Prior to Christian Lundgaard’s career-best finish of second on Saturday at Indianapolis, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team’s top result for the season belonged to Graham Rahal whose fourth at Toronto represented a promising turnaround for the beleaguered outfit.

There’s plenty more to get over the final four races of the season, but there’s no doubt that after spending a large portion of the year in the competitive wilderness, RLL is riding a wave of momentum that’s giving the three-car program a reason to believe it’s in the midst of a positive turnaround.

“It feels amazing,” Lundgaard said. “I think the best feeling right now is that the team really deserves it. They’ve worked super hard, and we’ve had such a struggling beginning to the season, and I think coming to Toronto was when things started to change. We saw a streak where we started to perform better — even Road America; Mid-Ohio was there. We were on the edge of top 10. To come here and finish second, I think the team deserves every bit of it. I’m just a guy doing my job, really — I want to win, so I try as best as I can.”

The 21-year-old native of Denmark admitted he looks to his elder teammate and team leader Rahal as a benchmark during his rookie season.

“Yeah, one thing that I’m a little annoyed about is that every time race day comes, Graham always seems to find a way to finish ahead,” he said. “Didn’t happen today, luckily. Honestly, Graham has helped me massively, understanding how much you can push the tires. He’s extremely good on the long run, making the tires last, making the fuel last, and just being competitive. Even in a car that might not be competitive enough to be there, we’ve had some good results.

“As a team, the drivers work very well together. I’m very pleased to have Jack and Graham by my side and helping me. It’s also good for the team that we now have a podium because I think, just for the future, it’s going to be a massive confidence boost for everyone to keep digging. This is the right path. We’re going in the right direction.”