Lundgaard eager to find his place within Ganassi’s winning culture

Chip Ganassi has been rather protective of the team and culture he and his team leaders have built over the last 30-plus years. The unanticipated loss of Scott Dixon and availability of Christian Lundgaard threw Chip Ganassi Racing into turmoil over the summer as finding and vetting Dixon’s replacement to take over the No. 9 Honda followed many directions. Thanks to Ganassi’s dedication to maintaining the culture that’s produced 18 championships since 1996, rushing to sign Lundgaard – who was coming off a few years of public turmoil with his former Arrow McLaren team – was never the plan.

Ganassi’s leadership took its time to talk with the young Dane, introduce him to the primary sponsor he might represent with PNC Bank, and focused on the non-racing aspects of the free agent’s character.

“Drivers that make it to this level of racing, I don’t get into talking about the performance or what setup they like or what springs they like or things like that. I don’t get into the technical side of things,” Ganassi said. “I want to know what they’re made of, what their values are. Christian will tell you, I grilled him pretty extensively in terms of what we expect and what we want, what’s important and what’s not important. We have a great culture that [managing director] Mike Hull and his team have built around there, and we try to push that down on other people, whether it’s on-track activities or off-track activities. I’m confident that our system will continue to develop Christian in the same manner.”

Like Ganassi driver Alex Palou when he joined as a sophomore next to Dixon in 2021, the team has an established leader in place in Palou who’s won five championships, including the last four in a row. Lundgaard finds himself in an unusual position where he’s just gotten the best opportunity of his career, but it’s next to IndyCar’s best driver, and comes with a team-first expectation to support the Ganassi team before placing his own needs first – including the champion he wants to learn from and beat.

It looks like a Catch-22 for Lundgaard to figure out after finishing a career-best of third in the standings, but he’s well aware of what he signed up for as Palou’s new partner.

Joining in the win party at CGR without dampening the existing team chemistry is the challenge facing Lundgaard for 2027. David Jensen/Getty Images

“It's a great question because it’s a tough situation to get into,” Lundgaard said. “In many ways it’s easy, but in many ways, it’s tough. You’re joining the five-time winner, four times in a row, and we know the car is fast. I think that’s the thing that I need to keep in mind, is I don’t think I need to try very hard from that perspective.

“I need to learn as much as possible and do the simple things right, which I think CGR has been very good at in the past many years. Alex has learned from Scott Dixon, and if I can learn the Scott Dixon things from Alex Palou with a twist of Alex Palou, it’s the right combination. We’ve seen that from the performance on track.

“But I’m not so worried about the performance on track. I think it’s more learning behind the scenes again, getting integrated with the team, getting to know everybody, getting the whole team to glue, put myself as a piece in that and get the best out of it and have many good years.”

Lundgaard arrived in IndyCar from Formula 2 with solid results and experience. He also joined Rahal Letterman Lanigan for his first race just weeks after turning 20. Now 25, and having been through some interpersonal wars at his previous teams, Lundgaard is confident he’s grown from the encounters. He won’t get a better chance to become a champion, which makes succeeding within Ganassi’s culture a must.

“Yeah, there for sure is a more mature Christian in there,” he said of the driver whose name will reside on the No. 9 car. “By all means, I think that’s very much a given, but not necessarily just on or off track.

“I think I’ve learned so much understanding from the technical side of the cars, and I think a big reason for me to join CGR is not necessarily that they have the winning car now, it’s what the team stands for. It’s the simplicity. I’m a very simple guy. I will choose a spaghetti Bolognese over a fancy dinner.

“That's why I think we will work very well together from a PNC and CGR perspective. But looking at the 2028 car, this is the team that I think will figure it out first and be the leading team – I think there’s a lot of good teams on the grid but I have a true belief that CGR will figure it out first. That was also a big part of it for me.”