Yahoo Autos Break Out the Razor: Christian Lundgaard Wins Honda Indy Toronto
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
Christian Lundgaard will finally be able to look himself in the mirror come Monday and not have anything interfere with his beaming smile.
The Danish driver and his best friend back home have jointly been growing mustaches since February. Lundgaard vowed he would not shave off his ‘stache until he won his first IndyCar race.
Well, the 21-year-old, second-year IndyCar driver broke out the razor after winning Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto, putting on a dominant performance in front of the sold-out crowd. He won from the pole position, led 54 of the event’s 85 laps, and won by a nearly 12-second margin to claim his first career IndyCar win and only his second podium in 28 starts in the American open-wheel series.
“I need to find a razor as soon as possible,” Lundgaard quipped with a broad smile before celebrating in victory lane. “I’m pretty drained for energy right now.
“The car was fast all weekend and I said before the race we had a car to win and we did it by 10 seconds or so. I’m just extremely happy for everybody right now.”
Lundgaard’s triumph marked the first win for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) since Takuma Sato won the 2020 Indianapolis 500 in front of zero fans (the race was delayed until late August due to the Covid-19 pandemic) at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
It also marked team majority owner Bobby Rahal’s first win at Toronto as a team owner and reprised Rahal’s win in the first-ever race at Toronto in 1986.
“It’s huge for us,” the elder Rahal said. “Any win is big.
“This weekend wasn’t easy. We didn’t start out super great but kind of kept working at it. Christian was hooked up and was on a mission. He just drove away from everybody.”
It was arguably the best weekend RLL has had in a long time. Rahal’s son, Graham, started dead last in the 27-car field yet drove through the ranks to finish ninth.
The only negative outcome for RLL was its third driver, Jack Harvey, who was knocked out of the event on the first turn of the opening lap after triggering a seven-car pileup.
Lundgaard and the rest of the IndyCar circuit now move on to Iowa Speedway for this coming weekend’s doubleheader, the 11th and 12th races of the 17-race NTT IndyCar Series season.
It will be an important weekend for Lundgaard. Not only will he show up sans ‘stache—his car will be sponsored by Hy Vee, which is the weekend’s entitlement sponsor—Lundgaard turns 22 on Sunday, in time for the back-half of the weekend twinbill.
Here's Sunday’s final top-10 finishing order: Lundgaard, Alex Palou, Colton Herta, Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, Marcus Armstrong, Pato O’Ward, Graham Rahal and Felix Rosenqvist.
Communication Breakdown for Penske
It’s rare Team Penske makes a mistake, but apparently it did so in Sunday’s race and cost all three of its drivers a chance at the win—or a podium finish at the very least.
Josef Newgarden, who was the highest finishing Team Penske driver with a fifth-place showing, blamed miscommunication or inadvertent miscalculations when it came to fuel-save strategy.
“None of us knew what was happening or what was going to happen with two laps to go,” Newgarden said. “I think we must have had some kind of fuel error issue because they’re going off our calculations and they’re normally always spot-on, so something must have been messed up today, which we were just unaware of.”
Teammate Scott McLaughlin finished right behind Newgarden in sixth place. But no one was more ticked off at what transpired than the third Penske driver, Will Power.
The Australian native was on-target to potentially earn a third- or possibly even a second-place finish. But he was called onto pit road with one lap remaining to take a splash of fuel, as his team felt he was going to run out.
Power disagreed, believing he still had enough to make it to the finish line, but begrudgingly came into the pits, ending his chance for a potential podium showing and winding up with a disappointing 14th-place finish.
“Yeah, I was (surprised to be called into the pits for fuel),” Power said. “They were giving me a number and I quite easily could have gotten the number and made it (to the finish).
“We’ve got to review all that. I’m not sure what happened there. The car was really good, the strategy was right, I had no idea we were going to run out.”
But, Power admitted he may ultimately have been at fault: “I was trying to put pressure on the two guys in front (Lundgaard and Palou) to run them out of fuel and probably wasn’t watching my own close enough.”
An animated and angry Power could be seen slapping his forehead after reviewing the computer data on pit road afterward.
Palou's Streak Ends, Still Extends Points Lead
Alex Palou saw his outstanding run of late—wins in the prior last three races and four of the last five—come to an end with his runner-up finish in Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto.
