{"id":801231,"date":"2026-07-15T05:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T05:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/801231\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T05:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T05:42:13","slug":"indycar-news-marcus-armstrong-reveals-regret-over-indy-500-behaviour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/801231\/","title":{"rendered":"IndyCar news: Marcus Armstrong reveals regret over Indy 500 behaviour"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Armstrong
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHelio Castroneves consoles Marcus Armstrong after the finish of the 2026 Indianapolis 500. Image: Dana Garrett<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In a one-lap dash to the chequered flag, the Meyer Shank Racing driver led the field coming to the white flag but was overtaken into the first turn by Team Penske\u2019s David Malukas.<\/p>\n

The New Zealander was left to battle over second place with his teammate Felix Rosenqvist, who went around the outside of Armstrong and went on to pip Malukas to the win.<\/p>\n

Armstrong, meanwhile, lost out on the front stretch to Scott McLaughlin (Team Penske) and Pato O\u2019Ward (McLaren) and finished fifth.<\/p>\n

In the immediate aftermath, a teary Armstrong delivered his assessment of the finish to local broadcaster WISH-TV.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was given two options \u2013 either I lift or I crash with Felix. I chose to lift,\u201d said Armstrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe the situation that I was put in. I don\u2019t know if I would do anything differently right now. It\u2019s just a really bad situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Speaking nearly two months after that famous finish, Armstrong opened up on the post-race comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I wasn\u2019t exactly happy with the way I behaved after that race,\u201d said Armstrong on MotorSport New Zealand\u2019s Inside Line.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever you finish a race you\u2019re used to having cameras shoved in your face, and that\u2019s certainly part of it, but for whatever reason after that race I gave interviews that I swear I don\u2019t even remember I did.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was one of me in particular of me walking back after the race and it\u2019s an Indiana TV show, Indiana news or whatever, and I basically just blamed Felix for not winning the race, which is ridiculous.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even remember giving that interview. I was obviously angry and tired and all that, but that wasn\u2019t the case. Felix drove the perfect last lap and I was in a position where I was not in a good position.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was locked down on the inside and I knew I shouldn\u2019t be there but Felix put himself in the right spot \u2013 and fair play to him, he drove that last lap the way that you would if you were fighting to the Indy 500.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rick<\/p>\n

Rick Armstrong hugs his son Marcus Armstrong after the 110th Indianapolis 500.<\/p>\n

Although Armstrong said at the time he wouldn\u2019t have done anything differently, with the benefit of hindsight he would have changed his approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m normally quite confident on restarts to just go up high and put the trust on the guy on the inside,\u201d said Armstrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously when you\u2019re starting first it\u2019s not so easy to pick the right lane. I\u2019d probably choose the outside, for a start. That\u2019s usually where I\u2019m the most comfortable and it gives you the most options.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last lap of the 500, there\u2019s no more friends left. The engines are turned up to the maximum and next time I\u2019d probably choose the outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armstrong will continue his IndyCar season at Nashville Superspeedway on July 19-20.<\/p>\n

IndyCar begins on Sunday with practice at midnight before qualifying at 4am AEST. High line practice begins at 7am AEST followed by practice two at 8am AEST.<\/p>\n

IndyCar pre-show begins on Monday at 6:30am AEST before the race at 7:40am AEST.<\/p>\n

How FIFA World Cup final could impact IndyCar at Nashville<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Helio Castroneves consoles Marcus Armstrong after the finish of the 2026 Indianapolis 500. Image: Dana Garrett In a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,60212,806,805,803,804,6490,85],"class_list":["post-801231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-marcus-armstrong","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-slot3","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}