Lundgaard shakes off adversity to win at Road America

Damage your front wing and puncture a tire in Turn 1 on the first lap of the XPEL Grand Prix, and win the 55-lap IndyCar Series race at Road America.

That was the wild reality Christian Lundgaard created on Sunday as he charged from last at the end of the opening lap to stand victorious for the second time since May for Arrow McLaren and take a 0.6s win over Team Penske’s David Malukas.

“I knew we’d have a chance,” Lundgaard said after leading a 1-2 for the Bowtie in the No. 7 Chevy. “I knew how this race panned out last year, and I knew it was all about sticking in the race, which I did last year. I made a bunch of mistakes last year that spun ourselves around, and I wanted to make up for that. We’ve been on the struggle bus all weekend. To turn this around, I’ve got to thank the team for that.”

Malukas started second, finished second, and moved into second in the Drivers' championship with the No. 12 Chevy.

"It was obviously a chaotic run, but thankfully, we were on the right side of the chaos,” he said. “Overall, though, I just need to study myself. I need to look into why I'm losing pace in these races. It's a little bit of a repeat of Indy GP. Other than that, a really strong, really strong strategy from the guys, and big thank you, Team Penske Verizon, Chevrolet, all these guys. It's because of them of why I'm here, so thank you.”

Andretti Global’s Will Power finished third after a late clash with Graham Rahal, who spun across the front of Power’s No. 26 Honda and crashed at Turn 12. The incident left Rahal fuming and gave everyone a one-lap battle to reach the checkered flag, but Lundgaard held on.

Like Lundgaard’s improbable outcome, the finish could not have been predicted at the start as polesitter Alex Palou led with ease and built a solid lead before speeding on pit lane and serving a penalty that relegated the championship leader to the rear of the field.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist also led and appeared to be in a position to win, but a caution and the closing of the pits just as the Indy 500 winner was about to stop unwound his intentions to win again… but his teammate Marcus Armstrong had gotten in just before the caution and was primed to win his first race until the Honda motor in his car expired with three laps to go.

And Lundgaard, who’d used three of the first five cautions to get himself into contention, emerged in third place late in the race on Firestone’s faster alternate compound tires and used them to take second from Malukas and was chasing down Armstrong when the engine issue arose.

Alexander Rossi was the biggest mover of the day, firing from 25th to sixth for ECR, and elsewhere, Santino Ferrucci fought to take ninth for AJ Foyt Racing. Kyle Kirkwood motored from 18th to 10th for Andretti, and Louis Foster improved from 23rd to 14th for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

AS IT HAPPENED

The 55-lap XPEL Grand Prix got underway in cool and overcast conditions with polesitter Alex Palou holding position as Marcus Armstrong took P2 from David Malukas. Christian Lundgaard appeared to suffer from wing damage and fell to the rear of the field.

Lap 2 and Palou leads Armstrong by 1.0s and Malukas by 1.9s. All three are on the softer Firestone alternates. Felix Rosenqvist, P4, is the first on the primary tires.

Lap 3 and Palou leads by 1.5s. Marcus Ericsson on primes takes P5 from Scott McLaughlin on alts.

Lap 4 and Palou leads Armstrong by 2.2s, Malukas by 4.1s and Rosenqvist by 4.4s. Palou’s best lap time of 1m46.4s is a half-second faster than Armstrong and 0.9s better than Malukas.

Lap 5 and Palou leads by 2.4s.

Lap 6 and Palou leads Armstrong by 2.8s and Malukas, who is in a battle with Rosenqvist, by 5.2s.

Lap 8 and Palou leads Armstrong by 3.2s, Malukas by 5.8s and Rosenqvist by 6.6s. The rest of the top 10 is comprised of Ericsson, McLaughlin, Caio Collet, Pato O’Ward, Nolan Siegel and Scott Dixon.

Lap 11 and Palou leads Armstrong by 3.5s, Malukas by 6.4s and Rosenqvist by 7.1s.

Lap 12 and Palou leads by 3.7s as Rosenqvist takes P3 from Malukas. Louis Foster pits.

Lap 13 and Palou leads Armstrong by 4.4s and Rosenqvist by 7.5s. O’Ward takes P7 from Collet whose car is moving around a ton.

