Christian Rasmussen managed to bring earn himself third for two consecutive years at the 2026 IndyCar Gateway. This came as a surprise since he locked up during his second lap of qualifying and started way back at 19th. Having earned his maiden IndyCar podium at Gateway last year, he made a habit of turning a miserable qualifying into a P3 finish.
Big turnaround for Rasmussen
Currently 22nd in the points, Rasmussen has had a tough year. He expresses feeling robbed of a win in Phoenix earlier this year after a crash with Andretti’s Will Power. The 25-year-old was looking to repeat his success last year as he went from a P25 qualifying to a podium finish. Rasmussen was satisfied to replicate this turnaround at the 2026 Gateway.
“We’ve had a tough year. Feeling like we kind of had a win robbed from us back in Phoenix. Coming right back to an oval and kind of starting up where we finished off was a good feeling.“
Rasmussen admits that he didn’t have the pace to keep up with Newgarden and Ericsson at the IndyCar Gateway. Nonetheless, he knows he was super strong with minimal degradation throughout the race.
“Yeah, I mean, like I think we had a third-place car today. I couldn’t hang with those guys there at the end. I was super strong I would say later in the stints, and we didn’t really have a lot of deg, but I just didn’t have that ultimate pace.“
He mentions a bit of struggle hanging on to the front in newer tyres but is ultimately quite happy with his result. The ECR driver says this is the start of momentum for the rest of the season.
“Whenever we were all on kind of newer-ish tyres, I couldn’t hang. But again, very happy with a third-place finish here today. I think it’s a good way to start building some momentum for the rest of the year.”
A second podium finish at IndyCar Gateway
Rasmussen notices that the team has always been strong on short ovals so he knew today would go well. After his tough start to the year, repeating a good result at the 2026 Gateway brought a good feeling.
“Yeah, we’ve had a tough start to the year, a tough month of May, for sure. We’ve always been very strong on the short ovals. Coming back and doing what we did here today is a good feeling.”
Slice through the midfield and battle at the top
Speaking on battling Newgarden, the ECR driver was quick to say the No. 2 car was faster. After cutting through the entire midfield, he tried his best to hold onto first. Unfortunately, The Penske driver was first out of the pits to snatch the lead from Rasmussen.
The Danish driver says it was an issue of burning through tyres, he just didn’t have the pace. Once the two-time Indy 500 winner got by, there was no keeping up with him at the IndyCar Gateway.
“No. I mean, he was faster than me. I tried to hold it as much as I could. I just didn’t have that pace. I don’t think it had anything to do with me burning up my tires or anything else. Once he got by, he kind of took off.
“Yeah, again, he was right on my ass. Yeah, sorry (smiling). Yeah, he was quicker than me.”
A groove above everybody else
Rasmussen managed to glide through the midfield and was seemingly a groove above everyone else at the 2026 Gateway. The ECR driver says he worked with the car and that’s just what the car was giving him the whole race. He struggled around turn 2 as everyone did but he adjusted accordingly.
“That’s what the car was giving me the whole race. I tried to run down low starting the race. Man, the car was just so tight that I couldn’t turn. I got chewed up like by everyone out of turn two. I was like, well, got to try and fix this.“
The No. 21 car was tight to turn so he moved up the track and found a sweet spot. He says being able to pass cars up there was just a side product. He wanted to replicate the low line like Marcus Ericsson but knew his car would be slower there. Rasmussen says he was forced to go high but regardless, he is just happy it all worked out at the IndyCar Gateway.
“Moved the car up the track a little bit and it worked a lot better. Then the side product of that is you can kind of pass cars up there. That’s when we started moving forward. Yeah, that’s where the car was happy.
“I was kind of forced to do that. Even when Marcus was coming up behind me, I could see that he was running the low line on the exit of two. I wanted to do that as well, to try and take some air off his wing. That would set me up even worse because I was dead slow down there.
“I was kind of forced to the high line the whole race. But man, it worked out all right.”
Getting through traffic and gaining positions
The young Dane says making his way through the field is what it takes to get podiums. As he’s done twice now at the IndyCar Gateway, his goal is to move forward on a short oval. His strategy to make that happen is by finding clean air.
“Well, all of those things is kind of what it takes to make it up to the podium positions, right? No matter what you want to be able to move forward on a short oval. I think if you can run and put the car kind of wherever the car in front of you is not driving, you’re in a pretty good spot.“
Looking at his year so far, Rasmussen admits they aren’t qualifying at the top. Improving that aspect of their races will make it less hard on him during the races. He is taking the positives from the 2026 Gateway, noticing that they can still get away with good results after a tough qualifying.
“Obviously we are not qualifying as well as we want to. We’re ever so slightly missing the balance in qualifying. We need to do some work to try and improve that so we don’t have to make it that hard on ourselves every single time.
“But it’s also good to know that when we are in this position, we do have a tough qualifying, that we can still get away with these results.”
Downforce package at the IndyCar Gateway
Rasmussen says he was skeptical of ECR’s downforce package for IndyCar Gateway. He says the package was better than he thought but still believes they raced better last year.
“I was a little skeptical going into it. I think it raced better than I thought it would. I think last year raced better than this year, is my view on it.”
Red flag conditions at the 2026 Gateway
When asked about how to keep his mental edge during red flag conditions, Rasmussen joked, “Hey, man, a great time to get some hydration in.”
Save in turn 3 at the IndyCar Gateway
The No. 21 driver was risking it all to add wing during the race. He knew he had very limited entries at turn 1 and 2 but gave it a go knowing he had some understeer to play with. He says he wanted to add more and more wing but got too close to the car in front. He upset the rear yet managed to save himself from disaster around turn 3 .
“That was pretty big. I remember the save, but I think I got a little too close to the car in front. I was kind of wanting to add wing to the car the whole race, but I was very limited by the entries into both turn one and turn three, but still had a decent amount of understeer kind of like mid to exit on both ends.
“I wanted to keep adding wing, but I was just so limited. Whenever I was close to cars, that definitely upset the rear a little bit more. I think I just got up a little bit too close to a car, yeah, got loose on entry and lost it.”
