NTT INDYCAR SERIES: XPEL GRAND PRIX AT ROAD AMERICA

June 21, 2026

Christian Lundgaard

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: This year's champion, Christian Lundgaard, led seven of the 55 laps after starting 12th this afternoon. First win here at Road America. Second of 2026. Third career win. Also jumps up to fourth now in the championship.

Congratulations on a win. Crazy race. How did you do it?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Wasn't I fourth in the championship before, first of all?

THE MODERATOR: I feel like you maybe jumped up, but...

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I don't know. It was a very eventful day, very long day. Not quite what I had on my bingo card waking up this morning.

Obviously this is what you hope for. I know on road courses, didn't really matter where we would start, we would always get good results.

I think we produced very good race cars. We need to still figure out how to qualify better. Obviously this weekend has been a little bit of an outlier for me. Not felt comfortable, not had the pace in practice one or practice two, even though we tested here two weeks ago. A confusing weekend. To end with a win I would say confuses me even more. Maybe I just need to be confused (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: You were fourth coming into it. You cut into the lead a little bit. You're 79 points behind Alex Palou.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Finally.

THE MODERATOR: He's not on the podium.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: For once.

THE MODERATOR: Open it for questions.

Q. The very start, lap one, what is it like for you trying to stay composed?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, I mean, I haven't honestly seen it yet. I'm not quite sure what exactly happened. In the moment I thought it was my fault, basically just ran into the back of Dixon.

Obviously at that point I know how long the race is. It was really to try to stay on the lead lap. That was the main goal. It wasn't very easy with the tire missing basically. But from there on, it's such a long race, one caution brings you back in the game. You just got to take it from there after that.

Yeah, I knew we were going to be fighting for a top 10 regardless, just from the pace that we had. I didn't really expect it to be a win.

Q. It's no secret Pato has been the guy on this team. Now you have two wins under your belt. What have you proved about yourself this year?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I think everything is going according to how I thought it would, right? First year in the team. Obviously Pato is very established in there. It's try to learn as much as possible together, make the package better.

I feel like I've evolved a little bit. I think he's gone a little bit backwards unfortunately in terms of results. At the end of the day I know how good he is.

Q. Christian, we saw T.K. giving you a pep talk on the grid before the race. Can you talk about what he said to you, how that helped you?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Actually he said not to do exactly what I did, which is don't make life harder on yourself. That's pretty much it (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: You defied what he had to say.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Maybe that's the key.

Q. You're still the only McLaren driver who has been on the podium this year. How are you feeling about the progress you've made with the team versus what the rest of your teammates have made?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I mean, I feel like this one today is a little bit of a cheat code. I think Marcus should have won this race. Again, it is racing. We've all had that. It happened me in Nashville last year, which cost me P3 in the championship. I've been there. Most of us have.

I think at the end of the day I'm here to try to improve myself every weekend, every day, every year. I think we found something in St. Louis, which will help moving forward. I'm only optimistic and happy for the rest of the year.

Q. How much confidence and momentum does it give you starting off the second half of the season with a win?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I hadn't thought of that. I also didn't think I was going to win.

Yeah, I mean, ironically enough, I feel like we've done so well on the road courses this year, which we did last year. Many of them fell short. So far this year we've picked up the pieces. I won pretty much all of them.

Q. You said you thought top 10 was achievable. At what point in this confusing race did it come to you that you do have a chance to win?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: When I came out in front of David Malukas on the last stint and then got past. That was the moment I realized we were fighting for a podium. I never thought I was going to catch Marcus. I was going to give it my best shot to get close to him and put him under some pressure.

But yeah, I mean, it wasn't really obvious at any point until then.

Q. Did you think you had a pretty good chance? Were you closing on him enough that you felt confident in your ability to get him?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: No. I was trying to drive around and do some math of the speed that I was faster than him and still the gap that I had to close. I think Kyle told me at this pace we were going to catch him on the last lap, but I still have to get by him. I didn't really know how much push to pass he had.

At the end of the day if the yellow and the safety car that came at the end would have happened anyway, I think we would have had him.

Q. Christian, early in the race you come out in front of the lead pack. That was really important, making sure you didn't go a lap down.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, who was leading at that time?

Q. Palou.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, obviously we started on the primes. Had to pit for the alternates due to the puncture. I had been very positive about the alternates all weekend. I think a lot of drivers had been negative, never really knew what they were going to do.

I was very happy with them. It sounded like everybody was degging a little more. I was having a great time driving around. I wasn't really full, full push. Just trying to maintain.

I still knew I had to make it to a certain lap to put ourselves in contention if a yellow did come out, which it did. Again, obviously it's super important to come out in front of the leaders at that time. When you're driving on three wheels, I rather want to just get it to the pit lane than anything else.

Q. Tell us about Kyle. Two of you doing really good work.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: The one thing I have learned with Kyle is he's not afraid of taking risks. I'm sure it's going to bite us someday. The more races we can win until then, the better. If we're ever in contention at the 500, I just hope it isn't that day that it bites us.

He's very aggressive, but he also knows exactly what he's doing. There's no question in his mind. Whenever he makes a mistake he's honest about it, raises his hand. I think it helps the group move forward. There's never any unanswered questions.

Q. (Question about Chris Lawrence.)

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Because we've both been so confused this weekend. This is not where we expected to be.

Q. There's a bond developed here.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, I mean, Chris is such an awesome guy. I enjoy so much working with him. Sometimes he's asking me questions where I'm just like, What are you talking about, and vice versa. I am pretty sure he thinks that I ask him some stupid questions sometimes, which is fine. That's how we learn and that's how we get better.

The key that we have is simplicity is key. We're not trying to make it overcomplicated for each other. Practice two to qualifying, I told him not to tell me what he was doing to the car, just let me drive.

Q. How huge is this win to help towards a potential contract extension next year?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Well, it never hurts, does it (smiling)?

Q. Talk about your car after the pit stop on lap one. Did it feel better after you made the changes?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I'm not really sure we did anything to the car throughout the race. I thought our second prime stint was a little worse than our first one. I don't know if that was just kind of track condition at the time or some tire pressure adjustments or kind of where I was on track in terms of traffic.

I mean, throughout the whole race I knew I had a car - if we were in the front - we would be pretty competitive.

Q. After two wins, is there really any other place you'd rather be than Arrow McLaren?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I mean, no.

Q. Talk about the last couple laps coming past Malukas. Did it feel similar to your win at the Indy GP?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yes and no. I mean, I'm going to say I don't prefer being last at any point in the race. But I think ultimately in terms of making passes, there were certainly times in the race where I thought, Why am I able to just drive through people? Then I kind of got stuck, couldn't really do anything, specifically to Rossi. I was actually quite fast at that time in the race.

I think ultimately we made the right moves at the right time. Staying out on that last pit sequence is what really gained us the win. But that's also the riskiest thing we could do because we're exposing ourselves to yellow. That was win it or finish last at that time.

I would have been very frustrated if I knew we had a chance of finishing in the top five and threw that away for trying to score one or two points more at that time.

Q. We're going to another road course after this, Mid-Ohio. Is there anything you feel like you can take from today's race, except for don't listen to T.K. on pit lane?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Maybe I do need to drive into the back of whoever is in front of me into four (smiling).

No, I mean, we got to qualify better. I think that's really the main thing. We've done so well on race pace, we've produced such great race cars on Sunday, and we just need to be better on Saturday. I think that will just help our weekends tremendously.

I'm not worried going to Mid-Ohio. We were extremely fast there last year. I think we can make something happen. We just don't need Dixon to do another two stop.

THE MODERATOR: Christian, congratulations.