SALINAS, Calif — It’s amazing how much your mind can suppress. You may think that on the outside, you’re fine. But if you dig deep, much deeper into thought, you may have some feelings that are holding you back.

That’s exactly what has happened to Felix Rosenqvist the last few years. He’s had an up-and-down tenure with Arrow McLaren Racing. However, once the pressure has been lifted, he’s performing like the driver that we all thought that he’d be.

Rosenqvist was runner-up in last Sunday’s race at Portland. 6 days later, he’s on the pole for Sunday’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES season finale in Laguna Seca.

It’s not ironic his best results are coming once he knows what his future holds.

He said just last Friday that he had an announcement coming in the next 2-6 days regarding his future and with his path for 2024 and beyond known, he’s having career best weekends.

“Well, I think, like most of us, we don’t like to admit that we’re struggling or being under pressure,” Rosenqvist said. “Obviously I’ve been in the situation for quite a long time where I don’t really know what my future’s going to hold. I always kind of played it off like, It’s fine, I got it under control.

“I think somewhere a couple months ago, I started having some bad results. We had a lot of DNF’s and stuff. Kind of things out of my control. You get to a point where you have to settle something for next year. It’s obviously stressful. I think that actually got to me a bit.”

That had to be around the month of June for that. A crash in the Indy 500 while running in the top 5 left him in 27th. 20th in Road America, a first lap crash at Mid-Ohio left him 25th, 10th in Toronto, 13th in Race 1 at Iowa, 22nd in Nashville, 27th in the Gallagher Grand Prix. Rosenqvist felt like even with Alex Palou not coming over, the team was moving on from him anyways.

“I think it was pretty clear at some point that it wasn’t like a clear call. I had a feeling they were going to move on with someone else. I had to guard myself against that,” Rosenqvist admitted.

“We’ve seen so many drivers, even like Bourdais, Hunter-Reay, good drivers all of a sudden they won’t have a seat. It can happen with champions, 500 winners.”

Rosenqvist was growing tired of this every year uncertainty anyways.

Is he staying or going?

Last year it was Alex Palou was coming and Rosenqvist was going to end up in Formula E. That’s the worst spot he felt he could go but being with McLaren on a multi-year deal was something he was okay with. Then with Palou’s saga taking a turn that he may have to stay with Ganassi for 2023 and McLaren allowing Rosenqvist to search the paddock to stay here, they felt like they should just keep him in place for 2023.

So that’s what happened. However, Palou was coming for 2024 right? Now he’s not. Rosenqvist was sick of being put in this position each season for factors outside of his control and now when it was in his control, the stress of proving himself again was insurmountable.

He admitted that to be a problem last season.

“Yeah, I think it’s mainly distracting for the team, for the engineers, mechanics. They’re all asking questions,” he said in Nashville last August. “They’re part of this team as much as I am. Obviously without the driver, it’s a big part of what makes their day. They want to know, are they going to continue with me next year? What’s going to happen?

“It’s not the optimal case. I think we’ve done a good job focusing. But as I say, we had a run of mechanical failures, a bit of slipups here and there. I’m sure these things doesn’t help.

“Yeah, it’s not optimal. I think I’m always for negotiating or doing deals here and there. The thing I think is that’s for the off-season, not the season. Obviously this whole thing has opened very early in the year. I think it’s not optimal for our team. I think it affects people in the organization. It’s not good.

“During the week there’s a lot of talks. It’s not optimal. I’m sitting here instead of being in my engineering room. I’m talking about Formula 1 stuff. I think that’s where it’s not optimal.”

With Meyer Shank Racing announcing last month that Helio Castroneves was stepping aside, Tom Blomqvist was coming in and Simon Pagenaud’s health wasn’t allowing him to return this season, a potential seat was opening up there too.

Then with Chip Ganassi Racing signing Linus Lundqvist for 2024 and beyond, it was clear, a ride was truly open and Rosenqvist was a potential fit.

With talks going, he qualified 6th and finished 8th at World Wide Technology Raceway. With an agreement in place, he finished second last week. With the announcement now being made, he’s on pole.

“Having signed a contract multi-year, I couldn’t really believe how free I would feel after that, so… It’s kind of a good reminder for the future when you feel stressed out, you kind of have to take care of those things firsthand, make sure you’re nice and relaxed at the track,” said Rosenqvist after scoring his 5th pole in his 79th career start.

“In a way, like always, it’s always so close. I feel like I could be sitting here being pissed from not transferring in Q1. We got the pole. Honestly, the difference is a couple hundredths. I’m not saying that we’re just smashing it every time we’re out there. We still have to work so hard for it.

“I think those things matter, as well. With Billy and I, like, leaving, we are just having fun, relaxed. We’re confident. Also with the setup changes and stuff, I feel like we started believing on our own stuff a little bit more end of the year. Nice to see it pay off.”

With pressure off, he’s delivering. While he could now look back at these results and question why leave, he’s not at all.

“I’m really excited to move on with Shank,” he said. “I think it’s an exciting chapter for me kind of coming in as a team leader, building a team around me, something I haven’t done in a long time.

“As much as I love this team, I think with Shank we can do a lot of great things together. They have obviously resources, good partners, amazing team around them. I’m super pumped to get going with this.”

Now, with one race left, he wants to go out the door of McLaren a winner. Something he hasn’t done yet.

Still, he’s got a great shot of doing so. 21 of the 24 races here were won from a top 3 starting spot. 4 of the last 5 Laguna Seca winners at that have came from the front row with three of which coming from the pole. Alex Palou came from 11th last season.

“This is our last race together tomorrow, so what a way to get that going,” Rosenqvist said. “Especially here, track position is super important. We couldn’t have given ourselves a better opportunity.

“I think it just, I mean, in a way it’s ironic. It’s just kind of proving the pace we have, we keep having. Things haven’t been straightforward. We haven’t been good enough this year. I made a lot of mistakes. The team made a lot of mistakes. We had some unfortunate things happening.

“I think the number one thing as a driver you want to keep showing is your pace. Obviously Portland was a very good weekend for us. To kick off this weekend like this is just perfect.

“As I say, it’s the last weekend with the team, so a bit emotional obviously. I love all these guys and girls in Arrow McLaren, NTT DATA. Even with other teams, I’ve been working with them.

“Yeah, it’s definitely a perfect way to end things.”

In his first 18 starts with McLaren, Rosenqvist had just two top 10 finishes and an average finishing spot of 16.33. Over the last 29 races, he has 18 top 10 finishes with an average finish of 12.48.