Lundgaard signs off from Arrow McLaren on a high

Christian Lundgaard thanked his crew over the radio before the start of Sunday’s IndyCar season finale at Laguna Seca, which also doubled as the Dane’s last drive for the team in the No. 7 Chevy.

Before pulling away and charging from 11th to sixth, he also left them with a promise for the future.

“And be strong in the pit lane; I know you can do it,” Lundgaard said. “Keep up the pace. And then I’ll give you a beating next year.”

True to himself, and uncompromisingly honest, it was a perfect sendoff before completing his last laps with the team led by Zak Brown and Tony Kanaan. He arrived at Arrow McLaren during the offseason of 2024, fresh from three years spent at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing where he was instantly quick and proved to be RLL’s best performer – and by a wide margin –º after completing his rookie campaign in 2022.

He gave RLL veteran Graham Rahal a proper hiding in 2023 with a run to eighth in the standings and his first win while Rahal placed 15th, and in his RLL farewell, he ran 11th during a winless season for the organization while Rahal was next-best in 18th.

Hired away by Arrow McLaren, Lundgaard gave Pato O’Ward a serious run for intrateam honors early in 2025, but the six-year Arrow McLaren veteran pulled away and rose to second in the championship while Lundgaard settled for fifth. It was a career-best result, but wasn’t fully reflective of his ultimate potential.

The 2026 season had a similar look across the opening races, as O’Ward held the advantage through Long Beach. And then the tables turned at the Indianapolis Grand Prix, where Lundgaard scored his first win for the team, and despite being adrift in 17th at the Indianapolis 500 where O’Ward finished fourth, Lundgaard continued to surge and never fell lower than fourth in the championship.

By season’s end, and with another win added to his tally, the 25-year-old achieved a first in the team’s modern history by beating O’Ward, the established leader, in the Drivers’ standings. Oliver Asked tried. Felix Rosenqvist tried. Alexander Rossi tried. And Nolan Siegel tried. Only Lundgaard was able to match and exceed O’Ward’s output across the entirety of a season.

O’Ward earned more wins with three victories in total, but Lundgaard was the first Arrow McLaren driver home by securing third in the championship behind Kyle Kirkwood and title winner Alex Palou, which is a noteworthy achievement to acknowledge upon his departure from the team. With a surge of his own propelled by three race victories since July, O’Ward claimed fourth in the standings to give Arrow McLaren its best combined championship outcome with its two lead drivers.

Lundgaard closed his brief Arrow McLaren chapter with one more statement-making performance by running 2,556 laps in 2026, which was a perfect 100 percent for the year, and made Lundgaard the only driver to do so in the series.

“We had to fight a little harder with the engine penalty to get up to sixth, and it’s a shame we couldn’t snag one more position into fifth,” Lundgaard said. “Congrats to Kirkwood, edging us out of second in the championship. Our entire 7 crew did an awesome job, though, today and all season to complete every single lap across 18 races. I’m really proud of how we raced this year together.”

And now the wait begins for confirmation of his next destination in the series.

“My crew, my engineers, everyone did their part,” Lundgaard continued. “And I’m thankful for all the papaya fans who’ve supported me the past two seasons. We’ll take home third in the championship, my highest finish yet."