SALINAS, Calif — Marcus Armstrong thought he had the Rookie of the Year honors in the bag. He held a commanding 26-point advantage over Agustin Canapino entering. At one point of the race, he was leading the alternate strategy even while running solidly near the top 10. That’s even after being involved in the Lap 1, Turn 1 carnage.

“Yeah, it was messy, for sure. Lap one, turn one, I was driving at a snail’s pace, just trying to get through the first corner. I think I made contact with one of the Rahal cars, which went spinning. Someone else hit me from behind. I was sort of pushed into the Rahal-Lundgaard catastrophe,” Armstrong said.

“I don’t remember what happened, but I remember taking it easy but still getting caught up in the accident.”

Unfortunately for him, he was collected in the late race restart carnage that took him out of it too. Meanwhile, Canapino was around the top five in what could have completely flipped this thing on its head.

“I can’t remember the other ones early in the race. I do remember I think it was Pedersen at turn 11 on the restarts, which was a real pain really because we were in quite a good spot,” Armstrong said. “I just had so much grip from the new reds. Everyone else was on blacks. I didn’t even mean to go there. I just had so much grip that I just accelerated, overtook about three people, put myself in a risky position. Then obviously I got tagged by I think it was Pedersen.

“Then I also remember a pink car flying across the track sideways into Herta. I actually made contact with them. I nipped my front wing. Got away with that. My car looks like it’s been through the wars, for sure.”

Canapino had wing damage and faded while Armstrong came up quickly. That set up an 8th place result for Armstrong and 14th for Canapino and Armstrong becoming Chip Ganassi Racing’s fifth ROY.

It’s a nice cast of drivers though that have won Rookie of the Year for Ganassi as Armstrong not only joined Rosenqvist, but Juan Montoya (1999), Alex Zanardi (1996) and Eddie Cheever (1990 too).

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

 “To win the Rookie of the Year championship, I’m extremely pleased to finally lock that down,” Armstrong says. “Obviously we didn’t do five races, so it was going to be a tough ask, for sure.

“But nevertheless, I think we finished every race. We were consistent. We had some good results. Sometimes I think we could have done a lot better. Yeah, we were consistent and fast enough to win it without the ovals.”

Armstrong returns to Ganassi in 2024 as it was announced a few days ago that he will be back on a multi-year deal.

“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.”