Christian Lundgaard, RLL Conquer Honda Indy Toronto

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing turned around a difficult start to 2023 with a Christian Lundgaard victory on the streets of Toronto. (Photo: Jack Shanlin | The Podium Finish)

TORONTO —  For the first time since August 2020, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing returned to the top step of the podium in the NTT IndyCar Series, with Christian Lundgaard leading 54 laps from pole position on the way to his first career win in the Honda Indy Toronto at Exhibition Place.

When the checkered flag waved, Lundgaard almost had a 12-second advantage over second-place finisher and championship points leader, Alex Palou, who nursed his No. 10 Journie Rewards Honda to the finish line despite a broken front wing.

Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta settled for third, in his first podium of the 2023 INDYCAR season.

Before Lundgaard’s maiden win, RLL endured a long drought from Victory Lane, dating back to Takuma Sato’s victory in the 2020 Indianapolis 500 which occurred in front of empty grandstands.

However, the 21-year-old Danish driver climbed from his No. 45 Honda and celebrated in front of the enthusiastic crowd in Toronto, showing raw emotions and how good it felt to win in the highly competitive open-wheel racing series.

“I’m pretty drained here right now,” Lundgaard said. “The Hy-Vee VIVID Clear RX car has just been fast all weekend and I said it before the race that we had a car that was fast enough to win and we pulled it off. I think we did it by 10 seconds. This team, they do deserve this.

“If we look at where we were earlier this season and even last year at this point we were nowhere near this. I’m just extremely happy for everybody right now.”

This could be the first of many INDYCAR wins for Christian Lundgaard. (Photo: Jack Shanlin | The Podium Finish)

With Lundgaard showing such an impressive pace, the only realistic chance the field had at beating him was to pull off an alternative strategy.

In the middle of the 85-lap street race, Scott Dixon, Scott McLaughlin and Rinus VeeKay stayed out longer than Lundgaard and the other frontrunners, hoping to catch a timely full-course caution and secure valuable track position. Unfortunately, the yellow flag never arrived for those three drivers to put themselves in a position to steal a win.

Instead, Dixon settled for fourth place, while McLaughlin and VeeKay took sixth and 13th respectively.

Coming to the restart on Lap 46, Kyle Kirkwood got into the rear of Helio Castroneves in Turn 11, spinning the four-time Indy 500 champion. Kirkwood received a stop-and-go penalty for avoidable contact.

When Kirkwood stopped in the pit box to serve the penalty, his No. 27 AutoNation team touched the car, resulting in another penalty. Kirkwood finished 15th.

The woes continued for Romain Grosjean on Lap 42 when the No. 28 DHL Honda hit the wall in Turn 10 after he said the wheel slipped out of his hand. Grosjean’s 22nd-place finish in Toronto is his fourth result of 20th or worse in the last five races.

Romain Grosjean continues to slide downward after another disappointing result. (Photo: Jack Shanlin | The Podium Finish)

On the first lap, a multi-car wreck brought out the full-course caution. Jack Harvey, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Benjamin Pedersen all retired from the race, due to this incident.

Two-time Rolex 24 at Daytona winner and 2022 IMSA prototype champion, Tom Blomqvist, was also taken out before completing a single lap in his INDYCAR debut.

“This is the last thing that I wanted to have happen today,” Blomqvist said. “I knew that was a treacherous corner through watching video of last year’s race. And I was on the outside and I knew that I didn’t want to be there but I didn’t really have much of a choice.

“Unfortunately, then you are at the mercy of the people on your inside and unfortunately, they couldn’t make it work. I’m pretty devastated because I’m not out there fighting for anything, I just wanted to get a race distance under my belt. I’m really sorry for the guys too, they’ve worked really hard to give me this opportunity.”

A lap 1 crash!

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The NTT IndyCar Series returns to action next weekend for the Hy-Vee doubleheader at Iowa Speedway on Saturday, July 22 (3 p.m. ET on NBC) and Sunday, July 23 (2 p.m. ET on NBC).

Honda Indy Toronto at Exhibition Place Race Results