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Indianapolis Star
03-05-2025
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
Surprising start offers Christian Lundgaard chance to prove he's IndyCar title contender
Through three races at Arrow McLaren, Christian Lundgaard has rattled off a pair of podiums and sits three spots higher in points than teammate Pato O'Ward. The next two races on the IndyCar calendar, Barber and the IMS road course, are spots where Lundgaard has thrived earlier in his career. Among the surprises to the start of the 2025 IndyCar season — Team Penske drivers all sitting outside the top 7, Alex Palou finishing first or second in all three races and a top 10 for both Kyffin Simpson and Sting Ray Robb at Long Beach among them — finding an Arrow McLaren driver not named Pato O'Ward sitting third in points with a pair of podiums and two Fast Six appearances may top the list. But that's the season Christian Lundgaard is having with races he's performed well at on deck. Though it's not as if top-level success has been impossible for those driving a car other than the No. 5 Chevy — Felix Rosenqvist and Alexander Rossi combined for five podiums and four poles during their combined five seasons at the team — we've yet to see a win from O'Ward's various sidekicks, and he's otherwise yet to be seriously challenged, something the 25-year-old Mexican driver said earlier this year will be vital to both his and the team's future success. 'I strive to be better, and I really hope that everybody on the team also is in that same attitude, because yeah, OK, it's fine to be the lead car or whatever, but it's always good to have that benchmark. Whenever maybe you're not the best, you can always look over and say, 'Hey, the car can do this, so let's go out and explore,' O'Ward said minutes after qualifying on pole at The Thermal Club earlier this year, while sitting next to his newest teammate who helped Arrow McLaren lock out the front row. 'I'm happy to have strong teammates, and I'm happy to have people that are very fast, because that's just going to make me better. 'We need multiple cars at the front. We can't just have one that's fighting up there. All three Penskes are always fighting at the front. All four Ganassis (including two affiliated Meyer Shank Racing cars) are always at the front. It's what you need in IndyCar.' After this month, one set to include three races, including Barber Motorsports Park this weekend, the IMS road course and the Indianapolis 500, along with a weekend of 500 qualifying, we should have a great sense of just how serious Lundgaard's challenge toward Arrow McLaren's No. 1 spot and being more than a fringe title contender will be. Following a respectable run to eighth at St. Pete while on an alternate strategy, Lundgaard started on the front row at Thermal and put up a valiant fight to fend off a hard-charging Alex Palou, who would eventually weave his way past the front-running Lundgaard and O'Ward and storm off into the distance for a dominant win. Arrow McLaren's newest driver would follow up that third-place finish three weeks later with another, this one sealed by a closing laps pass of Rosenqvist to seal a second consecutive podium. Through three races, Lundgaard is one of just five drivers to have finished in the top 10 all three starts – O'Ward has just that runner-up finish at Thermal, along with finishes of 11th (St. Pete) and 13th (Long Beach). Along with points-leader Palou, Lundgaard is the only other IndyCar driver with more than one podium to start the year. 'I was very vocal in the offseason that I wanted to get off to a strong start with Arrow McLaren, and I think we've clearly done that. I've never been higher in the championship than where I am now,' Lundgaard said in the minutes following Long Beach, sitting next to Palou at the media center podium. '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.' Who will win IndyCar race at Barber?: Schedule, TV coverage, expert prediction, streaming The problem for the rest of the IndyCar field not named Palou is this: outside the ovals, where he has four podium finishes but no wins, the two-time defending series champion has at least a pair of top-2 finishes at six of the eight remaining road and street course venues, and at least one at all of them. He's won at seven (all but Toronto), too, and he has multiple wins at four of them. Though his lead isn't yet insurmountable, 34 points over second-place Kyle Kirkwood and 46 over Lundgaard in third, he has few, if any, weak tracks. And as Palou proved a year ago, when he only won twice and none through the back half of the year, his affinity for rattling off top-5s and podiums with relative ease makes overtaking him in points an utterly tall task. That's where this next stretch for Lundgaard comes in. You'll find no more successful tracks on the calendar for the 23-year-old Dane than Barber and the IMS road course. Of his 22 top-10 finishes during his three seasons at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, seven of them have come in nine combined starts at those two permanent road courses, including back-to-back sixth-place finishes at Barber (both of which have featured Fast Six appearances) and four consecutive top-4 finishes at IMS (one of which came with aid from one of his two career poles). Barber has proven to be a strong track for O'Ward, too, including a season-opening pole in 2021, a 2022 win, fourth place in 2023 and a top-4 start in 2024. Though results at the IMS road course have been more erratic for Arrow McLaren over the years, their drivers have snagged a pair of poles on the road course and seven top 5s since 2020. With the added resources and higher overall performance of late from his new home compared to RLL, there's reason to think Lundgaard should have a chance at even a bit better results at the next two stops on the calendar this year. What stands in his way, perhaps, could be both his own front-running teammate and a two-time defending series champion with a history of success at both. Indy cars 'aren't fun to drive': Why has IndyCar had 1 caution? Drivers weigh in The challenge to prove his worth and stamp his name firmly among those who should be considered title contenders moving forward is one Lundgaard embraces. 'I don't think this is what I expected (to start the year), but it's what I hoped for. I said several times that I was vocal in the offseason that I wanted to start strong, and I feel like we've done that, and we're going into one of the strongest stretches I have from a track standpoint,' Lundgaard said at last week's Indy 500 open test. 'The team's been strong there, too. We've just got to continue the journey we're currently on. 'I wouldn't be in this situation if I wasn't confident. (The team) sees I have what it takes, and I love pressure. The more pressure, the better. I put enough pressure on myself to perform, and so far, it's working, so I'm not going to stop now.'
