INDIANAPOLIS — The writing was on the wall. When Meyer Shank Racing announced that Tom Blomqvist would be one of their INDYCAR driver’s in 2024 and that Helio Castroneves would stay with the team but as a part-time driver and full-time owner, one under the radar tidbit from that press conference was the future of their IMSA program.

“We’re still working on that. They’re up in the air right now,” Mike Shank said that morning of the shared INDYCAR-NASCAR race weekend.

A few days later, Acura and WTR Andretti announced the addition of a second entry for that squad.

“We’re looking forward to working with both (cars),” said HPD President and Technical Director, David Salters. “I’m stoked to see we have a super strong driver line-up across both our electrified Acura hypercars.”

“Both” of our electrified Acura hypercars. Not three. I feel like that’s some strong wording there. Which is why I’m not shocked that after Shank made his comments here in August, that he then went off the cuff and spoke of almost as if it his words were an audition or job interview for other manufacturers paying attention.

“Those guys, through our tough January, have battled back and they’re in the championship again, which is unbelievable,” he continued. “You put those points back on the board and they’ve checked out on the championship.

“We don’t know yet, is the answer. We’ll know probably in four to five weeks. This is my 20th year as a team in the Rolex. We’ve won it three times. We’ve had much success. It was kind of the start of all this. We’re doing everything we can to stay on.”

Now, the inevitable was announced – MSR is shutting down the IMSA program and turning their full focus on turning the NTT INDYCAR SERIES team around.

While it’s not a full-blown closing shop up, it’s hitting the pause button.

It’s a wild turn of events as the team will compete in their 351st IMSA race in a couple of weeks at Road Atlanta.

“Making the decision to take a year away from IMSA was not an easy one by any means,” said Shank. “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.”

The team has grown from a race-winning privateer effort into a full-fledged factory operation, earning IMSA championships with Acura in 2019, 2020, and again in 2022. With two wins so far this year, Meyer Shank Racing heads to the season finale event with a mathematical chance at another IMSA title.  

Meyer Shank Racing has continued to build it’s IMSA program, which is well recognized as being the best-of-the-best, with milestone victories in cornerstone events. The team captured overall victories in the 2012, 2022, and 2023 Rolex 24 At Daytona, two Petit Le Mans overall wins (2016 & 2022) as well as victories in the Six Hours of the Glen (2017 & 2019).

A key component to MSR’s success has been the talented group of seasoned team members that have focused on the IMSA program through the years, with several having been with the team since the inception of the sports car program. MSR Owners Mike Shank and Jim Meyer set a high priority on keeping that staff on-board, all of whom will continue to work with MSR and be prepared for the team’s IMSA return.  

“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,” Shank continued.

“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.”

MSR claimed it’s first-ever sports car win at the 2006 GRAND-AM Discount Tire Sunchaser 100k at Utah Motorsports Campus (UMC) with Ozz Negri and Mark Patterson. Two more GRAND-AM wins followed at New Jersey Motorsports Park. MSR won at UMC ahead of the team’s first major sports car win at the 2012 Rolex 24 At Daytona. Ozz Negri, AJ Allmendinger, John Pew and the late Justin Wilson combined to secure the overall victory in Daytona after leading 241 laps.

Twice, MSR has taken critical victories in the final iteration of an IMSA ruleset – the Motul Petit Le Mans. In 2016, the team won the final race ahead of the DPi era as long-time MSR driver John Pew closed his time with the team on a very high note as the team celebrated its 250th Prototype start with a victory.

2017 brought on a new challenge after MSR was selected by Honda to lead it’s factory effort with the all-new Acura NSX GT3. MSR quickly got to work and raced to the first-ever pole and victory for the NSX on the streets of Detroit just months after first taking delivery of the undeveloped Acura.

After a runner-up finish in the 2018 IMSA GTD championship, MSR claimed the IMSA title in 2019 giving Honda and the Acura NSX GT3 it’s first-ever championship victory in international competition. The team backed that up in 2020, sealing the IMSA title early through a difficult COVID-modified IMSA season.

Acura tabbed the team to return to Prototype competition in 2021, as Meyer Shank Racing remained with Honda to run the Acura ARX-05 DPi. The team opened the 2022 season with a popular victory in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, winning the 60th running of the event and 10 years after winning the 50th edition of the iconic North American race. The team added to its championship tally after scoring a dramatic win in the Motul Petit Le Mans – clinching its third IMSA championship, and first DPi championship title.

The team won the Rolex 24 once again as the GTP era opened in 2023, and a subsequent win at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park put MSR back in the title fight going into the final stretch of the season.

As far as how we got here, the tire pressure scandal from Daytona that was found and reported by Acura to IMSA officials is how. The manufacturer was embarrassed and didn’t take lightly to these allegations that proved to be true. It was enough for Acura to distance themselves from MSR despite all that success.

How much of this is manufacturer dependent?

“That’s a good question. In my life, Jim (Meyer) and I yelled at each other over this for a while now, the team that Jim and I have created on that side has won everything, is extremely competitive, fought back from a 200-point deficit, has a chance at the championship again. In my mind, they’re at the pinnacle level of sports car racing,” Shank said. “That’s where they deserve to be. You can imagine where I think we need to be.”

Without factory support still lined up, they’ll now turn their focus on INDYCAR.

“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,” said Shank.

MSR will have two new drivers in 2024. Blomqvist and Felix Rosenqvist. Castroneves will be the Indy 500 only entry.

It was a disappointing past season for this bunch with Castroneves, Simon Pagenaud and the cast of drivers to fill in for the injured Frenchman. They were P15 and P18 in entrant points in 2022 and this time around P19 and P25.

The 60 car was struggling even before Pagenaud was injured but with Blomqvist, Linus Lundqvist and Conor Daly filling in the second half of the season, it was just an average car. This ride went from 13th to 15th to 25th in entrant points the last three years.

Helio Castroneves had a better second half of the season, but it still wasn’t what he’d like for it to have been.

As a result, you get two new drivers coming over for 2024.

In 40 starts with MSR, Castroneves had the 2021 Indy 500 win, but just 6 total top 10 finishes overall. That ‘500 win was his lone top 5 too.

His second half of the season this year went a lot better than last though. A year ago, he had an average finish of 16th through the first 10 races. It was 17.14 in the final 7. This year, he had an average finish of 18.8 through the same 10 races (7 of the 10 19th or worse). Over the final 7, he had an average finish of 15.14 (5 of 7 being 15th or better).

The ride started ascending as Castroneves steps out and into a third part-time entry for Indy only.

Which is why the focus is now on INDYCAR.