IndyCar
Linus Lundqvist looking to build on career best finish heading into Indy GP
INDIANAPOLIS, IN (May 7, 2024) – Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Linus Lundqvist is looking to build on his career best finish last weekend at Barber as the NTT INDYCAR SERIES take to the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for this Saturday’s Sonsio Indy Grand Prix.
Lundqvist and the No. 8 American Legion Honda finished third at Barber Motorsports Park and feel that was just the beginning of things to come for the squad.
“Happy to see all the 8 crew getting together and getting a little bit of success,” said Lundqvist. “Obviously happy for the whole team. Obviously I wouldn’t say it was a regular occurrence the last couple years, but they’ve been up there multiple times. Now the next step is to try to bring them back to the top step.”
Lundqvist heads into this Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix having already raced on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway so the learning curve is not as steep as previous weekends.
“I think it’s just general comfort going back to a place where firstly I’ve had some history racing there in Indy Lights, did pretty well,” explains Lundqvist. “More so having an INDYCAR race under your belt on that track, you kind of know what to expect.”
Lundqvist realizes he is on a team deep with resources and talent but knows he doesn’t need to push the envelope so to speak.
“I’m still working through different setups for me to be 100% comfortable in,” said Lundqvist. “Right now, even if the car theoretically should be the fastest, I’m not really yet at the comfort level to drive it that way. You lose more out of the driver that you would potentially gain from the car, if you know what I mean. It’s about finding that sweet spot. As my confidence grows in the car, what I’m asking for, they can kind of follow along and hopefully spice things up.”
Lundqvist said his Ganassi team is not putting any extra pressure on him despite the success of that car the last few year when it was piloted by Marcus Ericsson.
“It’s a process,” said Lundqvist. “It’s a process that neither me or the team want to rush through. We’re not driving around at 90%, but it’s still not something that we’re overly stressed about. We know once everything clicks, we’ll be right up there.”
Part of the process is learning from those around him like his teammates, six-time series Champion Scott Dixon and two-time series Champion Alex Palou.
“The things I can learn from them is too long to touch on here,” said a smiling Lundqvist. “They have had tremendous success. I think they won both races here last year, with Alex in the spring, Scott at the second race. They know how to win around that place. Then obviously the data and the video. We’re going to chat to them and see what they did.”
A native of Sweden, Lundqvist is honored to be carrying the colors of the American Legion and promoting their message to ‘Be The One’ to help end Veteran suicide.
“I’m extremely proud to be representing the American Legion,” said Lundqvist. “It kind of comes from two aspects. Firstly, the American Legion livery, even though its short history in INDYCAR, has had tremendous success, won races, won championships. It’s very cool as a racing driver to kind of bring that forward.”
“Secondly, the mission,” explained Lundqvist. “Everything that American Legion works for, especially the mission ‘Be the One’, it’s something bigger than racing. At the end of the day you’re saving lives. I think that’s one of the greatest honors that one can have.”
Practice for the Sonsio Grand Prix takes place Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. with a second practice from 1:10 p.m. to 2:10 p.m. followed by three-rounds of knockout-style Qualifying for the NTT P1 Award at 4:20 p.m.
Saturday’s schedule features a morning warm-up from 11:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. followed by the Sonsio Grand Prix at 3 p.m. The race will be televised by NBC and can be heard on the INDYCAR Radio Network.
LONG BEACH, CA (April 13, 2025) – Kyle Kirkwood started on the pole position and held off reigning series Champion Alex Palou en route to winning Sunday’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, his third career victory and second on the streets of California.
“To win here, the 50th, with this team, with this group, with Honda, an Acura-sponsored event is absolutely massive,” said Kirkwood. “This was a flawless weekend for myself, for the team, for the crew, for everyone involved.”
Palou, who was trying to open the season with three straight wins came home second after starting third in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, giving Honda the Top 2 spots on the Podium.
“I’m super happy to be here,” said Palou, a three-time series Champion. “I think it’s been a great weekend. We really didn’t have that ultimate speed that the 27 car had. Every time I was having like a small chance, he just had a little bit more pace.”
Kirkwood started on the softer but quicker Firestone alternate tires as did most of the starters in the Top 10. Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard was the first driver to start on the harder Firestone alternate tires leading to another interesting strategy day in regard to how long to run on the alternates.
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden was the first to ditch the alternates, opting to pit at the end of his second lap, the minimum amount of laps one can run either of the compounds.
Kirkwood’s Andretti Global teammate Colton Herta and Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin ditched their alternates after running 5-laps with Palou and Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist coming in on the next lap.
Kirkwood came in on the following lap as more front runners ditched the alternates for the longer lasting primary Firestones handing the lead to Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard, who started on the harder, longer lasting primary tires. Lundgaard used the strategy to lead 26-laps to come home in third place.
“We went off strategy compared to what we expected most of the field to do,” explained Lundgaard. “We were the first primary tire runner in the field. “I told the team this morning, even before warm-up, let’s try to go aggressive, and let’s see what we can do. We have the most tires of everybody. We had two sets of alts, three sets of new primaries.”
