Christian Lundgaard is looking forward to his first oval race in IndyCar at Texas on the 20th of March at the Texas Motor Speedway.
The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver performed superbly at the season opener at St. Pete finishing in P11 ahead of Mexican superstar Pato O’Ward and his team mate Jack Harvey.
The Xpel 375 will become the first of five oval races including the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500 and a double header at Iowa.
Lundgaard is keeping level headed ahead of his oval debut and said via Rahal.com: “My expectations for Texas are kind of neutral to be fair. I think it’s going to be an interesting weekend for my first oval race and I’m looking forward to it.”
The 20-year-old drove at Texas in a test on the 2nd of February and found the session gave him more confidence on ovals. “During the test it was a big beneficial factor in that and I’m just looking forward to getting out there and racing around and to be around the other 25 cars on track.
It’s going to be exciting. We were six cars at the test and running in traffic in the afternoon went well and I think that’s where I gained the most confidence really.”
Lundgaard wants to implement his experience from the test this weekend and take victory in Texas. “So now having to go out there and hopefully win the thing — that’s the plan at least — it would be awesome to come and kind of lay your mark on the ovals.
I know it’s so different to whatever I’m used to but I’m looking forward to it and super excited. Texas here we come!”
The Danish driver will also use a new ‘PeopleReady’ livery this weekend. A livery that he will run at three events in 2022 including the Indy 500 and at the season finale at Laguna Seca.
His team mate Jack Harvey is making his oval debut with Rahal Letterman Lanigan after a switch from Meyer Shank Racing. He said via Rahal.com “Obviously Christian just tested there and everything went really well. I’m excited to get going at Texas.
Obviously, it’s my first outing with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing on an oval so we’re just looking to have a smooth weekend and be as aggressive as we can but obviously conscious of the fact that no one wins the race in the first corner but we don’t want to lose it that way either. I’m ready and excited to get back to Texas.”
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*Image credits: INDYCAR Photo