Even coming up short, the Spanish driver still increased his lead in the IndyCar points standings. Palou, who now has 417 points, added to his edge over Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon, going from 110 to 117 points.
Newgarden is third (-126), followed by Marcus Ericsson (-142), Pato O’Ward (-143), McLaughlin (-159), Lundgaard (-169, gains three places, the most of any driver in the race), Power (-175), Herta (-178) and Alexander Rossi (-187).
“We knew it was going to be an eventful race, lots of ups and downs,” said Palou, who started the race from the 15th qualifying spot (his worst start of the season). “We had a real fast race car but got into (a Lap 47) accident with the 27 (Kyle Kirkwood) and Helio (Castroneves). Glad we finished P2 today. A win could have been possible.”
Palou’s tangle with Kirkwood and Castroneves severely damaged the right side of his front wing, somewhat limiting his ability to go all-out in the closing stages of the race. Still, he was happy with the runner-up showing, his sixth podium appearance in the first 10 races of 2023.
Also happy with his finish – and surprisingly just his first podium of the season – was Herta, who finished third essentially on fumes.
“I came across the line literally sputtering,” Herta said. “Coming out of the last turn, you could feel the car give a little bit and then the fuel started sputtering. Luckily, it got us across the (finish) line.”
Jack Harvey Digs Deeper Hole
Jack Harvey has had a terrible season in what potentially may be his second and final campaign driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
If the Englishman had a final chance to salvage his spot on the team, it likely went away on the first turn of the opening lap of Sunday’s race.
As he entered Turn 1, Harvey bounced into Ryan Hunter-Reay, triggering a seven-car pileup that knocked Hunter-Reay and Harvey out of the race.
Others involved in the wreck but were able to continue included Alexander Rossi, Santino Ferrucci and Graham Rahal.
Graham Rahal, son of IndyCar great Bobby Rahal performed one of the best heads-up moves the series has seen in a long time. After suffering just minor damage to his front wing in the opening lap wreck, Graham, who started last and had no one behind him after all the carnage stopped, threw his car into reverse and backed up several hundred feet before going forward through the run-off lane to maintain his position.
However, after picking up six spots, Rahal lost that forward improvement when he was forced to pit several laps later to switch out the injured wing on his car.
First-Lap Incident Ends Blomqvist's IndyCar Debut
The opening lap incident also knocked out Jack Harvey’s fellow Brit and IMSA driver Tom Blomqvist, making his IndyCar debut in place of the injured Simon Pagenaud. Benjamin Pedersen also failed to get past the opening turn.
Pagenaud is still recovering from the concussion he suffered in the previous race two weeks ago at Mid-Ohio, but is hoping to be cleared to return for next weekend’s doubleheader in Iowa.
“This is the last thing I wanted to happen today,” Blomqvist said. “I don’t know who it was, but someone hit someone. I was on the outside of the corner, I couldn’t get across, I knew it was a risk and I didn’t want to be there at the time.
“I was at the mercy of people on the inside and unfortunately they couldn’t make it work and I was the last guy there, being pushed into the wall.
“I’m pretty furious, to be honest. I’m not out there fighting for anything, I just wanted to get a race under my belt. Not what I wanted to happen today. I’m pretty devastated.
“It’s been a good opportunity for me to be here and to not even get one lap is extremely frustrating.”
It was a frustrating day overall for Meyer Shank Racing, as Blomqvist’s teammate, four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, wrecked after contact with Kyle Kirkwood on Lap 47, ending Castroneves’ day as well, leading to a rare double DNF for the Meyer Shank organization.
For what it was worth and it likely was little consolation to Meyer Shank, but Kirkwood was issued a stop-and-go penalty for avoidable contact with Castroneves.
Yet Another DNF for DeFrancesco
The lone Canadian entered in the race, Devlin DeFrancesco, continued to have a rough season in what may be his final stint with Andretti Autosport. DeFrancesco was forced to retire after just 10 laps in the 85-lap event due to braking issues. It marked the fifth time this season that DeFrancesco finished 20th or worse in a race (and was his third DNF). His best finish in 2023 has only been 12th, at Detroit. … Seven cars recorded DNFs, a single-race high thus far this season (other than the Indianapolis 500).
Follow Autoweek contributor Jerry Bonkowski on Twitter @JerryBonkowski
