Rasmussen an oval standout again in Iowa

Christian Rasmussen spent most of his young life perfecting the art of road racing, but the IndyCar sophomore from Denmark is proving to be a strong oval racer.

From the three oval events held this year, Rasmussen’s led his Ed Carpenter Racing team home at every one, starting with a sixth at the Indianapolis 500 in May, a career best third at World Wide Technology Raceway in June, and sixth on Saturday at Iowa Speedway.

Signed to a part-time deal with ECR for 2024, the 2023 Indy NXT champion was meant to focus on his native road and street courses and make a one-off oval debut at the Indy 500, and after finishing 12th, he missed last year’s Iowa doubleheader and WWTR as team owner Ed Carpenter drove the car.

But the plan changed as Carpenter stepped back and promoted Rasmussen to complete the season. He finished 11th and 16th at the Milwaukee doubleheader and took 14th to close the year at Nashville, which was just enough to earn a $1 million Leaders Circle contract for the car.

Altogether, the 25-year-old has contested seven IndyCar oval races, has never looked anything less than bold and impressive while finishing all seven, and has moved into 15th-place to lead ECR in the championship. Heady stuff for the pilot of the No. 21 Chevy.

“Finished P6 after starting P19, a good result,” Rasmussen said. “We just steadily moved our way through the field from the beginning to the end. I had one exciting moment with probably the biggest drift I’ve ever done on an oval and still saved it! Thankfully, we got through it and the good thing is we get to do it all over again! We are starting a little farther up tomorrow so maybe we can have an even better day!”