Christian Lundgaard believes the bye week following a pitstop miscue that took away a possible victory was an opportunity to bring the team closer together.
The 24-year-old Dane was in the fight for victory in the previous round at Barber Motorsports Park, but was left settling for second to rival Alex Palou after suffering a delay with the right-rear tire on his final pit stop.
The error took away a favorable chance at Lundgaard’s second career victory, and first since joining Arrow McLaren ahead of the 2025 season. Regardless, he still sits third in the overall championship standings courtesy of two podiums through the opening four rounds, with this weekend’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, a place he finished third a year ago, on the horizon.
“Yeah, I think we're in a very similar position to what we were last year at this point of the season at the end of the day,” said Lundgaard, during an IndyCar media call on Tuesday afternoon.
“We had a good start to the season last year. We were on the podium for three out of the first four races. This year was two out of the first four. “Obviously the situation in Barber is what it is. At the end of the day I think it is a good thing that we have a break afterwards for all of us to sort of unite and just talk it through.”
Despite being fourth and ninth in practices one and two, respectively, before qualifying 10th at Barber Motorsports Park, Lundgaard never apparently felt his #7 Chevrolet was in the mix to fight for the win prior to race day.
“The whole weekend I personally didn't see the performance that we had on Sunday ever happening,” Lundgaard said.
“There was no indication from my own perspective and the information and the data that we had that was indicating we were going to be so strong on Sunday. I think it caught us all a little bit by surprise being in that position, even fighting Alex for the win. Nothing that I ever dreamt of on Saturday night. It wasn't really a thought that ever popped into my head.
“I think we were looking at just a solid race, maybe knocking on the door for a podium, maybe a top five at the time. We go out there the first stint, so competitive. The mindset changed so fast to, ‘Let's get the best day we can here.’ “Everybody wanted to be fast on that last stop, right? We wanted to get that win. At the end of the day it is super frustrating. We almost threw away a second place because we had Graham (Rahal) cleared very easily.”
Instead of being distraught over the outcome, Lundgaard is choosing to look at the positives and hope the lessons will be applied moving forward.
“I think that is the lesson to be learned: take that extra little time to make sure everything is on,” he said.
“Once the car drops, it is a much bigger penalty. I think that's what we saw because we ended up getting out behind Graham. If we would have spent a second more making sure the tire was on... Again, no indications the tire wasn't on. A big miscommunication at the time. It's very unfortunate.
“I don't blame anyone. We lose and we win as a team. Last year in Long Beach I put the car in the wall, had to change a car, and they did a phenomenal job, and we repaid them Sunday by putting the car on the podium. That's the kind of team I have behind me. There's no hard feelings. We're all going to move on and get better from here.”
