Armstrong, who leads the rookie standings regardless of operating a non-oval schedule in CGR’s #11 automobile, has scored top-10 finishes in half of his eight IndyCar begins.
He’s handed over the automobile to Takuma Sato for the entire oval occasions however has set his sights on operating full-time with the group that leads this 12 months’s championship with Alex Palou.
When requested by Motorsport.com what his preferrred 2024 plan would appear like, he replied: “I have never precisely stored it a secret, however I would love to remain right here at Chip Ganassi Racing.
“I feel I have been fairly vocal about making an attempt ovals for the primary time. It will be a dream come true to compete on the Indy 500.
“For the time being my focus is on simply getting good outcomes as a result of my very own outcomes are going to assist me within the long-term. Yeah, it is probably not in my arms on the contractual aspect, for example.
“All I can do is simply compete on the most of my capability, try to keep current, which is pretty straightforward seeing as if it is going properly. The group, it is a very pleasing surroundings.
“I really feel prefer it’s all trending in the best path. I simply must hold pumping out some good outcomes.”
Marcus Armstrong, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
Picture by: Gavin Baker / Motorsport Images
Armstrong’s probabilities of retaining his seat are strengthened by the seemingly exit of Palou and team-mate Marcus Ericsson, though business necessities will play a job.
Fellow Kiwi Scott Dixon will stay the pillar of the driving squad, whereas its different seats – each salaried and sponsorship-required – stay a hotbed of foolish season hypothesis.
Former Ferrari Driver Academy member Armstrong, who has three seasons of F2 in Europe below his belt and 4 wins, has impressed the group along with his method. He comes into this weekend’s Nashville spherical with a season’s greatest seventh place at Toronto final day trip, however has solely certified within the high 10 as soon as.
“I’d say it is extra so attending to the tempo faster,” he mentioned when requested about his qualifying struggles. “I’ve been studying the circuits.
“Circuits have a number of character. While you come again time and time once more, like the opposite guys have, it is fairly troublesome to reach straightaway and be as fast as them. I make huge steps via the weekend from FP1 to the tip of Q2, then the race.
“I really feel like I simply have to be, yeah, on the tempo in FP1, then make smaller steps onwards. For the second, I am having to search out huge chunks from session to session.
“I perceive that that is a part of it, however I really feel like we’ve the whole lot. We’ve got all of the elements to do an excellent job in qualifying. We simply must get there faster and chip away on the small particulars main into the ultimate laps of quali, yeah.”
Marcus Armstrong, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
Picture by: Artwork Fleischmann
He claims that the requirement to share the trip with Sato this 12 months hasn’t had a massively destructive impression on him, provided that he’s studying the sequence with out the large bounce of being thrown in on the deep finish on high-speed ovals too.
“It is not troublesome to form of step out and in,” he mentioned. “I feel all through a season you all the time acquire momentum and begin to get right into a rhythm. I imply, in a manner I’d like to form of have the continuity of regularly racing, simply chipping away at the whole lot.
“Clearly the 2 disciplines are very totally different, oval racing and avenue [and road] course racing. Whether or not or not one enhances the opposite, I am but to search out out.
“In any case, I am on the [oval] races. I am sitting on the stand. I am doing the whole lot however driving the automobile, so… I do not really feel prefer it’s messing with my very own efficiency.
“If something, it is serving to it as a result of I truly get the time to sit down again and chitchat with folks that I would not usually get the prospect to do, speak a bit extra personally, for example, with my teammates and everybody that I work with simply as a result of the truth that I’ve extra time on my arms.
“IndyCar weekends are very compact. You might have so much to do in a brief period of time. So having these weekends to really sit again and talk with everybody I feel has been extraordinarily useful, simply to offer myself an excellent perspective of the scenario and why one man is doing so properly and what all of them do in another way.”