Fox News
09-04-2025
- Automotive
- Fox News
Alex Palou happy with Ganassi-Shank alliance as INDYCAR sees teams collaborate
When Pato O'Ward was comparing the strength of the Arrow McLaren organization to others on the INDYCAR grid last month at Thermal, he made a little quip: "Four Ganassis are always at the front," he said. "I know there's only right now two Ganassis that are usually at the front, but the Shanks count." The power of the new Chip Ganassi Racing-Meyer Shank Racing relationship could continue to grow. And it could be on display this weekend at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. INDYCAR has two prominent alliances: The Ganassi-Shank relationship, which started this year after Shank ended an alliance with Andretti Global, and the Team Penske-A.J. Foyt Racing alliance that started in August 2023. Both of those relationships turn the three-car programs of Ganassi and Penske into potentially five-car programs when it comes to the sharing of information. When Ganassi went from five cars to three this season (veterans Scott Dixon and Alex Palou and second-year driver Kyffin Simpson remained), some of the group that worked with Marcus Armstrong went with Armstrong — who is still under contract with Ganassi — to Shank. Foyt newcomer David Malukas has a Penske engineer assigned to his car, and while he has said he has a multi-year contract with Foyt, the prevailing undercurrent is that if he succeeds, he could be a Penske driver in the future. The Foyt-Penske relationship was a big talking point last May when both organizations were strong. "We have had good cars here at Foyt, and part of our alliance for us is we struggled on road and street [but] we were good in the speedway," Foyt driver Santino Ferrucci said last May. "That's where Penske kind of wanted to make up some ground. … It was a very helpful relationship for us." The Ganassi-Shank relationship this year had the ingredients to be strong because Felix Rosenqvist had also previously driven for Ganassi, so both Shank drivers are familiar with Ganassi processes and key personnel. "They're very consistent with their race engineering, which is what I interact with the most," Rosenqvist said. "The fundamental core of the team is the same ... I know most of them so it seems pretty seamless." The biggest advantage can come in testing. Meyer Shank drivers did the test last month at Barber Motorsports Park and then Ganassi did the test at the Indianapolis road course. Both Foyt and Penske teams did the test at Barber, but then only Foyt teams did the test on the Indianapolis road course. "For sure, it's something that we want to use," Rosenqvist said about making sure they have all the tests covered. "The fact that we can split up is clever usage of our test days. We do everything together, but if we can split up the test, it is a good way to go. Hopefully we learn something from them from Indy GP [test]." The Ganassi-Shank relationship also made for a convenient relationship when it comes to Michael Shank's sports car teams. Both Palou and Dixon drove for Shank at the Rolex 24 at Daytona with Dixon — a teammate on the same car where Rosenqvist was one of the drivers. The drivers have good chemistry and that adds to the engineering information share. "It helps to have a technical partnership where you can share and you can talk," Palou said. "It's a different team but the engineering side is very supported by CGR. So we are free to share data, information and everything. "Unfortunately, they had a terrible taste at Barber [where Rosenqvist crashed] so there was not much to learn. Being able to continue the relationship with Armstrong — I know if something works for him, I can trust it and I can follow and for Felix as well." Technical relationships are not rare in motorsports, and Ganassi had experience with them in NASCAR. "When you say a technical alliance, that's like saying, 'I have a relationship with somebody.' Just saying you have a relationship with somebody could mean 1,000 things," Ganassi said. "So a technical relationship is the same thing. It's not a cookie-cutter thing. It's different for everyone. So I think Mike Shank is happy with it. … It goes both ways. The information flows not all this way or all that way. We'll see. Maybe we will be both good or both bad." Ganassi said that matter-of-factly, indicating that sometimes too much information or too much collaboration isn't always the best thing. Andretti driver Kyle Kirkwood said his team has not felt the loss of the alliance with Shank over the first couple weeks of the season. He said when they split tests last year, the Meyer Shank car information was difficult to make relevant to the Andretti cars and drivers. "I would say more often than not, having so many cars under one umbrella confused us," Kirkwood said. "Even though you have so much information from running that many cars, sometimes it gets a little too confusing, especially when you have as many different dynamics among the drivers in how they want to have things." The key would be to use the additional data from another team if a driver from a different team is struggling. "We don't feel like we're missing anything is the simple answer," Kirkwood said. "But at the same time, it is nice to have that information, especially if you're running out of information to look at. But I don't think that is the case at the moment." Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
Fox Sports
08-04-2025
- Automotive
- Fox Sports
