The disappointment was clear in Marcus Armstrong’s words.

“Just gutted, really,” he told FOX moments after Sunday’s XPEL Grand Prix at Road America Presented by AMR.

Kudos to the Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian driver (photo, top) for making himself available for an interview after what was his second major gut punch in the past five weeks. In May, he was leading the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge coming to the white flag only to settle for a fifth-place finish as he felt obligated to let teammate Felix Rosenqvist go in Turn 4 in pursuit of the victory, which the Swede earned with a last-second pass of Team Penske’s David Malukas.

Sunday, in a race that also slipped away from Rosenqvist, Armstrong helplessly dropped out of the lead with less than four laps remaining when his No. 66 Honda had a mechanical failure. In this case, Armstrong had to watch Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard go to victory lane in a race he felt he deserved to win.

Armstrong’s wounded car fell all the way to 24th place in a 25-car field, but that hardly mattered. On this day, winning was more than everything, it was the only thing.

“That was ours to lose,” Armstrong said of holding a 2.5-second lead over Lundgaard when the trouble began on Road America’s backstretch. “I had some time in the pocket already on Lundgaard. Obviously, he was (in hot pursuit), but …”

There were no other words necessary, particularly with the heartbreak from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval still fresh.

Lundgaard was certainly a worthy winner as he had fresher Firestone Firehawk tires than Armstrong in the closing stint, but this could have been Armstrong’s first career victory in the series. Earlier in the race, Rosenqvist was on a path to his second victory of the season and third overall (his first series win came on this 14-turn, 4.014-mile road course in 2020).

The MSR drivers had qualified third (Armstrong) and fourth (Rosenqvist), and it was the Swede who took the lead on Lap 14 when he beat pole sitter and three-time reigning series champion Alex Palou out of the pits under caution. Rosenqvist led the next 18 laps.

Rosenqvist’s trouble came in the form of having to disregard his crew’s instructions to pit on Lap 30 as the caution for the stalled car of ECR’s Christian Rasmussen came out just as he prepared to head to pit road. That unfortunate timing dropped Rosenqvist and others who hadn’t yet pitted for the second time behind the drivers who had, and he restarted 11th.

Felix Rosenqvist

In a field as competitive as this one, Rosenqvist (photo, above) couldn’t get back to where he had been, and he finished eighth.

Coincidentally, Rosenqvist’s loss was Armstrong’s gain.

Running third when he pitted ahead of the Rasmussen caution, Armstrong cycled to the lead when five drivers ahead of him, led by Rosenqvist, pitted. But Armstrong earned what he received by comfortably leading the next 14 laps. It was only Lundgaard pitting for new Firestone Firehawk alternate tires with 10 laps remaining that put Armstrong on alert. No one else was going to challenge Armstrong without the mechanical issue his car incurred.

“There was all smooth sailing,” Armstrong said of keeping Lundgaard at bay. “I came out of Turn 6 and the engine just started sputtering like it was out of fuel, but clearly it wasn’t, and then it just completely died.

“I don’t know. We’ll have to speak to Honda to see what the issue was, but there was no indication that there was something wrong.”