Canapino come back to the 78? He’s impressed as a rookie so I don’t see why he would leave.

Another piece to this is David Malukas. He sounds as if he has a deal. Is it with McLaren? I heard he was close with ECR too. Maybe he’s in play for a seat at MSR.

Foyt has both drivers signed and while both looked elsewhere too, I don’t see why their lineup doesn’t look the same in 2024 as it did in 2023.

Penske will have the same 3 drivers. Ganassi has 3 of their 4 with Marcus Armstrong the leading candidate to return but on a full-time basis instead of part-time.