MSR owner Mike Shank makes feelings clear about Marcus Armstrong’s performance amid the recent contract announcement

Meyer Shank Racing recently signed a contract extension with Marcus Armstrong. Mike Shank, the Meyer Shank Racing co-owner, showered the driver with praises.

The 25-year-old drives the #66 Meyer Shank Racing car powered by Honda. On Monday, August 18, the team put out an announcement announcing the contract renewal of the driver for the upcoming 2026 season.

While talking about the contract extension, the team co-owner, Mike Shank, expressed his feelings about Marcus Armstrong's recent performances. He said (via IndyCar.com)

"We’re thrilled to have Marcus back for 2026. He’s really grown a lot this season, and we’re seeing that in his results as the season has gone on. His performance this year has shown that he has all the tools to fight at the front. We’re excited to continue building on this progress together.”

Marcus Armstrong has made great progress this season and has put up consistent performances throughout the 2025 campaign. He has had ten top-ten finishes along with a third-place podium finish at Iowa.

Armstrong is currently standing in 9th place in the drivers' championship and is aiming to get his first top 10 in the drivers' championship.

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Marcus Armstrong talks about how Ferrari F1 training 'ruined' the enjoyment of driving

The #66 Meyer Shank Racing driver spoke about his Ferrari Academy days. He also spoke about how he rarely enters 'flow state' while driving.

Marcus Armstrong joined the Ferrari Academy in 2017 and participated in various tests held at the Ferrari headquarters. However, the driver left the team in 2020, as he was unsure about his future with the team.

While in conversation with Conor Daly on his podcast SpeedStreet, Marcus Armstrong detailed how his work as a Ferrari development driver has affected his flow state and how it has been reduced due to the simulator work. He said,

"What I used to do on the simulator in Ferrari, that kind of ruined my, just instinctual and intuitive feeling of being in the zone and being in flow state because...I used to spend between 100 and 130 days on the sim doing development work," he said. [1:04:45 onwards]

Armstrong further spoke about how the team would change tiny details during blind tests and how he felt responsible for better technical feedback.

"It's all blind tests, everything is a blind test. You never really know what you're doing and you need to be always thinking about what you have underneath you, and ultimately, you don't really rely on your feeling anymore. You're always thinking. You're inside your head thinking about what you feel inside the car in order to give good feedback on what the engineers are testing. So I feel like that sort of ruins the, being in the zone and enjoying driving...Now it's easy for me to. I don't want to sound too cocky, but it's easy for me to drive the car and now I'm just immediately starting to think 'What can we do better? What can we do better from a technical point of view? What's happening underneath me?' That sort of takes away the flow state," he added.

After leaving the Ferrari Academy, Marcus Armstrong joined IndyCar with Chip Ganassi Racing and raced for the Indianapolis based team for two years before switching to Meyer Shank Racing.