Alex Palou happy with Ganassi-Shank alliance as INDYCAR sees teams collaborate
When Pato O'Ward was comparing the strength of the Arrow McLaren organization to others on the INDYCAR grid last month at Thermal, he made a little quip: "Four Ganassis are always at the front," he said. "I know there's only right now two Ganassis that are usually at the front, but the Shanks count." The power of the new Chip Ganassi Racing-Meyer Shank Racing relationship could continue to grow. And it could be on display this weekend at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. INDYCAR has two prominent alliances: The Ganassi-Shank relationship, which started this year after Shank ended an alliance with Andretti Global, and the Team Penske-A.J. Foyt Racing alliance that started in August 2023. Both of those relationships turn the three-car programs of Ganassi and Penske into potentially five-car programs when it comes to the sharing of information. When Ganassi went from five cars to three this season (veterans Scott Dixon and Alex Palou and second-year driver Kyffin Simpson remained), some of the group that worked with Marcus Armstrong went with Armstrong — who is still under contract with Ganassi — to Shank. Foyt newcomer David Malukas has a Penske engineer assigned to his car, and while he has said he has a multi-year contract with Foyt, the prevailing undercurrent is that if he succeeds, he could be a Penske driver in the future. The Foyt-Penske relationship was a big talking point last May when both organizations were strong. "We have had good cars here at Foyt, and part of our alliance for us is we struggled on road and street [but] we were good in the speedway," Foyt driver Santino Ferrucci said last May. "That's where Penske kind of wanted to make up some ground. … It was a very helpful relationship for us." The Ganassi-Shank relationship this year had the ingredients to be strong because Felix Rosenqvist had also previously driven for Ganassi, so both Shank drivers are familiar with Ganassi processes and key personnel. "They're very consistent with their race engineering, which is what I interact with the most," Rosenqvist said. "The fundamental core of the team is the same ... I know most of them so it seems pretty seamless." The biggest advantage can come in testing. Meyer Shank drivers did the test last month at Barber Motorsports Park and then Ganassi did the test at the Indianapolis road course. Both Foyt and Penske teams did the test at Barber, but then only Foyt teams did the test on the Indianapolis road course. "For sure, it's something that we want to use," Rosenqvist said about making sure they have all the tests covered. "The fact that we can split up is clever usage of our test days. We do everything together, but if we can split up the test, it is a good way to go. Hopefully we learn something from them from Indy GP [test]." The Ganassi-Shank relationship also made for a convenient relationship when it comes to Michael Shank's sports car teams. Both Palou and Dixon drove for Shank at the Rolex 24 at Daytona with Dixon — a teammate on the same car where Rosenqvist was one of the drivers. The drivers have good chemistry and that adds to the engineering information share. "It helps to have a technical partnership where you can share and you can talk," Palou said. "It's a different team but the engineering side is very supported by CGR. So we are free to share data, information and everything. "Unfortunately, they had a terrible taste at Barber [where Rosenqvist crashed] so there was not much to learn. Being able to continue the relationship with Armstrong — I know if something works for him, I can trust it and I can follow and for Felix as well." Technical relationships are not rare in motorsports, and Ganassi had experience with them in NASCAR. "When you say a technical alliance, that's like saying, 'I have a relationship with somebody.' Just saying you have a relationship with somebody could mean 1,000 things," Ganassi said. "So a technical relationship is the same thing. It's not a cookie-cutter thing. It's different for everyone. So I think Mike Shank is happy with it. … It goes both ways. The information flows not all this way or all that way. We'll see. Maybe we will be both good or both bad." Ganassi said that matter-of-factly, indicating that sometimes too much information or too much collaboration isn't always the best thing. Andretti driver Kyle Kirkwood said his team has not felt the loss of the alliance with Shank over the first couple weeks of the season. He said when they split tests last year, the Meyer Shank car information was difficult to make relevant to the Andretti cars and drivers. "I would say more often than not, having so many cars under one umbrella confused us," Kirkwood said. "Even though you have so much information from running that many cars, sometimes it gets a little too confusing, especially when you have as many different dynamics among the drivers in how they want to have things." The key would be to use the additional data from another team if a driver from a different team is struggling. "We don't feel like we're missing anything is the simple answer," Kirkwood said. "But at the same time, it is nice to have that information, especially if you're running out of information to look at. But I don't think that is the case at the moment." Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass. Get more from NTT INDYCAR SERIES Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
