Paddock Buzz: Lundgaard Continues Breakout Year with Second
Christian Lundgaard has broken through with a strong, consistent start to the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season.
The Dane is averaging a fourth-place finish over four races, and securing three straight podiums would typically be enough to lead the standings.
But Alex Palou's dominant start, with three wins and a runner-up, has set a remarkably high bar, leaving Lundgaard trailing by 60 points in second following Sunday's Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix powered by AmFirst.
Lundgaard charged from seventh in the 90-lap race to earn his third consecutive podium finish by bringing his No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet home second.
'It's everything we could have hoped for,' Lundgaard said. 'Much better. The No. 7 Arrow McLaren crew has done an awesome job all year.'
Lundgaard's move to Arrow McLaren from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing after last season is paying off. He and Palou are the only drivers with top-10 finishes in all four races, underlining the consistency that's a crucial factor in any title race.
Palou, though, is in his fifth season driving the No. 10 HRC Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing while Lundgaard is in just his fourth start with Arrow McLaren after making 52 starts with RLL.
'I think the progression we made since the Sebring test earlier this year, it's been moving forward and going in the right direction,' Lundgaard said. 'The team has been doing an awesome job.
'I think ultimately not a lot is really different from my own approach. I would say it's keeping things very simple and just focus on what you can control, master the basics, really. I think the car is purely faster than what I've been doing for the past three years. I think we've seen that just purely from the results across the last three years. It's just good and nice to see it come into reality, really just executing when we have the pace. I think we've done so. At the end of the day, that's how you fight for championships.'
Lundgaard was pleased with the direction following the March 10 test at Barber but didn't get a chance to make many changes with the car this weekend due to an issue in Friday's practice and rain affecting Saturday morning's session.
The team regrouped after qualifying and made a change overnight that Lundgaard described as decisive, allowing him to make 16 passes in Sunday's race, most in the 27-car field.
The best pass came mid-race when he got by the No. 3 Good Ranchers Team Penske Chevrolet driven by Scott McLaughlin for second with a textbook inside-out pass in Turn 17. Lundgaard learned that move a few years prior.
'I did that on Scott Dixon a couple of years ago, so I followed with another Scott this time,' Lundgaard said.
Palou Leads 1,000 Career Lap
Alex Palou surpassed 1,000 career laps led Sunday, doing so in dominant fashion by leading 81 of 90 laps at Barber Motorsports Park. The achievement is another significant milestone in what's shaping up to be a historically elite career.
Becoming just the 44th driver to hit that mark since 1946 puts him in rare company, and the context makes it even more impressive.
Palou reached 1,000 laps led in just his 85th start. Six-time series champion Scott Dixon, who ranks second all time for laps led, did so in his 99th start. Dixon at that point had one championship and seven wins. Palou has three championships and 14 wins – doubling Dixon's win total at the same stage and triple the championship count.
These feats underscore how quickly Palou has risen to the top tier of INDYCAR SERIES drivers and why his current form has put him well ahead.
'My goal was to be an INDYCAR driver, then was just to be an INDYCAR race winner or a person that could fight for wins and sometimes for championships,' Palou said. 'I don't think that I'm in a normal position. I'm aware that I'm very lucky to be in the position I am today, to be surrounded by a great team, being able to fight for wins every single weekend. I don't know how long is that going to continue, but hopefully it's going to be for a long time.'
Mario Andretti leads all drivers with 7,595 laps led.
VeeKay Off to Great Start
The start to the 2025 season for Rinus VeeKay is proving to be a major rebound.
His 12.25 average finish through his first four races driving for Dale Coyne Racing is a major gain from the last two seasons with Ed Carpenter Racing, where he had an 18.5 average in 2023 and 16.25 last year. This also marks the strongest start for a DCR driver since Santino Ferrucci in 2020, when he had a 10.5 average result after four races.
VeeKay has achieved this despite being the last driver named to a full-time seat this season.
