Armstrong, who leads the rookie standings regardless of working 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 all the oval occasions however has set his sights on working full-time with the crew that leads this yr’s championship with Alex Palou.
When requested by Motorsport.com what his ultimate 2024 plan would appear to be, he replied: “I have not precisely saved it a secret, however I would love to remain right here at Chip Ganassi Racing.
“I believe I have been moderately 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 not likely in my arms on the contractual facet, to illustrate.
“All I can do is simply compete on the most of my skill, attempt to keep current, which is pretty simple seeing as if it is going nicely. The crew, it is a very fulfilling atmosphere.
“I really feel prefer it’s all trending in the fitting path. I simply should hold pumping out some good outcomes.”
Marcus Armstrong, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
Picture by: Gavin Baker / Motorsport Photographs
Armstrong’s probabilities of retaining his seat are strengthened by the possible exit of Palou and team-mate Marcus Ericsson, though business necessities will play a task.
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 crew together with his method. He comes into this weekend’s Nashville spherical with a season’s finest seventh place at Toronto final outing, however has solely certified within the high 10 as soon as.
“I might 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 lots of character. Once 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 large steps via the weekend from FP1 to the top of Q2, then the race.
“I really feel like I simply must be, yeah, on the tempo in FP1, then make smaller steps onwards. For the second, I am having to seek out large 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 have now all of the elements to do an excellent job in qualifying. We simply have to 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 yr hasn’t had a vastly adverse affect on him, provided that he’s studying the collection with out the massive leap 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 believe all through a season you all the time acquire momentum and begin to get right into a rhythm. I imply, in a means I might 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 road [and road] course racing. Whether or not or not one enhances the opposite, I am but to seek 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 really get the time to take a seat again and chitchat with folks that I would not usually get the possibility to do, discuss a bit extra personally, to illustrate, 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’ve got so much to do in a brief period of time. So having these weekends to truly sit again and talk with everybody I believe has been extraordinarily useful, simply to provide myself a superb perspective of the state of affairs and why one man is doing so nicely and what all of them do otherwise.”