Lap 14 and Palou and Armstrong and Malukas and McLaughlin and others pit. Romain Grosjean has an issue leaving the pits.

Lap 15 and CAUTION as Grosjean’s left-rear wheel falls off. Rosenqvist and O’Ward get in right before the pits closed.

Lap 17 and a number of drivers like Scott Dixon and Caio Collet and Santino Ferrucci pit for full service after making emergency stops for fuel and will be penalized — sent to the back of the field — on the restart. Second race in a row for Dixon.

Lap 18 and Rosenqvist leads Palou, Ericsson, Armstrong, O’Ward, Siegel, Malukas, McLaughlin, Rasmussen, and Power. Rosenqvist is the only driver in the top 10 on alts. Palou, slowed on the straight under caution with Newgarden in front of him, was beaten by Rosenqvist, who exited the pits just before Palou arrived at the blend line while behind Newgarden.

Lap 19 and Mick Schumacher serves a drive-through for speeding on pit lane.

Lap 20 RESTART.

Lap 21 and Rosenqvist leads Palou by 0.7s. Dennis Hauger pits to replace a punctured tire.

Lap 22 and Rosenqvist leads by 0.4s as Dixon serves a drive-through for a repositioning violation during the caution. Ericsson is in P3, 1.8s down to the leader.

Lap 25 and Rosenqvist leads Palou by 0.5s, Ericsson by 2.8s, Armstrong by 3.6s and O’Ward by 4.4s. Lundgaard takes P12 from Kirkwood.

Lap 27 and Rosenqvist leads by 0.8s.

Lap 28 halfway point and Rosenqvist leads Palou by 1.1s, Ericsson by 4.0s, Armstrong 4.7s and O’Ward by 5.4s.

Lap 29 and Palou pits for new primes. Not the fastest stop. Pit lane speed violation for Palou.

Lap 30 and Palou serves his drive-through penalty. Rosenqvist leads Ericsson by 3.8s. Armstrong pits.

Lap 31 CAUTION as history repeats itself as Rasmussen’s car grinds to a halt at the start/finish line. He reports it as being a hybrid failure. Rosenqvist and Ericsson, who were on their way to pit lane, are locked out as they close. This should benefit Armstrong and help Palou to regain some positions when folks do pit.

Lap 32 and all of the remaining drivers pit. Armstrong is the new leader ahead of Malukas, Rossi, Power, Rahal, Simpson, Foster, Palou, Grosjean and Schumacher. O’Ward has a penalty for taking emergency service.

Lap 33 RESTART and CAUTION towards the end of the lap for bodywork left on track. Appears to be the same gearbox underwing cover that littered the Indy GP on two occasions in May. Ericsson gets into a losing battle for P9 with Grosjean and falls to P16.

Lap 34 and Schumacher pits. Falls from P13 to P22.

Lap 36 RESTART and Palou takes P7 from Foster.

Lap 38 and Armstrong leads Malukas by 1.6s, Rossi by 2.4s, Rahal by 3.3s, a charging Simpson by 3.5s. Palou takes P7 from Power.

Lap 39 and Armstrong leads by 1.7s. Kirkwood improves to P13.

Lap 41 and Armstrong leads Malukas by 2.4s, Rossi by 3.7s. Ericsson pits.

Lap 42 and Rossi, Simpson, Palou and others stop. Slow left-rear change for Rossi, who gets passed exiting the pits by Palou.

Lap 43 and Armstrong, Malukas, Rahal, Power, and Siegel among others pit.

Lap 45 and Lundgaard pits from the lead and takes alts.

Lap 46 and Lundgaard returns in P7, which should become P3 after the top six do their final stops.

Lap 49 and Lundgaard takes P2 from Malukas.

Lap 50 and Armstrong leads Lundgaard by 3.6s and Lundgaard is 0.7s faster on the alts on the lap.

Lap 52 and Armstrong’s motor bellows smoke while leading. Day done. CAUTION.

Lap 54 RESTART and Rahal and Power collide at Canada Corner. CAUTION.

Lap 55 and Lundgaard is pure magic. Victory.

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