In the end nobody had enough for Kirkwood who moved up to second place in the Championship standings, 34-points behind Palou with Lundgaard now in third place, 46-points back.
The next NTT INDYCAR SERIES race is May 3rd at Barber Motorsports Park.
LONG BEACH, CA (April 12, 2025) – Kyle Kirkwood is on the pole position for Sunday’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach with Andretti Global teammate Colton Herta alongside as the duo locked-out the front row helping Honda sweep the Top 5 qualifying spots.
Kirkwood’s fast lap off of 1-minute, 6.1921 seconds (107.034 mph) in the No. 27 PreFab Honda on his last lap in the Firestone Fast Six earned him his first pole of 2025 and third of his career.
“Amazing day for Honda and Andretti Global,” said Kirkwood. “A front row lockout for us in the #27 and #26 cars and just a great day for Honda power—top five here at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. This is a huge result for us as a team, a huge result for Honda, and it gives us a great starting spot to give ourselves the best chance of winning here tomorrow. Should be a great one!”
Herta missed out on the pole position by a mere 0.2311-seconds in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda (106.662 mph).
“Happy to be starting on the front row for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach,” said Herta. “I think we have some really strong cars here at Andretti Global and locking out the front row gives us a great shot tomorrow.”
Reigning Series Champion and points leader Alex Palou will start third in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda after a fast lap of 1-minute, 6.6254-seconds (106.338 mph). Palou won the first two races of the season and would love to make it three straight.
“It’s a solid qualifying for us,” said Palou. “You always want more, and we felt like we were going to be fighting a little bit more, but it was good! It was fun out there and to fight. We just missed it a little bit. Great job by Honda locking out the top five and for us, starting third, it’s a great opportunity to decide on a strategy and have a clean race and move up. The #10 DHL Honda has been amazing so hopefully we can get the win.”
Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist will start fourth with Andretti’s Marcus Ericsson rounding out the Top 5.
Up next is the pre-race warmup at noon ET Sunday (FS1, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network), followed by the 90-lap race at 4:30 p.m. (FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).
THERMAL, CA (March 23, 2025) – Alex Palou is off to a great start to defending his 2023 and 2024 Championships by winning Sunday’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES Thermal Club Grand Prix to start off 2025 with back-to-back victories.
“it’s amazing,” said Palou. “We love this feeling obviously. I think everybody does. We never take anything for granted, at least they don’t, anybody in the team. They just keep on working and giving me better cars and all the tools that I need to try and win and fight for the races.”
Palou, who became the first driver to win back-to-back races to start the season since teammate Scott Dixon in 2020, gave all the credit to his No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda crew.
“It’s been incredible, an incredible weekend with lots of speed and perfect execution on pit stop, strategy,” said Palou. “It was especially hard for us when we were at the beginning of the race at a disadvantage on the tires compared to the 5 and the 7, when they started using their new alternates very early on. You could see they’re going away. You’re like, Man, I know I still need to go slow and keep my rear tires on, although you see they’re pushing a little bit more than you.”
Palou survived the first stint in third place as the tire strategy continued to play out on the remaining stops until he passed pole-sitter Patricio O’Ward with 10-laps to go and pulled away for his 13th career victory.
O’Ward led an Arrow McLaren front row lockout starting on the pole position and led a race-high 51-laps but the No. 5 Chevy didn’t have enough to hold off Palou when it mattered most, after the last pit stop of the race.
“Obviously we were the car that had everything to lose because we were starting on pole,” said O’Ward. “I think we led like 50-something laps, 51 laps. It kind of sucks to lose it there in the end.”
O’Ward and his team started the race on new Firestone alternate tires whereas Palou started on used alternates keeping the sticker reds for his last run.
“We ran a red, black, black, black race,” explained O’Ward. “I think it should have been a red, red, black, black or any sort of combination with two reds and two blacks. I think we missed it on the 5 car. We can only see why we chose that, try not to make that mistake again.”
Christian Lundgaard, who started second, finished third in the No. 7 Chevy to give the McLaren team two car on the podium.
“I think the car that I had yesterday was potentially a little more preferred for me than today,” said Lundgaard, who scored the fourth podium finish of his career. “I think we made some changes going into warm-up that felt nice in warm-up, but it was 40 degrees cooler. We carried those into the race. To me that didn’t really seem to be the preferred.”
Andretti Global’s Colton Herta finished fourth in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda followed by Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist in fifth in the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda, giving Honda three cars in the Top 5.
Will Power was the biggest mover of the day, picking up 15-positions to finish sixth in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet.
Palou holds a 39-point lead over O’Ward and a 41-point lead over Scott Dixon in the Championship standing heading into the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 13, 2025.
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Kirkwood, Herta power Andretti and Honda to front row lockout at Long Beach
Kyle Larson dominates NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway
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Macri and Eckert Split Port Royal Honors
Alex Palou wins The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix
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