Starting from a highly encouraging sixth place with a two-stop strategy, Lundgaard initially struggled on the Firestone primary compound and fell to tenth by Lap 4. But as those who had started on alternate tires started to feel their tires fade away, and the three-stoppers pitted, the Danish sophomore moved forward. He passed Colton Herta and Rinus VeeKay on consecutive laps, and was up to fifth by the time he pitted.
Although Scott Dixon, another two-stopper, pitted for the first time one lap later, Lundgaard was able to lunge down the inside of him at the final turn to move onto the tail of Alex Palou.
Following the race’s only restart, Lundgaard got around the 2021 champion, to run fourth but in the next pitstop sequence he lost out to the Ganassi #10 crew, and also Will Power whose three-stop strategy had seen him jump the majority of two-stoppers.
Nonetheless, Lundgaard was able to finish the race within three seconds of Palou and ahead of Dixon, the Arrow McLarens of Alexander Rossi and Felix Rosenqvist and two more Ganassi cars.
“We had a good start and the #45 Hy-Vee Honda guys had some of the best stops we’ve had all season,” said Lundgaard, who scored his first podium finish last year on his way to the Rookie of the Year title. “We’ve got to take the positives from this weekend.
“We started sixth. We took a big step forward. Just looking at my overtake [on Dixon] – these were the kind of moves that we had to get done today. I knew I had to be aggressive.
“My dad told me, ‘Think about driving and what you enjoyed growing up’ and that was racing hard – and I did that today.”
Senior teammate Rahal wasn’t impressed with making up two places from his lowly grid slot of 19th.
“We set out to do a two-stop strategy and the yellow flag came at a weird time and forced our hand going to a three-stop strategy,” he said. “We got in the pit right before they closed due to the caution and unfortunately it reset us to the back of the pack.
“So, I had to make some moves and get by guys. It’s frustrating to have to do that.
“At the end of the day, we really struggled with the rear of the car during the race. I guess our fast lap pace wasn’t that far off; it was the quickest of our team by about six-tenths of a second or so [actually 0.44s, and because Rahal was on a three-stopper and didn’t have to save fuel like two-stopping Lundgaard], but I think compared to the winning team, it’s a half a second off.
“I was driving my tail off, but we need a little more pace. We have to reset and hope to come back at the GMR Grand Prix [Indy road course] a little stronger.”
Harvey’s nightmarish run since joining RLL last year continued, starting and finishing 24th.
He said: “Pre-race strategy was to try to do two stops and we executed it pretty well but that clearly wasn’t the strategy to be on today with the way the race played out. There was one moment when I was battling with Graham and I guess he pitted and, in hindsight, we should have done the same.
“The guys were saying our pace was pretty similar to him and in the end he was 17th and I was 24th.”
Harvey’s chances weren’t helped by a collision with his former teammate on the opening lap.
“There was a bit of congestion by the museum on Lap 1,” he said. “By the time you get there and the accordion effect has happened, Helio [Castroneves] and I came together and it damaged my wing.”
