CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES: Team Chevy Long Beach Race Report

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
ACURA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH
STREETS OF LONG BEACH
LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA
TEAM CHEVY RACE REPORT
APRIL 13, 2025

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD AND ARROW MCLAREN REBOUND FOR PODIUM FINISH WITH CHEVROLET AT LONG BEACH

Fighting back after facing an on-track incident in qualifying Saturday, Christian Lundgaard and the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet team finished third to give Chevrolet their 340th podium finish in the 2.2-liter twin turbo V6 era since 2012.
Lundgaard’s podium finish is Chevrolet’s 16th on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn Streets of Long Beach circuit. Additionally, Lundgaard leaves Long Beach third in NTT INDYCAR SERIES points. This is also a back-to-back podium finish for Lundgaard.
Team Chevy combined for 38 laps led during Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, with now 381 laps led since 2012 in the V6 era.
Starting 13th, Will Power and the No. 12 Team Penske Chevy team fought to a hard fifth-place finish, with Sting Ray Robb and the No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet team finishing ninth after starting 19th. Robb additionally led 12 laps in Sunday’s main event.
Chevrolet kicked off race day with a warmup session, with four representing the Bowtie brand in the top-10, including Josef Newgarden (Team Penske), Pato O’Ward (Arrow McLaren), David Malukas (AJ Foyt Racing) and Christian Rasmussen (Ed Carpenter Racing).
Up next for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, Team Chevy heads to Barber Motorsports Park for the fourth round of the 2025 season, the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix. The 90-lap, 207-mile main event takes the green flag live on FOX Sunday, May 4 at 1:30 p.m. ET. Additional coverage throughout the weekend can be found via INDYCAR Radio and SiriusXM Channel 218.

Top-10 Race Results:

3rd Christian Lundgaard

5th Will Power

6th Scott McLaughlin

9th Sting Ray Robb

Warm Up Top-10 Results:

2nd Josef Newgarden (1:08.3474)

5th Pato O’Ward (1:08.7636)

7th David Malukas (1:08.9893)

10th Christian Rasmussen (1:09.2176)

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:

David Malukas, No. 4 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet:

“We statistically went on the strategy that, percentage-wise, was in our favor. And of course, out of the how many simulations, 40,000 or 100,000, the five that ended up being no yellows was the one that happened today. So, we chose the safe route, and it just didn’t play out. So, if you think of everybody being on the same strategy as we did, we only lost one position in the end, which I think is a little bit of time in pit stops. So, we’re gonna have to look at the data and see where that time is being lost. But I mean, those other six cars that went primaries, they filtered forward because they were on the better strategy, which gave us that P 17. So, it looks really rough on paper, and it seems like we lost a lot of ground, but according to people in those same strategies, we just lost one position so still not a perfect race, but it looks a lot worse than what it was. So, we just need to put our heads down and figure out what’s the problem in the pit lane, figure out what time we’re losing there and other than that, it’s been a good race for us.”

Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet:

“A pretty awesome day, considering we started last and yesterday was the opposite. Our first stint was awesome, followed up by a really solid green stint, and yeah, that kind of sealed the race for us. Engineering did a great job on strategy. we chose the right tire for our car, and the mechanics did a phenomenal job getting the car in and out of pit lane quick and efficient. So all in all, I mean, the day couldn’t have gotten much better than what it did for the Sexton Properties crew.”

Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:

“I think this one is dedicated to the team. It’s dedicated to Jon Edwards. The entire team, everything that they did overnight to get what they call the old lady back on track. Pretty proud of what we did today. I told the team we had to be aggressive. I think we had the pace. We didn’t qualify where the pace of the car was. To get away with a back-to-back P3 isn’t too bad.”

Alexander Rossi, No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet:

“Overall, a tough weekend with some glimmers of hope. Ultimately, we didn’t execute very well today. We will regroup as a team and come back stronger in Barber.”

Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet:

“This was a very frustrating end to a difficult weekend. I am very much looking forward to the next event at Barber Motorsports Park. We had a great test there recently and are ready for a better race than what we had today.”

Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet:

“What a day. That was awesome. Up ten spots, 19th to ninth on merit. We raced so, so good today. The pace in the car was unbelievable. I knew we had it. We should have been in the Fast 12 in qualifying, but in INDYCAR racing, little things make a big difference. We barely missed the transfer. It’s nice to have a little reward for our work, but all the glory goes to God. It’s been a long three years to this point, but to come back with a team I’ve won with and a championship before. With a leader like Ricardo Juncos, Brad Hollinger and Dave O’Neil, those guys put the hard work in and chose the right people for the job. Townsend, my engineer, huge shoutout to the guys on the pit crew; great stops. Little bobble on the first stop but we nailed the next two. I’m so happy. A little glimmer of hope for our future. I don’t think this is our max potential yet. We’re going to keep driving forward and hopefully, some more to come.”

