INDIANAPOLIS — It looked different to Christian Lundgaard inside the car than it did on TV.
“You know, at the end of the day, I’ve been now watching it on the TV screen probably 50 times, but it doesn’t look the same way as what it felt,” he said.
He thought he had maybe one or two chances to pass David Malukas, after the undercut failed to cycle him ahead of Malukas with 20 laps to go.
“I struggled a lot on out laps,” he said. “He seemed to be a little better than I was.”
Romain Grosjean was ahead and slowed down Malukas just enough for him to set up a pass on the outside through Turn 2 through Turn 4. At which point, he went full send, damn the torpedos and pressed the attack.
With a bold pass in the Turns 5 and 6 kink on the backstretch at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Lundgaard overtook Malukas for the race lead with 18 laps to go and took the checkered flag in the Sonsio Grand Prix.
“It feels awesome right now, and I’m sure I will probably realize tomorrow what really happened today,” he said. “It really wasn’t what I expected waking up this morning. Obviously with qualifying getting pushed to this morning and racing the same day, it’s not really a traditional IndyCar weekend.”
It’s his second career victory in his 74th NTT INDYCAR SERIES start and first of the 2026 season.
David Malukas led a race high 27 laps on his way to a runner-up finish and Graham Rahal rounded out the podium.
“Honestly, I mean it was a good move,” Malukas said. “It was fair play. You know, looking back, I keep seeing this replay just playing over and over again be, which is fantastic. You get to just watch it happen over and over.
“It was a fair play. Looking back, I thought, man, I could have been a lot more aggressive, but in the end there’s an art to knowing when you’ve lost the spot. I ended up just giving out and, look, the thing is, I could have pushed him a little bit wider and then not complete the pass, but we could have had contact, something could have happened, we could have lost a lot of pace and now Rahal is coming in.
“The thing is, if he’s not going to get me that lap, he’s going to get me the next one or the other one after that. He had push-to-pass. We were running out. It was just a matter of attrition. I thought, he’s got it. I might as well do the same move.”
Josef Newgarden and points leader/pole sitter Alex Palou rounded out the top-five.
Scott Dixon rebounded from a Lap 1 wreck to finish sixth. Louis Foster, Dennis Hauger, Kyle Kirkwood and Nolan Siegel round out the top-10.
Christian Lundgaard makes gutsy kink pass to win at the Brickyard
Race summary
Palou led the field to green at 4:59 p.m. Just as the field came up to speed, Rinus VeeKay slammed into the back of another car and destroyed his front wing. Entering Turn 1, Felix Rosenqvist locked up and turned Pato O’Ward. Newgarden got into Dixon and turned him. Then he and Caio Collet rammed into Rosenqvist. For the avoidable contact, race control assessed Rosenqvist a drive-through penalty.
Back to green on Lap 6, race control handed Scott McLaughlin a three-place penalty for blocking Foster. Aside from that, and a piece of debris laying in Turn 9 that came off Malukas’ car, the field settled into a green flag rhythm. Also, another piece of debris fell onto the track in Turn 7. During all this, multiple cars ducked onto pit road to switch onto Firestone reds. A local caution flew on Lap 21 when Alexander Rossi’s car stalled on track on the start/finish line. Only after he exited the car and hopped over the pit wall did the full course caution fly. During the caution, Palou and Kirkwood pitted and handed the lead to Will Power.
Back to green on Lap 27, caution flew for a multi-car incident in Turn 13. Sting Ray Robb locked up and hit O’Ward. Simpson turned inwards to avoid the spinning O’Ward. Rosenqvist clipped him and got airborne briefly. During the caution, Power pitted from the lead and Malukas took over the race lead.
Back to green on Lap 33, Palou kicked off a cycle of green flag stops on Lap 38 and took a set of Firestone reds. Kirkwood responded the following lap by pitting from seventh. His crew had trouble with the right-front tire and Palou cycled out ahead of him. Malukas pitted from the lead on Lap 47. Lundgaard pitted from the lead on Lap 48 and Power cycled back to the lead.
O’Ward kicked off the final cycle of pit stops on Lap 57. Power pitted from the lead on Lap 58. He locked up exiting pit lane and drove outside the blend line area. Thus race control handed him a drive-through penalty for improper pit exit. As the pit cycle played out, Lundgaard cut down the lead to Malukas. On Lap 65, Lundgaard undercut him by pitting on Lap 65. Malukas pit from the lead with 20 laps to go and cycled out ahead of Lundgaard.
With 18 laps to go, Lundgaard pulled to Malukas’ outside and passed him through the backstretch kink to take the race lead and drove on to victory.
Christian Lundgaard makes gutsy kink pass to win at the Brickyard
Nuts and bolts
The race lasted one hour, 55 minutes and 42 seconds, at an average speed of 107.536 mph. There were six lead changes among four different drivers and three cautions for 12 laps.
Palou leaves with a 27-point lead over Kirkwood.
The NTT INDYCAR Series returns to action, May 24, for the Indianapolis 500.
