NTT INDYCAR SERIES: HONDA INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO

July 5, 2026

Kyle Kirkwood

Christian Lundgaard

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up today's the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by the 2027 CR-V hybrid, Kyle Kirkwood will join us momentarily as will the champion in Pato O'Ward and a representative from Arrow McLaren as well.

Christian Lundgaard is here. After leading 41 laps this afternoon in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, best finish here at Mid-Ohio, second runner-up finish of the season, fifth podium of 2026, 14th career podium, as well. Just your thoughts on an all-green day. Pretty grueling inside the car for sure but second place finish for you today.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, very long day, very tough day. Obviously very tough physically out there with the heat, but also just an all-green race. It didn't really help that we were quite loose. We kind of went into the race knowing that -- or thinking the balance was going to go towards understeer, and I don't think that was the case as much. I think we kind of overreacted and made the car a lot harder to drive.

Very, very difficult, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how difficult the car is to drive. I still think we sort of maximized today, which is always nice.

Q. Talk about trying to hold off Pato.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, at the end of the day it was a mistake of my own. I was struggling so much on entries with the rear. It happened three times before that lap. Then obviously I wanted to be the good sport. I could just easily have run him off the track in 4 if I wanted to. Didn't.

We fought. We touched. I think that's always good racing.

THE MODERATOR: Kyle Kirkwood has joined us as well. You started 10th today in the 27 Sam's Club Honda for Andretti Global. Best finish here at Mid-Ohio, best finish since the second at Detroit here in 2026, fourth podium of the season, 10th of his career, moves up to second in the championship as well. Did I hear correctly your first podium on a road course?

KYLE KIRKWOOD: Unfortunately.

Q. Just talk about your day a little bit.

KYLE KIRKWOOD: Yeah, that was one of the most physical days I've ever had in a race car. I'm cooked right now. Running all green around here with it being hot and this place is just so busy as it is, and it's qualifying laps every single lap. My shoulders are shot. That's why I'm leaning over. Will I'm definitely hydrated, just cooked.

We drove from 10th to third. A lot of it was strategy and pit stops. We had a lot of good strategy that put us in a podium position there, and we also passed some cars in the beginning of the race, so a little bit of both.

A really good day overall. It wasn't where we were meant to qualify. We should have qualified towards the front, I think. I guess I'm glad that we were able to get us back towards the front in the race.

Q. Christian, I'd like to go back to the pass. You mentioned you made a couple of mistakes. Was that because of traffic ahead of you or was that just what the car was giving you?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: No, I struggled all day. Even on the first stint, wasn't particularly happy with the rear. I was nowhere in Turn 1 all day. All high speeds, just no rear, stability. It made sense with what we did overnight and even after warmups. It's pretty clear in my head what really happened.

Obviously we were fine-tuning the car as the race went on and the last stint was better but still struggled a lot.

Q. To struggle that much and come away with a second place, how does that happen?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Maximizing a weekend.

Q. If I remember correctly, through the Road to Indy you were dominant at Mid-Ohio. You won pretty much on every rung. Obviously you've struggled here in the INDYCARs. What was the difference today? Did you just suddenly -- what made you finally figure this place out in INDYCAR?

KYLE KIRKWOOD: Well, it wasn't that I just figured it out. I wasn't driving differently today than I have the last four years around this place. We had a really good test here two weeks ago and the car was really good. That pace was proven from practice 1, practice 2, into qualifying. Of course qualifying didn't go incredible, and even in warmup we were P2. We just had a lot of pace.

It wasn't like I just figured out something, per se.

Q. The test day especially, I think there was a lot of talk about that, and in particular it seemed like the entire Andretti team took a step up after testing here. Talk through what you guys found in that test.

KYLE KIRKWOOD: Yeah, let's just talk about all the setup items that we went through. I mean, it's a bit of the same that we've kind of done at a lot of the road courses. Just fine-tuning it, kind of figuring out some stuff that was needed to be done that maybe we just overlooked in the past. We're gaining some performance.

Q. To follow up on that, you were really fast, right near the top in every other session. I feel like you haven't qualified as well as you should have. What went wrong yesterday in qualifying?

KYLE KIRKWOOD: Quite honestly, I'm reluctant to really say. In Q2 we could have had a little bit of a tire prep issue, and for some reason one tire just decided not to work extremely well, and I don't know if it's really on us or tire pressures or build laps or what it is. But just didn't optimize the lap and getting the tires right, set for the lap. It just wasn't great because of that. It's something that we still need to dig into, but we're still scratching out heads about it.

Q. Christian, with this weekend over for you, what are the next steps for you as far as figuring out your situation for next year?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I'm going to go take a shower, I'm going to sleep and then see what comes.

Q. Are you going to sleep well?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Me? I sleep great. I'm a big sleeper.

Q. Is there any part of you that is anticipating being proactive in this and figuring it out, or are you just waiting for people to call you maybe?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I guess both. I mean, it isn't really where my head's at now. There's, what, nine races to go, eight races to go? Eight. Plenty of races to win. Seven, whatever. Seven races. Plenty of races to be competitive at.

Q. Christian, you said earlier you struggled with the rear. Did you have already this problem today in the morning in the warmup, or it just came up during the race?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: No, we were struggling with it in warmup. But again, I feel like the track condition was so different. I don't know what specifically the track temp was different in the race. Obviously it was rising quite high throughout the race.

It's a very different track than it was this morning. But I think it was highlighted even more in the race.

Q. Kyle, I know you're not going to tell us everything that was changed at the test, but how many different things were changed compared to what you had last year over the balance of the last couple years because you were on rails today?

KYLE KIRKWOOD: I mean, I can't really answer that. Quite honestly, I don't know that much.

Q. Confidence maybe?

KYLE KIRKWOOD: Yeah, you bring your setup sheet, I'll bring mine, and we'll compare notes and go from there.