Marcus Armstrong didn’t expect to come to Laguna Seca this weekend and be in the position that he’s in. Despite not racing in any of the 5 oval races, Armstrong holds a 26-point advantage over fellow rookie Agustin Canapino for this distinction.

That’s a story in and of itself. So is the fact that Canapino is also in the race for the Rookie of the Year and the 33-year-old driver knew little to no English when he decided to move from Argentina to the United States and run in the most competitive racing series in the world for a team that was just now becoming a two-car outfit.

Now, both will battle for a trophy on Sunday. It’s Armstrong vs. Canapino. Ganassi vs. Juncos. It’s the David vs. Goliath battle that while there’s not NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship to be won, it’s the next big thing left to decide.

Canapino had a tall task at hand entering his rookie season. Not only is this his first year in the series, this was also his first time in the United States too. He doesn’t know these cars, these tracks or even these other drivers. This was all new to him.

“I mean, Agustin is in a very tough position,” his teammate Callum Ilott admitted this winter. “It’s not easy being a rookie, and it’s definitely not easy being a rookie without single seater experience, so I’m very interested to see how he gets on.

“It’s a tough one because of the position that he’s in. It’s a bit of an unknown for me, for the team, for the championship, because for sure he’s quick. But again, it’s a real really tough thing to jump into.

“So I really — I’m a bit nervous for him, and I admire the jump because it’s not easy to do. Obviously Scott McLaughlin has done it in, shall we say, a different environment, but he’s done it, and Agustin has that background but from Argentina.”

Another difficult part of his learning curve is the fact that Canapino had barely even been out of the country of Argentina before.

“Yes, I left, but only for a few days, but it my first time living outside my country,” he said. “I did my career in South America and speak Spanish, only a little bit of Portuguese. When I did stock car in Brazil I did two races, but otherwise Spanish.”

Here is his fighting with the juggernaut in Ganassi for a trophy he never felt he would be in the hunt to win.

“As it’s the last race of the season this weekend, I’m really proud to look back on my first year in INDYCAR,” said Canapino. “Thank you to everybody in the team for all of their hard work this season, and especially to Ricardo and Brad for giving me this opportunity.”

Canapino has another race to go for this weekend and that’s to get his No. 78 Dallara-Chevrolet back in the leaders circle race too. He came into Portland -1 on the cutline but left -5.

“We want to end the season strongly and will battle hard to finish within the Leaders Circle. Despite different situations costing us points during the year, we have shown the pace to end with a Leaders Circle spot,” he continued. “I’ll try my best this weekend to try and achieve this goal, and will give 100% as always.

“Laguna Seca is another new circuit for me which will be tough, especially as it’s a really tricky track. But I will prepare well to end the season in the best possible way.”

For Armstrong’s side, what a season that it’s been for his team at Chip Ganassi Racing. Not only did they wrap up the championship last Sunday in Portland, but they also solidified a 1-2 points finish at that. It’s the first time since 2009 that they’ve done that feat.

Another feat now that Ganassi is aiming for is to help Armstrong earn Rookie of the Year honors. Like in Canapino’s sense, I don’t think this was an initial goal that Armstrong had expected when he signed up to run only the road and street courses this season.

But here we are.

“Yes, definitely so. Somehow it feels like yesterday we were at Thermal doing our preseason testing,” Armstrong said. “It’s gone remarkably quickly. In saying that, I feel like I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve learned to truly love this series, this championship.

“I feel like it’s a place where I really see myself staying for a long time. So I’m going to do my best to earn the right to be here, and that starts already from this weekend and onward.”

Last week, Armstrong was looking like he’d be untouchable.

Armstrong and Canapino’s late race incidents in a three-lap span shook up the battle in the rookie of the year race. Armstrong was in the top 10 coming to his final stop on Lap 80 but when he peeled out of his pit box, his right rear literally fell off.

He’d finish 19th as a result costing him a ton of points.

Canapino was in position to capitalize and was 16th at the time. He got off track in Turn 12 sparking the second and final caution and ending his day in 26th. Canapino went from around 14 points scored to 5.

Armstrong went from 24-28 points scored to 11.

The gap between them now is 26.

Ganassi helped Felix Rosenqvist be Rookie of the Year in 2019 so this would in theory be their 2nd driver in 5 years to do that. It’s a nice cast of drivers though that have won Rookie of the Year for Ganassi as Armstrong could not only join Rosenqvist, but Juan Montoya (1999), Alex Zanardi (1996) and Eddie Cheever (1990).

Rosenqvist finished 6th in points, Zanardi 3rd, Cheever 9th and Montoya a champion. Armstrong is currently 20th overall which could be the lowest ROY finisher since Gabby Chaves finished 20th in 2013. However, Chaves ran full-time where Armstrong missed 5 races.

The last 3 ROY’s finished 14th in points and if you go back to 2017 so has 4 of the last 6. Armstrong is 81 points back of getting to that threshold so that won’t happen. He is only 11 points back of 18th so that’s a realistic goal for him.

Now that Armstrong has signed with Ganassi for not just next year, but for the foreseeable future too, his future is set as he can come into this weekend more relaxed.

“I wouldn’t say that. I don’t have external pressure from anyone,” Armstrong told me. “I didn’t feel that at any point in the season really. So I would say the most important thing for me is to get the results that I want, irrelevant of the rookie championship or anything like that.

“We were on target for a great result last week, and I feel like I’m just going to focus on what’s going to bring me results this week.

“I am in a very special situation where I have a great team around me, I have a great car, and I have the opportunity to win races, simple as that. So I’m going to go out there with that mindset and try to take advantage of this extra test day to give myself the best chance of performing tomorrow and on Sunday.”

Armstrong has now locked in his dream job. It’s something he tells me that if you told him two years ago that this would be the preferred landing spot, he’d never believe you.

“I would say yes, it’s a pretty special place to be really, especially at my age,” he told me on if this is now a dream job. “It gives me the best opportunity, I think, to compete for championships, something that I believe I’ll be capable of soon.

“I feel like, had you told me two years ago that I’d be here, I probably wouldn’t believe you. Yeah, to think about it like that, it’s a place exactly like I planned when I was 8 years old.”