A wave of relief swept over Christian Lundgaard after he finally broke his 47-race winless streak, claiming a dramatic victory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix.
While the 24-year-old Dane first found victory lane in the 2023 Streets of Toronto race with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL), this triumph—47 starts later—marks his first since joining Arrow McLaren ahead of the 2025 season. Over his previous 22 races with the team, Lundgaard had racked up eight podiums, including four runner-up finishes.
Lundgaard sealed the win in style on Lap 68 of 85, executing a brilliant outside pass through Turn 4 on Team Penske’s David Malukas. The victory carried extra significance at the 14-turn, 2.439-mile circuit, where he first burst onto the scene in a one-off appearance with RLL in 2021.
“Yeah, I think, first of all, it’s a lot of unfinished business for me around here,” Lundgaard said. “Obviously being competitive here pretty much every year except last year, and I really wanted to get some redemption for that. We worked hard to try to figure out where we really went wrong last year. I think we obviously did, but I mean, it just feels awesome. I hope that it doesn’t take another three years for another one, right?”
Arrow McLaren Team Principal Tony Kanaan quickly interjected from the IMS press room: “It won’t.”
Despite Lundgaard’s consistent strength on road and street courses throughout his career, he confessed he didn’t expect a win when he woke up on race day, especially after qualifying fourth and making his first Fast Six appearance of the season.
“It really wasn’t what I expected waking up this morning,” said Lundgaard, who led 20 laps during the race.
The victory came with an early challenge after a Turn 1 incident on the opening lap. Teammate Pato O’Ward, who started second ahead of Lundgaard, was hit and spun after contact from Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist.
“I felt so bad for Pato, because we had such a good plan planned for how we were going to attack the race between the two of us,” Lundgaard said. “We had two cars in the front, and we knew the #10 car (Alex Palou) was going to be strong. Obviously having one car left up there, but also losing positions kind of hurt a little bit. For me it was just take my race as it was from there. Then the strategy didn’t work out for them.”
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