Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong spent five weeks racing go-karts in Europe during his INDYCAR off-season, he told All About Indycar during Media Day.
Armstrong was able to relax heading into the 2026 off-season, as his INDYCAR future was already set in stone after Mike Shank and MSR confirmed the Kiwi’s return for the year ahead, however, he chose not to.
“I did five weeks of karting, which was quite interesting, with Tony Kart, my old European karting team.” Armstrong raced karts on the international stage until 2016, despite making his single seater debut two years earlier in the New Zealand Formula Ford Championship.
“European karting, frankly, there’s nothing like it. It’s pretty brutal. They don’t care who you are,” said Armstrong. “They are going to treat you like rubbish when you’re on track with them. It was great to work on my race craft there and work with such a great team.”
Tony Kart is the flagship operation for Italian karting manufacturer OTK Kart Group. The team have raced since the 1960’s, becoming a global leader in kart racing. Their famous red, green and white kart bodies can be spotted in paddocks across the world.
“The resource that Tony Kart has is quite incredible,” Armstrong complimented. “If the kart is understeering they’ll just bring a new chassis to the track. It’s an extreme resource.”
Racing against youth is a tactic deployed by many drivers during the off season. “They’re the next ones coming through, the next Lewis Hamiltons, the next Dixon’s, you name it,” Armstrong remarked. He himself was tipped as a star of the future, when he permanently left motorsport’s entry level. “It was interesting to see how the young kids these days drive and behave and how they all Tiktok, and all that. It’s very different. I’m not old, but I feel old when I’m around them.”
When asked do kids drive differently compared to when he was racing, Armstrong joked saying “I was telling my dad about this and he thought I was an idiot. You can tell a kid’s nationality by the way he races. Just how even his lean… can tell wheter he is British or not, or if a guy is… aggressive, he’s probably Dutch.”
“I think that was a great decision that I made to go and race there. There’s nothing like karting.”
Armstrong enters 2026 after having his best championship finish, with 8th in the standings. He scored his second career INDYCAR podium in Iowa’s Sunday race, but has higher ambitions for himself and the team in the year ahead.
“No matter what the organisation has achieved the previous year, there’s still a hunger just to deliver, deliver more. There’s a lot of determination inside that building.”
“I would be satisfied with a top three in the championship. That would be great. It’s not as if it’s a million miles away, but certainly we need to make some gains in all areas.
Rookie By Name, Not By Nature
Armstrong, who won rookie of the year in 2023 despite only racing 12 of the 17 rounds, is expecting the three newcomers of the championship to be up to speed, quickly. Having raced all three at some point during his rise up the motorsport ladder, he knows that they all understand what it takes to be quick.
“They all know how to pedal a race car, so they don’t need my advice. From a strategy point of view, you only need to look at Scott Dixon to know experience matters a lot here. But I’m sure that all three of them are going to be very quick.”
Armstrong will race alongside Swede Felix Rosenqvist for the 2026 season.
written by Evan Dalton // Media Credit: Penske Entertainment
