INDIANAPOLIS — Christian Lundgaard started on pole here in May. He was second in both practice sessions that weekend, qualified on the pole and finished fourth.

Despite saying on Friday of that race weekend that if he didn’t win, that he’d be disappointed, Lundgaard took a more measured approach after scoring his third career top five finish that day. He said that it was a relief that the race was actually over because the car was just too tough to drive on Saturday.

“Right now I’m satisfied,” he said. “It just wasn’t as quick today. There was a point of this race where I thought we weren’t going to finish at the top 10 with our balance. To end up with a top five is a win right now. And I think we need to look at the perspective of how our great performance wise and the positives to take from this weekend.”

Lundgaard started on the Firestone primary tires, just as the pole winner typically does here. It’s the safe play. With this track typically being a Firestone alternate race, he could go all out the rest of the way. Unfortunately, that just wasn’t the case for how his car was handling.

“Yeah, I mean, it was strange because that way that the reds were falling off,” he continued. “So I didn’t really understand how we got to balance so so wrong. But again, it’s things we need to learn from now. Of course, that’s not one of the best things and we’re not in the past. So these are the things that we need to learn.

“I don’t think we got it right today. I don’t think that call was the setup of the car was optimal for today’s race conditions and the tires. But again, it’s great points for us. I mean, I would rather be happy, be happy to say now we finished fourth.”

Lundgaard says that he gave it a little more than he had to, but the balance was the culprit to what not only kept him out of victory lane, but the podium too.

“I think we struggled a lot with balance today the car was from one one run to another run. It was a different balance. So it’s very, very difficult to to just understand the car. There was a point to where I didn’t really think I was gonna make it through just on balance that the car was so difficult to drive, but it’s here we’re in the top five. So that’s the positive nature of the race.”

He just didn’t have the balance and the right tire strategy to come out ahead. What did they learn though from that weekend to bring back and does it apply?

“We have learned a lot of things since we raced on the road course at IMS in May and it’s a continuous learning curve of course,” Lundgaard said this week. “I do think we’ll be competitive. It’s one of our strongest tracks and I think we’ve shown that as a team having had two cars in the Fast Six and having Graham qualifying eighth as well. I think we were the only team that had three cars in the top eight.

“We were competitive there and this gives us a chance to improve and make up for our mistakes in May. We weren’t on top of our strategy decisions and a lot has been learned since then. For sure the condensed weekend makes it more challenging but luckily this is one of the weekends and tracks where we know we will be competitive so we can be bold and experiment with other things and not necessarily worry about it for qualifying if it doesn’t work out in practice.

“It’s an interesting weekend and in the back of everyone’s minds that there will be NASCAR rubber on the track as well. Luckily, I don’t think it’s something that hurts us as a team. It will be hotter but, at the same time, looking at the statistics, the second Indy GP is the strongest one for the team the past two years and we’re going in off a pole from May so I don’t see a reason why we shouldn’t be competitive this weekend.”

So far, it’s paying off. He was third in practice in practice and second in qualifying. He was beaten by teammate Graham Rahal for the pole as RLL will share the front row for Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix (2 p.m. ET, USA, INDYCAR Radio Network).

“Honestly, it’s a very similar qualifying compared to the May race,” Lundgaard said. “We were first, fourth and eighth, now we’re first, second and eighth.

“Graham (Rahal) definitely took a step forward compared to May. I mean, it is a little bittersweet not getting the pole, but at the same time I would rather finish first tomorrow than finish first today.

“As a team, we’ve given ourself the best opportunity to win the race tomorrow. We have two cars starting on the front row. I think the last time that happened was in Barber 2018 when Sato won and Graham had an issue.

“I hope none of us have an issue tomorrow, but I hope we can fight for the win and may the best man win, really.

“From my own perspective, I’m already switched into race mode. I want to make sure that we have the best car in the field tomorrow.

“I know that Graham will be tough to beat. We’ll have to beat him by just out-smarting him. How we’re going to do that is something I’ll have to figure out really. But we’re definitely going to give each other — we’re going to race hard and race fair. I’m not going to sit here and say he will be favored, because I don’t think he will be, because I’ll give him a tough time.”

Lundgaard has been stout in 4 starts here which includes a runner-up last July and a pole and fourth place fun this past May. He’s also qualified 4th, 8th, 6th, 1st and now 2nd too.

On natural road courses this season, he’s qualified 6th and finished there in Barber as well as qualifying 7th and finishing there in Road America. The last time out in Mid-Ohio, he qualified 5th and finished 4th.

This is also Jack Harvey’s best track with 4 top 8’s including a podium and a fourth place start in May and Graham Rahal has 12 top 10’s in his last 13 tries too and has finished worse than 7th just once here since 2020 (8 races). He qualified 8th and finished 10th in May. He was on the front row in Mid-Ohio too.

Podium Finishers Of 2nd Race Weekend Here

2020 Race 1 (October): 2nd, 8th, 1st

2020 Race 2 (October): 1st, 2nd, 3rd

2021: 2nd, 3rd, 5th

2022: 2nd, 6th, 4th