The 23-year-old Dane is fresh off a banner season in Indy NXT, where he claimed five wins, eight podiums and sat on the pole five times en route to winning the championship. He won’t be alone for next Monday’s on-track trial, sharing the seat with 2019 Indy NXT title winner Oliver Askew, who hasn’t competed in IndyCar since 2021.
While there are aspirations to find a seat on the grid for next season, Rasmussen remains tempered in his approach.
“For the time being, that's all it is, is a test,” Rasmussen said. “It's going to be me and Oliver Askew and we'll see what that leads to.”
The opportunity couldn’t come at a better venue as the 17-turn, 2.3-mile natural terrain road course was where Rasmussen ignited his title push, going flag-to-flag to win his first race of the 2023 back in April.
“I love coming to Barber,” Rasmussen said. “It's going to be intense. That's a physical track, but I'll be up for the challenge and am looking forward to it.”
Rasmussen’s only previous test in IndyCar came with Andretti Global (then known as Andretti Autosport) in July of 2022 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. With this opportunity coming at the end of the season instead of middle, there has been more time to put in the work to prepare. Right after the season finale at Laguna Seca, Ed Carpenter Racing equipped him with time in Chevrolet’s simulator in North Carolina.
“It's very high tech and it's something new for me,” Rasmussen said. “I haven't done a lot of sim in my career. So yeah, just getting used to it all, but it was just great to get a feeling with the track and the engineer and the steering wheel. It's all new, so just having a little bit of repetition in terms of that makes good and I think that's what the sim is great for.”
Additionally, there has been more time to also get familiar with the team and get fitted to the car and spend valuable time in the shop. Although locking up a ride for next year is the offseason priority that Rasmussen hopes to get resolved “as soon as possible,” the variables such as hybrid testing means he won’t panic until it’s time to go racing in St. Petersburg in March.
“There's so many moving parts in the IndyCar world right now, so I don't know what you can expect,” he said. “I don't think you can really put a timeline on it. For me, obviously it would be nice to get it resolved soon.”
