Lundgaard "in a good spot" with momentum into Long Beach

Credit: Sydney Redden

After almost a month of time off for the IndyCar grid, they’re back on track this weekend in Long Beach, California.

Some drivers are coming into the weekend with something to prove after a less than stellar weekend at Barber Motorsports Park in March, while others are still riding the high of their good performances in IndyCar’s last race. One of the latter is Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard, who may have qualified just 10th in Alabama but took his second podium of the season in the race. His most recent result propelled him to third in the overall standings, not far behind Álex Palou and the current championship leader, Kyle Kirkwood.

In every way that matters, Lundgaard has momentum on his side. As a driver, he’s aware of how important positive momentum can be to securing a good result.

“Yeah, I mean, I think we've really just seen the beginning of the season, how momentum really plays an effect, right?” he commented ahead of the weekend at Long Beach. “We saw the first three races back to back to back. The merge with NASCAR in Phoenix. The new event in Arlington. Having that week off, going to a track that I drove an INDYCAR on for the first time at Barber. Finished second last year and again this year.

“We're going to a track now where we finished third last year in Long Beach. I think from a momentum perspective we're in a good spot. Just excited to go back to Long Beach.

I think we were missing a little bit of pace throughout the weekend. I think we were good in the race. Need to find some pace for Kirkwood and Palou who really seem to be there on those types of tracks, at least this year.

“Really excited. We have a good stretch of races coming, especially in the addition of the new Markham race and DC later in the year.”

Fully rested after the break and with momentum on his side, Lundgaard is coming into Long Beach feeling confident and ready for another good result. Fortunately, he’s had success at this track in the past as well.

Credit: Travis Hinkle

Lundgaard’s Long Beach past and future

Before last year, Lundgaard hadn’t finished higher than 14th at Long Beach. But in 2025 he joined McLaren from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and started flying right off the bat.

He took his first podium with McLaren at the Thermal Club, the second race of the 2025 season. The very next race was Long Beach, and despite crashing in qualifying and starting from 12th on the grid, climbed up the order to finish third and take his second consecutive podium.

Looking back on Long Beach last year, Lundgaard is hoping for a smoother weekend this time around.

“I definitely made the weekend very interesting last year with the crash in qualifying,” he said.”Tubbing the car, having to change chassis for Saturday to Sunday, just doing all those checks in warm-up. We didn't really get to go through our program. Obviously still having that result in the race.

“I think the main priority for this year is just have a smooth, successful weekend. Obviously knocking on the door for a good result.

“I don't necessarily think we need to go out there with the mentality of we need to win the race. We need to go out there and improve our package from last year and the results will come.

We were competitive last year. I still think we were missing a little bit of pace. It's really keeping that consistent and solid mindset of we just need to be there and let it come to us.”

Coming into Long Beach this year, with last year’s qualifying a bad memory for the Danish driver, it’s good news that the format of the weekend will be slightly different.

Single-car qualifying was introduced this season for street circuits, with the street track at Arlington acting as the guinea pig. In this new format, the top six drivers at the end of the first two qualifying sessions each get one lap, on track on their own, to set the fastest time.

Credit: Lorena Barros

While the debut of this new format in Arlington brought some criticism from the fans, Lundgaard approves of single-car qualifying.

“I think it's a great addition,” he said ahead of Long Beach weekend. “In all honesty, I think it was interesting seeing how it was going to play out in Arlington. I think with it being so new, I'm not going to say spontaneous, but very short notice going into Arlington, so there wasn't a lot of preparation or understanding how it was going to play out. Obviously the alternate tires on the street courses are very sensitive.

“I think seeing how the first car on track in the Fast Six was the fastest car, probably just from tire performance, was interesting. I think that's changed going into the rest of the season now knowing that Q2 has more of an effect on your qualifying thereon. Pretty cool and interesting addition. I think it allows you to be a little bit more strategic in some ways.

“Again, I have to see how it plays out in Long Beach. I think Long Beach will be very different to Detroit, for example. I think we're maybe going to see something a little more similar in Markham as we did in Arlington. All tracks are very different. I mean, I like it. I have no complaints.”

What does this mean for the drivers who make it into the Fast 6 on Saturday? They’ll need to complete a near-perfect lap in just one try if they want a chance at getting pole position.

What does a perfect lap look like at Long Beach? Lundgaard walked through it: “The simple answer is being faster than anybody else. I've had qualifyings, I've had laps where the lap felt terrible, and we were P1. I've had laps where that felt like the best lap I've ever driven, we're 6/10ths off the pace.

“It's not as simple as really just what does it feel like going through the corner, because the performance of the car really needs to be there.

“But I definitely would say it's making it through the first three corners. Going through turn one and through the fountain, the two tricky right-handers, four and five. After the braking zone for turn nine is super tricky. There's a lot to be gained in braking performance around Long Beach.

“I would always say make it through each corner, corner by corner. Once you're looking at the delta on your steering wheel in a qualifying lap, you note if you're better or if you're worse. If you see it being negative, you're faster, there's almost that tendency to push a little harder which is both a good and a bad thing. You're either going to push too much or it is going to be the perfect amounts. It's definitely a very awesome track and a pleasure to drive around.

“Once you get that right, the feel right, from a personal perspective you don't really think too much about the lap time if it feels good.”

On-track action in Long Beach kicks off Friday with Practice 1 at 15:00 local time.