Lundgaard Soars from Last to First to Win Road America

Christian Lundgaard celebrates his second victory of the 2026 season at the XPEL INDYCAR Grand Prix at Road America. (Photo: Joe Skibinski | Penske Entertainment)

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – What started out as a wild race from the drop of the green flag became a story of poise and patience, which were the keys to victory for Christian Lundgaard in the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America presented by AMR.

After a Lap 1 incident for contact with Scott Dixon’s No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Honda that left the 24-year-old Danish driver with a damaged front wing and cut down Firestone Firehawk tire, Lundgaard used strategy and a fast car to pilot his No. 7 Velo Arrow McLaren Chevrolet with pure precision to capture his second victory of the 2026 season.

“I knew we had a chance,” said Lundgaard. “I knew how this race panned out last year and I knew it was about just sticking in the race. I did that last year. I made a bunch of mistakes last year that spun ourselves around last year, and I just wanted to make up for that.

“We’ve just been on the struggle bus all weekend. To turn this around, I’ve got to thank the team for that.”

David Malukas earned another second-place finish in his No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet and continued his strong season for Team Penske despite it yet another finish without a win. Will Power held on to finish on the podium in the third position in the No. 26 TWG AI Honda after a fierce battle with Graham Rahal on the final lap entering Canada corner that resulted in Rahal spinning into the local gravel trap, ending the race under yellow.

Kyffin Simpson finished in the fourth position for his season-best result in the No. 8 Sunoco Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, while his teammate and reigning champion Alex Palou completed the top five in the No. 10 DHL Honda.

David Malukas setting up corner entry in the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America en route to his second straight road course podium. (Photo: Travis Hinkle | Penske Entertainment)

Varying tire strategies was the name of the game for the 55-lap race on the 14-turn, 4.014-mile road course. Lundgaard inherited the lead of the race on Lap 43 when the front runners of Marcus Armstrong, Malukas and Rahal made their final pit stops.

Lundgaard built nearly a 12-second lead on Felix Rosenqvist when he made his final stop on Lap 45. With the help of his Arrow McLaren crew, they refueled and slapped on four new red alternate Firestone Firehawk tires with a 7.1-second pit stop. In doing so, Lundgaard blended back into traffic in third place just behind Armstrong and Malukas, and needed to work less on track to run down the front runners on the much fresher and faster alternate tires.

Lundgaard went to work passing Malukas on Lap 49 and began eating into nearly a three second deficit on Armstrong.

Although Lundgaard took home the hardware, the majority of the race was looking to be in the hands of the 25-year-old New Zealander. Armstrong led 14 laps, two shy of his MSR teammate Rosenqvist for most laps led. Armstrong built a solid 2.7-second lead by Lap 52 of the 55-lap race distance, when trouble struck as Armstrong slowed on track with a mechanical issue, eliminating him from his first-career victory. Lundgaard was able to bypass the kiwi as the yellow flag waved for the fourth time on the day.

“It was all smooth sailing,” said Armstrong. “I came out of Turn 6, and the engine just started sputtering like it was out of fuel. But clearly it wasn’t. And then it just completely died. There was no indication there was nothing wrong.”

Marcus Armstrong navigating Road America during the XPEL Grand Prix, leading 14 laps before a mechanical issue on Lap 52. (Photo: Paul Hurley | Penske Entertainment)

Palou, the NTT P1 Award winner for the fifth-straight race, was looking to steal the show early by leading the first 13 laps of the race but made an extremely rare mistake on Lap 29 when he was penalized for speeding on pit road. Palou fell to the back of the pack, but a timely yellow flag for Christian Rasmussen stopping on-track at the start-finish line with a hybrid failure on his No. 21 Direct Supply ECR Chevrolet saved Palou’s day and allowed him to cycle back to the top 10 when the majority of the field made their pit stops under yellow.

Palou’s championship lead was cut down to 60 points over Malukas and 61 points over Kyle Kirkwood. By virtue of his second victory of the season, Lundgaard moved into fourth place in the standings, 77 points behind Palou.

The NTT IndyCar Series has next weekend off before they head into the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by the 2027 CR-V Hybrid on Sunday July 5.

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