Christian Lundgaard made a very positive impression in the NTT IndyCar Series when he was hired to pilot the Rahal Letterman Lannigan entry at the Indianapolis road course in August 2021 by qualifying fourth quick in his series debut. That drive made a strong enough impression that he was brought on full-time by the RLL team for 2022. At the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, he endured a tough weekend in practice, qualifying, warm-up and the race. We spoke with him on the way from pit lane back to the paddock immediately after the warm-up session and he was frustrated with his qualifying position and pace in the warm-up session. After winning multiple karting championships in Europe, he went on to race cars winning a championship in F4 and winning races in F3, F2 and became an Alpine F1 junior racer. Any driver who’s had that kind of success is certainly not going to be happy when they’re not up front. It’s interesting to hear what he has to say about it. NOTE: In the race, he ran out of fuel at pit entry which ultimately put him two laps down at the finish. It was a truly tough weekend.

By Larry Mason Copyright © 2022 Larry Mason Christian Lundgaard ponders with his crew what it’s going to take to find some missing speed. Christian Lundgaard waves to the crowd just minutes before the start of the 2022 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Christian Lundgaard shares a fist/wing bump with the Firestone Firehawk. It was a nice positive moment for an otherwise tough weekend. Although he was pushing hard in Friday afternoon’s practice session with temps near 100 degrees, Lundgaard could only manage the 21^st quickest time. Lundgaard’s RLL team was one of many Honda powered teams to run a memorial TE sticker (just under the aeroscreen) as a tribute to long time Honda manager of motorsports public relations, T.E. McHale who was instrumental in numerous Indy car driver’s careers and sadly passed away after an illness. Christian Lundgaard leads his teammate Jack Harvey at the start of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Harvey would go on to have a mildly better day finishing in 15^th compared to Lundgaard’s 19^th. It wasn’t for a lack of pushing hard that kept Lundgaard down in the race results. Here he’s using the curbs and in a four-wheel drift as you can see that his the wheels are mostly pointed straight at the apex of the corner. Rubber tire marks pelted Lundgaard’s car as he worked hard to finish better than where he started. Interview and photos by Larry Mason