SALINAS, Calif — Christian Rasmussen just had to get out of bed this morning and the Indy NXT championship was his. He though is a racer. He’s a competitor. He wanted more than that.

Rasmussen grabbed his fourth trophy of the weekend on a picturesque day in Laguna Seca by winning Sunday’s Indy NXT season finale by an astounding 17.8813-seconds from the pole. He led all 35 laps as he left this race never in doubt.

He pulled out to a big early advantage until a caution on Lap 6 for Reece Gold stopping on track in Turn 5. He was spun by Kyffin Simpson.

The race would go back green on Lap 7 as Rasmussen opened up a 2.5915-second lead six laps into the run. By Lap 15, the deficit over the field was over 3-seconds. At the halfway point, he led Hunter McElrea by 3.6546-seconds.

Lap 25 the lead was 6.7800-seconds. Three laps later, it was pushing 10 -seconds. From Lap 30, the lead went from 11.3700-seconds to 17.0853-seconds when he took the white flag on Lap 34.

The insurmountable lead was enough for him to add more weight to his luggage coming home.

Not only does he have the pole trophy, but he’ll also have the winning race trophy from Sunday, the runner-up trophy from Saturday and best of all – the championship hardware to go along with it.

Rasmussen ended the season with his 6th podium in the last 8races including results of 1st, 1st, 6th, 1st, 5th, 2nd, 1st since Iowa. He came into Sunday with a 51-point lead and left 65 points up on a season that has seen him score 5 wins, 8 podiums, 11 top 5’s, 13 top 10’s and 275 laps led.

Hunter McElrea started on the pole and led all 35 laps on Saturday and while he started second on Sunday, he finished there too. He was in P2 all race.

McElrea had 1 podium in the first 8 races but 5 in the last 6. He does have 11 top five finishes on the season however and has openly said that he doesn’t necessarily want to come back to a third year in the series in 2024.

Did he show enough in the end to land one of the few NTT INDYCAR SERIES seats for next season?

Rasmussen now has some scholarship money and hopeful to make his way up.

Third place finisher on Sunday, Louis Foster, could be the championship favorite next season. He had 3 podiums over the final 4 races and 5 on the season with Andretti Autosport.

Matthew Brabham had another stellar run in a fourth place finish.