Felix Rosenqvist brings first-time dad perspective to Indy 500

Felix Rosenqvist and his wife, Emille, welcomed their first child, baby girl Stella, on May 4. With an Indy 500 return—his eighth start—Rosenqvist says fatherhood is already reshaping how he feels behind the wheel, changing what matters and how he thinks about

INDIANAPOLIS — The Month of May just got more memorable for Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist.

He and his wife, Emille, welcomed their first child, baby girl Stella, into the world on May 4th.

“I feel like what everyone had told me and warned me for, everything has probably been easier,” Rosenqvist said. “It’s just a memory that you will take with you forever. I have 500s that I’ve probably completely put behind me for different reasons, but this one will definitely stay with me forever.”

For Rosenqvist, it isn’t only the joy of a new baby—it’s the way the timing rewrites the emotional weight of the race season. He said he couldn’t imagine having a baby around May.

“I couldn’t imagine having a baby around May. I just couldn’t, so props to him,” Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin said with a smile. “We’re trying to time it out a little bit better than that.”

Rosenqvist is no stranger to the Indy 500. This will be his eighth time in his career running the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Still, he says getting into his car is going to feel different now that he’s a first-time dad.

“Everything else kind of pales in comparison for sure,” Rosenqvist said. “Even when I was there for the birth, it’s just triggering emotions that you don’t know he had, and it’s just unbelievable, to be honest. It definitely gives you perspective in life.”

Alexander Rossi, from ECR, pointed to the mental shift fatherhood can bring in the middle of a season built on focus.

“You actually kind of go quicker because you’re no longer single track focused on your profession. Your world is opened up overnight,” Rossi said. “So he loved it and is loving it, and was like the thing that surprised me the most was like how strong you feel on no sleep.”

There’s also the culture of fathers in the Indy 500—one Rosenqvist says is hard to explain until you’re inside it.

“It’s weird. There’s like this club that you can only access once you have a child, right? You talk about things you haven’t talked to these guys about before, like diapers and whatnot. But it’s cool. Everyone’s been very supportive,” Rosenqvist said.

Helio Castroneves, Rosenqvist’s teammate and team owner, described the same shift in a way only teammates can: blunt, intimate, and built on experience.

“I said, ‘Look, the first nine months, forget about it. You don’t even exist. But after that, my man, you’re going to fall in love. You’re just going to think like that’s it. This is the only woman in my life,’” Castroneves said. “It is the best feeling in the world. And we were exchanging a little bit of feelings. It’s difficult to describe. It’s not like when you win a race. It’s very indescribable feeling, but it’s the best feeling.”.

For Rosenqvist. fatherhood has brought something racing can’t: a perspective he says he’ll carry with him long after the checkered flag and long after any single race weekend. And if this Indy 500 turns out better than the rest of his eighth attempt—if he can add his first win to the name he’s built—then May will be remembered twice for him: once for Stella. and once for the moment the season truly delivers.

Felix Rosenqvist Emille Stella Indy 500 Meyer Shank Racing Scott McLaughlin Alexander Rossi Helio Castroneves