Robert Shwartzman, No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet:

“Overall, I’m quite happy with how the race went today. My target was to reach the top 20, so we achieved that by finishing P18. The issues in qualifying yesterday put us quite behind but the pace today was really good. It seems that, step by step, we’re making the car better, so thank you to the team for their efforts. I saw today a step forward in terms of car performance, strategy and pitstops as well. Overall, we showed that the whole structure has started to improve so it’s very positive and I’m happy. Now we have a short break but before we’ll go straight to Gateway for an oval test and then to Indianapolis. We will just keep working but, step by step, we’re improving.”

Callum Ilott, No. 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet:

“It was not a very eventful race, and we’ve had two fully green-flag races in a row now. From our side, it wasn’t too bad. It probably was not the optimal strategy, but we had a lot of little issues that we were working through the race with that I needed to try and fix. We were consistent throughout. At the end of the day, we got the car home, but we have a lot of things that we need to look at on and off the track. It’s a part of it; we’re still growing and it’s good to have both cars at least getting closer and closer.”

Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet:

“We were just locked out a little bit there early, and then getting caught up with some guys that came out of pit sequences and stuff like that. So, lost some track position where we were in a really good spot at the start, but it is what it is. I mean, that was the most solid race I’ve had at Long Beach for a long time. So, it’s a P6 for me. I got a little bit of work before we come back here next year to be better. I feel like I’ve always had a couple of bad results to start the year. So, if we go to Barber with a formula we’ve had in the past, and have a win, we’ll get ourselves right back in it and see where we’re at. It’s like big focus. I can’t wait for it. Yeah, we’re ready for that place.”

Will Power, No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet:

“Very good day. Very good day. Just methodically getting to it, but it was methodical. I was driving very hard, biding my time, used up the perfect amount of push-to-pass in the race to finish it off on the last pass. Love those sorts of days. I didn’t feel very good, to be honest. Felt sick. I could feel myself getting achy in the car but drove the crap out of it. Man, we have a good car, we just have to start at the front. On days like this, get the points. Pretty cool we got a top-five.”

Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, Podium Press Conference Transcript:

THE MODERATOR: Good be afternoon, everyone. We wrap-up the 50th edition of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. We are currently joined by the third-place finishing driver in Christian Lundgaard. Back-to-back podium finishes. Fifth career podium. Christian, just your thoughts on another podium to start 2025 for you.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, awesome day. I told the team this morning, even before warm-up, Let’s try to go aggressive, and let’s see what we can do. We have the most tires of everybody. We had two sets of alts, three sets of new primaries. So I think all options were open for us today.

We went off strategy compared to what we expected most of the field to do. We were the first primary tire runner in the field. I think that showed that we had the pace, too, today. I think we made up a lot of pace on those pit cycles. The clean air, took advantage of the clear air.

Really happy to reward the guys. Yeah, they had to bring a new car back into play, the old lady, as they called her. We took the car in qualifying yesterday. So for everybody to rebuild a car and put it out on track this morning, she ran effortless today. I’m extremely happy for everybody.

THE MODERATOR: Third in points, 46 behind your pal Alex Palou. Strong start for you in the 2025 campaign.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: No, absolutely. I was very vocal in the off-season that I wanted to get off to a strong start with Arrow McLaren. I think we’ve clearly done that. I’ve never been higher in the championship than where I am now. We’ve done a good job.

We started sort of conservative in St. Petersburg. I think today we showed what we really can be and where we’re supposed to be fighting. Two back-to-back podiums, unlike this guy who decides to either win or finish second in every race. But we’ll beat him someday, I hope.

Q. Christian, did the car feel as good as the one you had yesterday?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, I mean, I think the car felt the same. What was interesting about qualifying yesterday was I didn’t feel the bump in turn nine braking throughout the entire qualifying until I certainly felt it. Ended up in the wall. I think it was very consistent throughout the race. Even though it’s been two chassis, it’s been very consistent throughout the week.

ALEX PALOU: Different chassis?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, we tubbed it.

Q. Do you know, was the decision to change chassis, swap out the tub, was that difficult? Were they like, We could run this one, but it may not be as good?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: No. Fortunately and unfortunately, Dallara built some very strong parts. The endplate made a dent on the chassis. It was a big hit, but the end plate was fine basically, but the chassis wasn’t, so we had to change it. It was a call straightaway. We changed the chassis. The guys were back home by 10 last night.

Q. Most of the lead changes at the front took place because of pitting. No one passed somebody else on the track. Was that frustrating? Would you like to see more able to pass guys on the track when your car is stronger?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I mean, I would have liked to be able to fight with Alex and Kyle at some point. We started a little far too back. Obviously we were on a completely different strategy than both of them were on. We made the most of our strategy and ended on the podium from 12.

THE MODERATOR: 169 on-track passes this afternoon. Six leaders. Nine lead changes, which is the most since 2012 here.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: And we ran without a yellow flag.

THE MODERATOR: For the second straight race.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: It was weird. I was driving with 10 laps to go, and I’m like, Have we have a yellow this race? Two in a row. Good job.

THE MODERATOR: First time that happened since 2020, the harvest races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. No pressure for Barber, I’m just saying.