Christian Lundgaard damaged his front wing on the opening lap and dropped to last in the running order. When the checked flag flew, he won the race.
The driver of the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet made contact with Scott Dixon on the opening lap, damaged his front wing and pitted the next lap to replace it. He played pit strategy to put himself in a position to salvage a bad day in the closing laps of the XPEL Grand Prix. With a 31-second gap on Marcus Armstrong, he pitted from the lead with 11 laps to go and cycled out to second in the running order. After losing second to David Malukas, he closed the gap and passed him up the hill into Turn 6 with eight to go. With four to go, he trailed race leader Armstrong by 2.7 seconds. Then Armstrong’s engine sputtered, Lundgaard closed the gap and passed him into Turn 11. He held the lead on a one lap shootout to win the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America.
“It was a very eventful day, very long day,” he said. “Not quite what I had on my bingo card waking up this morning.
“Obviously this is what you hope for. I know on road courses, didn’t really matter where we would start, we would always get good results.
“I think we produced very good race cars. We need to still figure out how to qualify better. Obviously this weekend has been a little bit of an outlier for me. Not felt comfortable, not had the pace in practice one or practice two, even though we tested here two weeks ago. A confusing weekend. To end with a win I would say confuses me even more. Maybe I just need to be confused (smiling).”
It’s his third career victory in 75 NTT INDYCAR Series starts and second of the season.
Malukas brought his No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet home to a runner-up finish.
“It was a crazy race,” Malukas said. “No, it feels good. P2 champions. That’s been the story of this season (smiling).
“Honestly, big, big kudos to this team because that race, I mean, obviously everybody saw that, that was insane. I didn’t even know what was going on. Next thing you know we’re P2.
“Really happy from the team side. Travis on the wall, great strategy. I have to look into it. Our race pace, missing a little bit there from my side. I have to study and figure out why I’m losing some time on these races.
“This team carried me here. Big thank you to them.”
Will Power rounded out the podium after turning Graham Rahal in Turn 12 on the final lap.
“Yeah, unfortunate there,” Power said. “I was braking, he was braking. I don’t understand why that was. It took me by surprise obviously. That’s what caused that. It’s a pity.
“But still a very good day for us overall. I’m really glad to finish third.”
Kyffin Simpson and Alex Palou rounded out the top-five.
Alexander Rossi, Scott McLaughlin, Felix Rosenqvist (who led a race high 18 laps), Santino Ferrucci and Kyle Kirkwood rounded out the top-10.
Christian Lundgaard bounces back from damaged wing to win at Road America
Race summary
Palou led the field to green at 2:29 p.m. ET. After four laps, he pulled to a 2.4 second lead over Marcus Armstrong in second. After 10 laps, he stretched it out to 3.5 seconds. Palou pitted from the lead on Lap 13. Rosenqvist and several others pitted on Lap 14, just as Romain Grosjean lost his left-rear wheel in Turn 5 and brought out a caution. Rosenqvist exited pit lane before Palou passed him on track. So he retained the lead.
Back to green on Lap 20, Rosenqvist, on soft tires, held Palou, on hard tires, to a half a second gap for several laps. Palou kicked off a cycle of green flag stops on Lap 28, taking another set of hard tires. Race control, however, handed him a drive-through penalty for speeding on pit lane. Luck fell on his side, however, when Christian Rasmussen stalled on the front straight and brought out a caution on Lap 30. Armstrong, who pitted before the caution flew, inherited the race lead.
Back to green on Lap 33, Mick Schumacher locked up into Turn 1 and almost slammed into Grosjean. Later that lap, Grosjean ran Marcus Ericsson wide in Turn 5 and Ericsson drove through the grass and dirt. Schumacher ran Rosenqvist wide in the carousel. Running through the marbles cost Rosenqvist a number of spots on track. Caution flew the same lap for debris in Turn 5.
Back to green on Lap 36, Ericsson kicked off the last cycle of green flag stops with 16 laps to go. Armstrong pitted from the lead with 14 to go. As Nolan Siegel blended back onto the track, he ran Palou wide in Turn 1. Lundgaard pitted from the lead with 11 to go. Malukas got a run on him through Turn 4 and clipped the grass, but completed the pass for second (when the field cycled through stops) with 10 to go. Rosenqvist pitted from the lead with 10 to go. Josef Newgarden pitted from the lead with eight laps to go and Armstrong cycled back to the lead. Lundgaard, on soft tires, closed the gap to Malukas in Turn 5 and passed him going up the hill to Turn 6 with seven laps to go.
With four to go, the gap was 2.7 seconds. By the time the field reached the carousel, it closed to half a second. Lundgaard passed him into Turn 11. Coming to the line with three to go, Armstrong blew an engine and brought out a caution.
Back to green with one lap to go, Power ran wide in Turn 6 and lost third to Rahal. He got a run down kettle bottoms and turned him in Turn 12. This brought out a caution and Lundgaard scored the victory.
Christian Lundgaard bounces back from damaged wing to win at Road America
What else happened
Running down the front straight on the opening lap, Lundgaard pulled to Scott Dixon’s inside. Dixon moved over, clipped Lundgaard and damaged his front wing. Lundgaard pitted the next lap to replace his damaged wing.
Christian Lundgaard bounces back from damaged wing to win at Road America
Nuts and bolts
The race lasted one hour, 51 minutes and six seconds, at an average speed of 119.220 mph. There were six lead changes among five different drivers and five cautions for 11 laps.
Palou leaves Road America with a 60-point lead over Malukas.
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES returns to action, July 5, at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the Honda Indy 200.
