Meyer Shank Racing is preparing to field an official Honda in 2028

How times have changed for Mike Shank and Jim Meyer's team! While MSR had tried to join the pack IndyCar From 2012 onwards, with the arrival of the Dallara DW12, the absence of competitive engine blocks (Honda and Chevrolet shared the supply with Lotus, whose engine only lasted a year and was far below the competition), the team finally had to wait until 2017 to make its debut at the Indianapolis 500, then 2018 for a first partial season.

Now established as a full-time team in the championship, Meyer Shank Racing is set to take another step forward in 2028 with the arrival of the new IndyCar. Affiliated with Chip Ganassi Racing, it is expected to host the car Honda's factory engine is a concession that IndyCar has granted to its two engine suppliers to guarantee their long-term presence in the championship. For Mike Shank, speaking to Racer.com, this simply continues a long-standing relationship with the Japanese manufacturer, highlighted by two victories at the 24 Hours of Daytona with Acura.

“I’ve been working with Honda since 2015, since the days of the Ligier LMP2 in IMSAAnd I understood a long time ago that the best way forward, if I want to make a living from motorsport, is to establish a relationship with a manufacturer. In 2015, we started with Honda, and we set out to prove to them what we were capable of with MSR. It took a long time because we aren't a well-known brand that can be relied upon like Penske, Ganassi, or others. We're somewhat newcomers to this field compared to them. So, when Jim Meyer joined me in 2018, we both had to prove to Honda that we were a very capable team and that we had the right mentality to succeed in motorsport.

While the path hasn't been straightforward so far, notably with the end of the collaboration in 2024 following proven cheating by the team at the 2023 Daytona 24 Hours, Honda and Meyer Shank Racing reunited the following year. This season, the No. 93 Acura is competing with a setup similar to the one IndyCar hopes to implement. While Meyer Shank Racing manages the car's operation, it races under the official Honda banner. This experience should facilitate the adoption of the method in IndyCar, but it will also require flexibility from the team, which recently inaugurated a new factory.

“When we meet this year to work out the plan for 2026, as well as what I call the research and development year in 2027 with the testing of the new car and the new engine, and then we get to 2028, one of the things Jim and I will definitely have to look at is our facility and the possibility of expanding it. All of these programs need to be carried out in our workshop. We are happy to do that. We built a workshop three years ago, unfortunately, but we will have to expand it a bit. We have a lot of people working for MSR at the moment, so we will see who will be assigned to what and what the workload will be, and then we will allocate the tasks.”

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