Christian Lundgaard became the first Danish driver to win a race in the NTT IndyCar Series earlier today with his win at Honda Indy Toronto. Lundgaard won the race by over 11 seconds in dominant fashion ahead of Alex Palou. The 21 year will celebrate a birthday in one weeks time so what better way to celebrate a birthday than with a race win. The win ended a 3 year dry spell at RLL Racing and the elation in the team garage was one for the books.
Lundgaard had the following words after the race, “ “First win! I have to thank HPD for this one, quite honestly, because of the tricky conditions we had in qualifying with the wet. I had never driven qualifying [in the wet]—max attack, especially on a street circuit—and they helped me tune in my throttle maps to get the absolute maximum performance. And today, making fuel mileage was so easy! We were pulling away. We had to save less fuel than the others, but we were getting better fuel mileage and going faster. The first one you don’t forget, so thank you, Honda.”
Alex Palou’s Extends Championship Lead Despite P15 Start
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. Palou extended his championship lead to 117 points on the weekend after his second place finish. Palou started the race from P15 so a podium was beyond the expectation of the team. To leave the race extending his championship lead after starting 15th is a testament to how dominant Palou has been in 2023.
Palou had the following words, “It was a tough day for the 10 car. We started P15 because we didn’t really nail our qualifying. But the car was super fast. We knew this during the whole weekend. We made an alternative [pit] strategy when we were already up front and from there it was just about making the fuel mileage. Kudos to Honda! We just made a ton of fuel—I think we were making more fuel than we had in the car! Really fun day. Really glad that we got that #10 Journie Rewards on the podium, so P2 feels good today!”
Next up for the series is Iowa Speedway for a double header. The HY-VEE Home Front 250 takes place on Saturday, July 22; with the HY-VEE One Step 250 running on Sunday, July 23.