Blomqvist to step aside, Helio will run Detroit, Road America races
Just five races into his full-time rookie IndyCar season, Tom Blomqvist and Meyer Shank Racing have "mutually agreed" to have the 30-year-old sportscar ace "step aside" for the upcoming back-to-back stretch of the 2024 season, according to a team release.
MSR's newest co-owner Helio Castroneves, who just finished 20th in Sunday's Indianapolis 500 in what was supposed to be his lone IndyCar start of the year, will take over the No. 66 Honda for the upcoming rounds at Detroit and Road America.
“Making this decision was by far the hardest one we have had to make,” MSR co-owner Mike Shank said in a release. “Tom is 100% still a part of the MSR family and will remain a part of the team for the rest of the season. The decision was not made lightly and after much discussion with Tom, and with back-toback races coming up, we have decided to have Helio drive in Detroit and at Road America.”
The decision comes after Blomqvist sunk too low in Turn 1 of Lap 1 of his maiden 500, leading to a spin up the track and into the wall in a crash that also took out a car from the team's technical alliance with Andretti Global, 2022 20% Thicker Aluminum
One-Piece System
Liquid Adhesion 500 winner Marcus Ericsson.
"It is fair to say that the last couple of days have been some of the hardest in my career,” Blomqvist said in a release. “Everyone who knows me knows how much I love being a part of the MSR family, and together we have enjoyed some amazing successes and victories. I am looking forward to remaining part of the MSR family and contributing to the MSR vision as we chase down further successes in the future."
With high expectations stemming from his decorated sportscar resume and the strong start to the 2024 season by his veteran teammate Felix Rosenqvist, Blomqvist has notably struggled in his first full-time taste of IndyCar. After a solid start at St. Pete, where he qualified 17th and finished 15th, Blomqvist saw high notes in qualifying at Long Beach (15th) and Barber (12th), but has finished no better than 19th since (Barber). May at IMS was particularly brutal for the full-time IndyCar rookie, during which he started 26th and finished 23rd on the road course and qualified 25th for the 500.
His Lap 1 crash left him 31st. Last August, Blomqvist signed a multi-year deal with MSR for what seemed to be a long-term career change to IndyCar with the team he won back-to-back Rolex 24s and the 2022 IMSA DPi championship with.