That kind of consistency from a team like DCR, which typically isn't among the top tier of contenders, signals strong individual performance and potential technical improvements from the team.
VeeKay finished fourth in the No. 18 askROI Honda at Barber, which was particularly notable, not just for the result, but for how he earned it.
Starting with the harder Firestone primary tires and adjusting strategy after losing ground early, VeeKay capitalized on the speed of the softer alternate tire and showed racecraft by fending off Will Power's No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, a two-time Barber winner. That was VeeKay's 10th top-five finish in just 84 starts.
'That was a great race,' VeeKay said. 'I had a lot of fun out there and showed a lot of strength in the car that was really allowing me to be strong.
'I thought we had so much pace because we saved a sticker set of reds (alternate tire) for the race. I told the team let's go long because I think we can beat those guys, and we narrowly did that. I can keep them behind me.'
Rossi Charges to Season-Best Finish
Alexander Rossi gained seven spots in Sunday's race to finish eighth in the No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet. The top 10 is a small but important step forward in his transition to Ed Carpenter Racing and reflects well, particularly with an off-strategy approach.
Rossi and ECR chose to run the first couple of stints on the faster Firestone alternate tires. The California native maximized early pace and overtaking potential, though it left him with the less-favorable primary tires for the final 21 laps.
'That was horrible,' Rossi said of his last stint. 'We knew it was going to be bad at some point, but with where we started, we were just trying to get as much track position as we could on the alternate tire and build a big enough gap to the cars we raced.'
Holding on to a top-10 finish despite that tire disadvantage shows Rossi's experience and the improving competitiveness of the team. While the season is still early, three top-10 finishes and sitting 10th in points after four races hint at growing chemistry between Rossi and ECR.
Dixon Improves Race-Best 12 Spots to 12th
Scott Dixon's drive from 26th to 12th at Barber is a textbook example of his relentless consistency and craft. In a caution-free race where opportunities to gain ground were challenging – moving up 14 positions is no small feat.
That kind of recovery emphasizes why Dixon is a six-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion. Even on off weekends, he limits the damage. Dixon spun off in his No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda during the first round of NTT P1 Award qualifying Saturday, relegating him to his worst starting spot since August 2021.
'It's definitely frustrating starting 26th, and I think when you have a field that's so strong right now, to pass 14 cars is really tough,' Dixon said. 'We would have loved a caution at some point. Strong day for us and obviously a 12-position gain is great.'
Barber continues to be one of the few tracks where Dixon hasn't taken a checkered flag, as he's winless in 15 attempts. Still, finishes like Sunday help keep him in the championship hunt, especially in a long season where consistency can matter just as much as wins.
Dixon is seventh in the standings, 92 points behind leader and teammate Palou.
Odds and Ends Reigning Miss America Abbie Stockard, who represented Alabama in the pageant, gave the command to start engines for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES race. Sunday was the third consecutive caution-free race. That's the first-time in 39 years this feat occurred in the INDYCAR SERIES. Most recent: Portland, Meadowlands and Cleveland in 1986. There have been 339 consecutive green flag laps run, including all 65 laps of The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix, the 90-lap Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach and for the first time in 15 years, all 90 laps at Barber. The only caution displayed this season came during the first six laps of the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding due to a first-lap crash between Nolan Siegel, Power and rookie Louis Foster. Simon Pagenaud (2016), Josef Newgarden (2017) and Palou (2021) are the only drivers to win the race at Barber and the INDYCAR SERIES championship in the same season. Honda has four straight victories this season via two different teams – Chip Ganassi Racing (St. Petersburg, The Thermal Club, Barber) and Andretti Global (Long Beach). Palou's victory halted Chevy's three-race win streak in Barber. The first back-to-back races of the season occur with the Sonsio Grand Prix next Saturday, May 10 airing at 4:30 p.m. ET on FOX. Practice begins at 9:30 a.m. ET Friday, May 9 on FS2. Palou is the two-time defending race winner on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course.
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