Christian Lundgaard heads into this weekend’s penultimate round of the IndyCar season sitting fourth in the championship, a mere 14 points behind Scott Dixon. At the Milwaukee Mile – one of his favorite ovals – the Arrow McLaren driver says he is “excited to be back” as he pushes to break into the top three.
Lundgaard eyes Dixon in fight for third in the championship
Lundgaard arrives at the Milwaukee Mile fourth in the IndyCar championship, determined to chase down six-time champion Scott Dixon. The Dane trails Dixon by just 14 points and sees the chance to climb into the top three, as he told Pit Debrief and other media outlets.
“Obviously we’re behind Scott Dixon. We know he’s going to be tough to catch. Even though it’s just 14 points, you can have one good weekend. I need one good weekend, he needs one bad weekend, and we’re there straightaway. Ultimately for me, it’s just keep knocking on the door, right?”
“At the end of the day I think it’s going to be mathematically easy to pass Scott Dixon. At the end of the day, if you finish fourth and fifth in every race, it’s not going to be tough to make the difference if he’s around us.”
Still, Lundgaard insists his season won’t be defined solely by whether he edges Dixon.
“We need a little bit of luck. We need a good result. We need for him to have a worst result obviously. By us winning two races, obviously that’s going to make life very easy for us from a standings standpoint.
“All we got to do is we got to learn, we got to be aggressive and we got to be consistent, be in the fight, in the hunt at the end of the race.
“I’m not going to sit and dwell the entire off-season if we miss out on third in the championship, if we had two good last races but if he was better.
“I want to catch him, but if he goes out and wins the last two races, we’re fourth or fifth or sixth, we’re in the hunt, I’ll still see it as a successful season.”
Ovals remain a work in progress
Lundgaard admits the season’s oval races have tested him in his first year with Arrow McLaren. He joined from RLL who have had serious difficulties on ovals in recent years.
“Yeah, I mean, the month of May was an interesting one because I feel like it was the first oval of the year. I definitely felt like I was somewhat at a disadvantage to both Nolan and Pato because I feel like I had to relearn everything.”
Results at Gateway and Iowa underlined the challenge. A 14th at the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 was followed by 21st and 6th in the Iowa doubleheader.
“I would honestly say St. Louis was probably the best overall race weekend we had on oval. Despite what happened in the pit lane, I think that result was much worse than I think what we deserved. I think Iowa we just struggled on the 7 car. We weren’t really necessarily comfortable all weekend.”
Even so, he sees the year as an important step in building toward future oval success with Arrow McLaren.
“There’s a foundation this year that’s being built for next year ’cause, as you said, I feel like I’m relearning it all.”
Excited for Milwaukee return
This weekend, Lundgaard is eager to fight for third at a track he relishes.
“Milwaukee is one of the races I’m looking the most forward to. Coming out here fourth in the standings at the moment, trying to hunt for third, I couldn’t see a better place to go to of any of the ovals so I’m pretty excited.”
The Mile’s flat layout is unlike any other oval on the schedule, something Lundgaard feels plays to his European background.
“I would say it’s probably the biggest outlier, in all honesty. I’d say most of them are very similar. The Mile is very flat. There’s hardly any banking.
“For European drivers, it kind of tends to favor them more because it essentially is just a very high-speed corner, right, from a road course? It feels a lot more familiar to the Europeans.”
Cooler weather this weekend at Milwaukee should also make life easier for teams after the punishing July stretch.
“From us, INDYCAR, I don’t think it’s going to make much of a difference. Obviously we prefer the cooler races. It’s more pleasant, right? From a performance perspective, I don’t think it’s going to make much of a difference.
“The only thing I will say is I think the tyres will last longer luckily. I think the strategies might play out a little different. At the end of the day it kind of all depends if the car’s in the window. But I think we’ll all kind of enjoy a nice little cooler race weekend, especially the mechanics. They’ve definitely had a tough July.”
Chasing progress, not points
As Lundgaard heads into the final races of the season, his focus remains on learning and improving, regardless of his final standing. With Arrow McLaren, he has laid a strong foundation on ovals and road courses alike. The Dane is determined to carry this progress from 2025 into an even more competitive campaign next year.
