The stat sheet will show Christian Lundgaard charging from 10th to finish second in the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix, but there is still discontent from the 24-year-old Dane knowing a victory was in play at Barber Motorsports Park.
Lundgaard was a force from the drop of the green flag, cutting through the field and elevating to third after the initial cycle of pit stops. He found the lead by the halfway mark of the 90-lap race during the next pit stop cycle, and was making significant ground with the softer alternate tires on race leader Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing).
When Palou pitted for the last time on Lap 65, Lundgaard maximized the opportunity for clear track and went for the overcut, which was only enhanced as the Spaniard’s out-lap was impacted by traffic.
TIME LOST ON PIT LANE FOR LUNDGAARD! 😬 pic.twitter.com/BqwL62Lbhd
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) March 29, 2026
Lundgaard brought his #7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet to pit lane four laps later, swapping out for the favorable harder primary tires. However, a snag with the right-rear delayed the pit stop, costing him valuable time as he came out in 11s behind Palou for the race lead, and directly behind Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) in third place.
In the end, Lundgaard, who led 10 laps, was able to get around Rahal to secure second.
“Everything you just said sounds great except the P2 part,” Lundgaard said.
“I think we had a race-winning car today. Obviously it's frustrating, the past many few races, we've produced such great race cars on Sunday. We've been lacking on Saturday. It's just frustrating.
“Obviously you win races on Sunday, so that's when you need to have a good car. I think we need to put ourselves in better positions. I think even with the pace and how the race panned out today, we had the car to win the race, we had the pace, we had the track position at the time.
“I'm not really sure what happened in the pit stop. I'm not sure I can really comment too much on it. Again, it's unfortunate. Obviously came out behind Graham there on the last stint and just wanted to really get that second place for the team, as well. It wasn't just for me. This is where we were. At least with a bobble on pit road, let's get the same result, not worse. We had the pace. Got by Graham. That was nice.”
The result marks Lundgaard’s second podium of the season and vaults him to third in the championship standings, 35 points behind Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti Global). However, he’s still searching for his second career victory, and first with Arrow McLaren.
Lundgaard went into the final pit stop “absolutely” feeling that he was in position to win the race, but admitted he was unsure of the gap between himself and Palou.
“He pitted before we did on that third stint,” Lundgaard said. “I basically pulled in around four and a half seconds on him on the stints. On my way up here (to the post-race press conference), I was told that the traffic that he had as he came out for the last stint, we would have cleared him on a normal pit stop.
“Obviously the pace was there to win the race. I think it would have been a fair and square fight on the last stint if that would have been the case. We sit here now and it wasn't the case, so… there's not really much to say to it. I think overall we had a race-winning car today.”
Take a ride with @lundgaardoff 😲
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) March 29, 2026
The No. 7 is up seven positions to P3 on Lap 43. pic.twitter.com/IOKphhAdii
And even though it was Lundgaard’s best qualifying outing of the season, he believes starting further up the grid would have made a significant difference.
“If we would have started three positions further up, I think our race would have been very different,” he said.
“We need to be better on Saturdays.”
