Marcus Armstrong saw a certain victory slip away at the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America after a late-race mechanical failure forced his retirement with only four laps remaining.
Starting from third on the grid, the 25-year-old New Zealander navigated a chaotic 55-lap race characterized by five cautions and shifting strategies. Armstrong led for 14 laps and maintained a significant advantage of over 2.5 seconds over Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard with fewer than five laps to go.
The situation turned critical as Armstrong’s #66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda began to lose power with four laps left, allowing Lundgaard to reclaim the lead. Shortly after exiting the final corner of the 4.014-mile natural terrain road course, smoke emerged from Armstrong’s car, triggering the final caution and forcing him off the track. The incident set up a one-lap sprint finish where Lundgaard ultimately held off Team Penske’s David Malukas to secure the win.
Following the race, Armstrong told FOX Sports that there were no warnings on his dashboard or communications from his engineering team prior to the failure.
“No,” Armstrong stated. “I mean, it was all smooth sailing. I came out at Turn 6 and the engine just started spluttering like it was out of fuel, but clearly it wasn’t. And then it just completely died. So I don’t know, we have to speak to Honda, see what the issue was, but there was no indication that something was wrong.”
Although the incident resulted in a 24th-place finish, Armstrong praised the Meyer Shank Racing crew, noting that the team had fielded the fastest car of the event.
“I’m massively proud of the guys on the #66, because we had the quickest car out there today,” Armstrong said.
“I think we had the quickest car all weekend. Obviously, Alex was quick too, but my engineers did everything right. My pit crew as well—every pit stop was spot on. I thought that was ours to lose. I had some time in the pocket already. Lundgaard was coming, but yeah, I’m just gutted really.”
