SPEEDWAY — Kyle Moyer laughed at the thought.
Moyer, the Monrovia native, was discussing the fact that four members of the Arrow McLaren racing team hail from the Monrovia area.
Joining Moyer are Monrovia residents Brea Watson and Maison Hadley, along with Aaron Smith from nearby Cascade.
“That makes it fun,” he said of the local connection to Arrow McLaren, which was having a strong month of May leading up to Sunday’s Indianapolis 500. “Must be something in the water out there.”
They certainly started the month off quickly, as team driver Christian Lundgaard won the May 9 Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.
The team, owned by McLaren, has as its team principal, Tony Kanaan, the popular former driver.
The team is now headquartered in its new building in Speedway. It was all there for Sunday’s Indy 500, though the four drivers met with mixed results.
Pato O’Ward finished fourth, with Nolan Siegel 11th, Lundgaard 17th and Ryan Hunter-Reay 32nd after a crash on the 18th lap.
“It was OK,” Moyer said. “We thought Pato and his team had a great strategy going to win, but the yellows at the end just made it a free-for-all. Just a shame. We now have to wait 364 days ‘til we can do it again.”
Still, it was a remarkable comeback for Moyer.
He was one of three key people released last May by Roger Penske after that team owner had two cars moved to the back of the Indy 500 starting pack when those cars failed pre-qualifying inspections.
Three months later, Moyer signed on with Arrow McLaren as competition director.
“After I left Andretti (to join Penske), I was still close with the team,” Moyer noted. “It was great to hook up with Zak Brown. Working with these people again makes it easier.
“This is their third year as McLaren. We’re still building. We’ve got a ways to go, getting talented people assembled.”
For Moyer, the 500 and all the events surrounding it are close to home.
“We had a place in North Carolina, but it’s good to be back in Indy,” he said.
Moyer spent Sunday as strategist for Lundgaard.
It’s all part of building McLaren into one of IndyCar’s strongest teams.
“We were just working for Race Day,” Moyer said Saturday. “This is my 39th 500. I had to skip a couple years, but now, I’m here for another one.”
Fantastic finish
While Moyer was helping shepherd McLaren’s teams, Sunday’s race turned out to be an all-timer.
With rain and crash delays, the event finally turned into a one-lap shootout, with the field taking the green and white flags on Lap 199, then the checkered on Lap 200.
When the last lap began and with rain approaching, Marcus Armstrong had David Malukas and Felix Rosenqvist stacked behind him coming to the white flag. Malukas pulled out of line, and Rosenqvist followed him. Pato O’Ward charged to the inside of Rosenqvist to make it a two-row, two-wide sprint.
In Turn One, Rosenqvist made his go-for-it, outside move on Armstrong. The drivers went side by side from the middle of Turn One to the entrance of Turn Four.
“I had that momentum going, and I was kind of like, ‘I’m going to go on the high line, and I’m not going to ruin this momentum,’” Rosenqvist said. “If someone comes in the way, that’s it. But no one did, and I was able to stay on the high lane through the whole thing, and I was getting a side draft at the same time from the other guys.
“We just had to do it. That’s kind of the only option. You don’t really have an option to go low because there wasn’t any room — it was just stacked down there.”
Rosenqvist figured he’d “just stay flat and see what happens,” and that’s what happened.
Michael Shank, the co-owner of Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian, figured his drivers had battled too hard.
“I thought for sure we were causing ourselves more damage than good during that lap with slowing them down,” he said, “but it turned out it didn’t, and we’re super happy.”
That’s because Rosenqvist wasn’t done. He quickly closed up behind Malukas as the leader began to snake down the front stretch. Flagman Aaron Likens was ready to wave the checkers.
As was the case with Armstrong, Rosenqvist saw his opportunity to challenge Malukas was on the outside, usually not the preferred path, as Malukas guarded the inside. As Rosenqvist pulled alongside, Malukas started to crowd him before relinquishing.
It was breathtaking and improbable in the same gasp.
“I mean, he just had a really good run,” Malukas said. “There’s nothing else I could have done.”
