Christian Lundgaard celebrates in victory lane Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (IndyCar photo)

By Thomas Hughes, SWN Staff Writer

INDIANAPOLIS (May 9, 2026) – It had been 1,028 days and 47 races since Christian Lundgaard last won an NTT IndyCar Series race.

On Saturday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, the 24-year-old Dane ended that three-year drought with a decisive late pass on Team Penske’s David Malukas, driving his No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet to victory in the Sonsio Grand Prix.

Malukas led a race-high 27 laps but couldn’t claim his first-ever win. 

“We keep getting close,” Malukas said. “We were having so much luck.”

With 18 laps to go, Lundgaard threatened for the lead over Malukas going into turn one. Making a move around the outside didn’t stick for Lundgaard, but he hung around.

Though the switchback didn’t work into turn two either, Malukas appeared low on energy deployment, allowing Lundgaard to close again into turn four.

It was there that Lundgaard made his move.

The McLaren wheelman pulled even with Malukas, nosing equal and creating space heading into the turn four and five complex, snagging the lead and not relinquishing it for the race’s duration.

“I thought, OK, ‘eff it, I’m going to stay on the outside and see how it goes,” Lundgaard said.

The pass eventually resulted in Lundgaard’s first win at the 14-turn, 2.439-mile circuit.

“I could see he was trying to set up for the undercut,” Malukas said. “We ended up having some little issue, and he managed to stick around the outside. Probably could have been maybe a little bit more aggressive, but I thought I had some fair racing. … It was a proper move.”

“It’s a lot of unfinished business for me here,” Lundgaard noted. “… We worked hard to try to figure out where we really went wrong last year… I hope that it doesn’t take another three years for another one, right?”

The start of the race was chaotic. On the first lap, chaos unfolded heading into turn one. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon got into A.J. Foyt Racing’s Caio Collet, who was spun around by Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin.

Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, who started in second, also spun around due to a lockup from Meyer Shank’s Felix Rosenqvist. Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Rinus VeeKay picked up damage before the opening turn, with his damaged front wing creating a tire rub.

Both VeeKay and Rosenqvist were assessed drive-through penalties. 

Meanwhile, VeeKay’s former teammate, ECR wheelman Alexander Rossi, retired from the race on lap 21 due to stalling on the frontstretch. After climbing out of the car with racing conditions still green across the majority of the track, Rossi lifted his hands in displeasure.

Following the race, he cited his displeasure with the engine product and IndyCar’s delay in throwing a course-wide caution.

“It’s pretty annoying to have failures on the car because of a product that we didn’t ask for that doesn’t improve the racing,” Rossi said. “… The fact it took that long to throw a full-course yellow when a car’s on the front straight and people are going by at 170 mph also seems insane when they don’t let us drive in the wet yesterday.”

On lap 27, Rosenqvist collided with Chip Ganassi’s Kyffin Simpson, going airborne and clattering back onto the racetrack. He ultimately finished 23rd, dropping 20 spots from his third-place starting slot.

By lap 50, Andretti Global’s Will Power had assumed the lead, though Malukas and Lundgaard were dueling for the net win at that point. Kirkwood had led the stint before, but Palou successfully undercut the American on lap 38 and Kirkwood went through the grass, costing him serious time.

Power ceded the lead after an improper pit exit on lap 59, where he locked up his brakes and crossed over the white line on pit exit, prompting a drive-through penalty for the miscue. 

Palou, meanwhile, pitted three laps later and rejoined in 15th. The Spaniard made up 10 spots but was unable to claim his fourth straight race win in the event, finishing in fifth. Still, Palou added to his championship lead, scoring nine more points than Kirkwood, who finished ninth.

Palou now holds a 27-point cushion, sporting 237 points to Kirkwood’s 210. 

With three laps to go, Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Mick Schumacher and A.J. Foyt’s Santino Ferrucci got into a scuffle that brought about a Ferrucci spin and warranted a penalty for Schumacher. The two were fighting for 11th place at the time of the incident.

Ferrucci finished 14th at race’s end, while Schumacher fell eight spots to P20.

But the day was about Lundgaard, who collected his third podium of the season with the victory following a third-place finish at the season opener in St. Petersburg and a runner-up at Barber.

Malukas’ second-place finish was also a season-best, while RLL’s Graham Rahal tied his with a third-place result, his second podium run of the year.

“I could tell right away, I didn’t quite have the pace for Christian,” Rahal said. “I could really close the gap there, but later in the stints, the rear would go off.”

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden and Palou followed in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Despite the early-race damage, Dixon recovered for a sixth-place finish, his fifth straight top-10 finish this season. RLL’s Louis Foster, Dale Coyne rookie Dennis Hauger, Kirkwood, and Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel rounded out the top 10.

For Foster, Hauger and Siegel, their seventh-, eighth- and 10th-place results, respectively, each marked season-bests.

With the Sonsio Grand Prix now in the rearview mirror, IndyCar remains at the track for its next fixture — the proverbial big kahuna, the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. It’s a race that can cement a driver’s legacy, both on the winner’s trophy and in the annals of IndyCar history.

Palou, the defending winner of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing, enters the ‘500’ with a 27-point lead over Kirkwood. Malukas trails behind in third with 185 points, while Lundgaard’s victory elevated him to a three-point gap behind the American.

Newgarden – the 2023 and 2024 winner of the ‘500’ – sits fifth in the championship with 162 points, 75 behind Palou.

Race-day coverage of the ‘500’ begins Sunday, May 24 at 10 a.m. ET, live on FOX, the IndyCar Radio Network, and SiriusXM IndyCar Nation, channel 218.