Christian Lundgaard landed on the top step of the podium following an intense IndyCar race at Road America, going from last to 1st following contact on Lap 1.
The Road America winner led 7 of the 55 laps around the Elkhart, Wisconsin circuit, netting his third win in the NTT IndyCar Series and his second of the 2026 season. It was a race chock full of chaos, but the 25-year-old Danish driver made the most of it in his No.7 Arrow McLaren.
“Not quite what I had on my bingo card waking up this morning. Obviously this is what you hope for. I know on road courses, didn’t really matter where we would start, we would always get good results. I think we produced very good race cars. We need to still figure out how to qualify better. Obviously this weekend has been a little bit of an outlier for me. Not felt comfortable, not had the pace in practice one or practice two, even though we tested here two weeks ago. A confusing weekend. To end with a win I would say confuses me even more. Maybe I just need to be confused”
Composure in chaos
Despite qualifying 13th, Christian Lundgaard basically started his race at Road America from the back of the grid, following contact with six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon on Lap 1.
With a combination of speed, strategy, and the good luck of a fair few cautions, Lundgaard and McLaren kept their cool on a charge to the front of the field.
Speaking to Pit Debrief and other media oultets after his unexpected win, Lundgaard explains what it was like to try to keep his composure despite early challenges.
“I haven’t honestly seen it yet. I’m not quite sure what exactly happened. In the moment I thought it was my fault, basically just ran into the back of Dixon. Obviously at that point I know how long the race is. It was really to try to stay on the lead lap. That was the main goal. It wasn’t very easy with the tire missing basically. But from there on, it’s such a long race, one caution brings you back in the game. You just got to take it from there after that.
“Yeah, I knew we were going to be fighting for a top 10 regardless, just from the pace that we had. I didn’t really expect it to be a win.”
No reward without risk for Lundgaard
Strategy plays a huge part in winning races, especially when recovering from early contact and dropping to the rear of the field.
The Arrow McLaren driver stayed out during the final pit sequence of the 55-lap battle, and it paid off, putting him in prime position to pass David Malukas, and take advantage of heartbreak for Marcus Armstrong.
He went three and four laps longer than all the guys around him, allowing the Danish star to overcut Rossi, Palou, Simpson, Power and Rahal.
When asked by the media, he compared it somewhat to how he felt during his win at the Indy GP, cruising through the field at times and stalling at others.
“I’m going to say I don’t prefer being last at any point in the race. But I think ultimately in terms of making passes, there were certainly times in the race where I thought, Why am I able to just drive through people? Then I kind of got stuck, couldn’t really do anything, specifically to Rossi. I was actually quite fast at that time in the race.
“I think ultimately we made the right moves at the right time. Staying out on that last pit sequence is what really gained us the win. But that’s also the riskiest thing we could do because we’re exposing ourselves to yellow. That was win it or finish last at that time.”
Onto another road course in the 2026 IndyCar season
From one road course to another, the NTT IndyCar grid heads from Road America to Mid-Ohio for their next stop on the 2026 calendar, and it’s a track that Lundgaard has done well at in the past.
Responding to a question from Pit Debrief, the Dane talked about what he needs to take with him from his win at Road America into the Mid-Ohio weekend.
He cheekily referenced a conversation he’d had earlier in the weekend with his Team Principal, Tony Kaanan, about making life easier on himself.
“He said not to do exactly what I did, which is don’t make life harder on yourself. That’s pretty much it.
“Maybe I do need to drive into the back of whoever is in front of me into four.
“No, I mean, we’ve got to qualify better. I think that’s really the main thing. We’ve done so well on race pace, we’ve produced such great race cars on Sunday, and we just need to be better on Saturday. I think that will just help our weekends tremendously.
“I’m not worried going to Mid-Ohio. We were extremely fast there last year. I think we can make something happen. We just don’t need Dixon to do another two stop.”
