Tag: Christian Rasmussen

McElrea wins Indy NXT Laguna race 1, Rasmussen title all but won

Hunter McElrea timed his second pole position well as he tried to stay in the hunt for the Indy NXT title but, as ever, the Andretti Autosport driver was accompanied on the front row by Christian Rasmussen of HMD Motorsports. McElrea got away well …

Hunter McElrea timed his second pole position well as he tried to stay in the hunt for the Indy NXT title but, as ever, the Andretti Autosport driver was accompanied on the front row by Christian Rasmussen of HMD Motorsports.

McElrea got away well at the drop of the green with Rasmussen falling 1.7s behind by the end of the first lap. He had at least stayed clear of Danial Frost, who was being pursued by the Juncos Hollinger Racing car of Victor Franzoni, Kyffin Simpson (HMD) and Louis Foster (Andretti). Foster was under pressure from the fast-starting Jacob Abel of Abel Motorsports, who had jumped from ninth to seventh on the opening lap.

By lap 7, McElrea’s lead was out to almost 5s before Rasmussen started pegging it back, while also pulling 4s over Frost who was staying clear of the feisty battle for fourth between Franzoni and Simpson.

At the halfway point, McElrea’s lead was out to 6.8s, but that was deleted at half distance in this 35-lap race when Foster flew off the road at fast uphill Turn 6 while being passed by Abel (a battle for sixth). Foster believes Abel elbowed him off; race control concurred and demanded Abel serve a drive-through penalty.

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The restart came at the end of lap 22 and didn’t last long, as Cape Motorsports’ Kiko Porto went off the track at the final turn and Francesco Pizzi (Abel) suffered a punctured left-rear tire and went off at Turn 2. He limped around and got a new boot without losing a lap, but having run a strong eighth, it was destined to be a disappointing day.

The lap 26 restart saw McElrea flawless again ahead of Rasmussen, Frost, Franzoni and Simpson, but Abel’s drive-through penalty promoted Matthew Brabham to sixth in the second JHR car, ahead of James Roe, Ernie Francis Jr, Jagger Jones and Christian Bogle.

A third caution then flew for debris on the front straight, leaving the 18 contenders with a five-lap shootout. Approaching the final turn as the green flag flew, Simpson dived down the inside of Franzoni, and Brabham followed suit to go into fifth.

The race ended under yellow when Nolan Siegel (HMD) dived down the inside of Jamie Chadwick (Andretti) at Turn 10 — he claimed she brake-checked him — and the pair spun off into the gravel.

McElrea’s win means he is still technically in the hunt, but Rasmussen’s lead is now 51 points.

RESULTS

Rasmussen edges Simpson in Indy NXT Portland practice

Christian Rasmussen continued to lay claim to the 2023 ndy NXT by Firestone championship, leading the opening practice Friday for the Grand Prix of Portland at Portland International Raceway. Rasmussen, from Denmark, led with a top lap of 1m2.8194s …

Christian Rasmussen continued to lay claim to the 2023 ndy NXT by Firestone championship, leading the opening practice Friday for the Grand Prix of Portland at Portland International Raceway.

Rasmussen, from Denmark, led with a top lap of 1m2.8194s in the No. 6 HMD Motorsports with DCR car. Rasmussen, who has won three of the last four races, leads Hunter McElrea by 50 points in the standings with three races remaining.

“We’re starting off where we left off at St. Louis, so that’s good,” Rasmussen said. “We knew we had a strong car around here, that this was going to be a strong weekend. So far, so good. I’m looking forward to another practice and qualifying tomorrow, and hopefully we can stay up front.”

Up next is the second practice at 2:20 p.m. ET Saturday on the 12-turn, 1.964-mile road course, followed by qualifying at 7:30 p.m. ET (both sessions live on IndyCar Live and the IndyCar Radio Network). Live coverage of the 35-lap race starts at 1:10 p.m. ET Sunday on Peacock and the IndyCar Radio Network.

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Rasmussen and the rest of the field will aim in qualifying for the track record for the series, 1m02.8074s by current NTT IndyCar Series star Pato O’Ward in 2018. Rasmussen’s quick time in this session was only 0.0120s slower than O’Ward’s mark.

Kyffin Simpson returned to the series with speed after a one-race hiatus, ending up second at 1m02.9945s in the No. 21 HMD Motorsports with CGR machine. Simpson missed the round last weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway due to a clashing European Le Mans Series race.

McElrea was third at 1m03.0333s in the No. 27 Smart Motors machine fielded by Andretti Autosport.

Louis Foster was fourth overall and the top rookie at 1m03.0517s in the No. 26 Copart/USF Pro Championship car of Andretti Autosport, and Jacob Abel rounded out the top five at 1m03.1108s in the No. 51 Abel Motorsports machine.

RESULTS

Rasmussen peaking at the right time in Indy NXT title fight

We’ve been waiting for an Indy NXT driver to stake their claim on the championship, and with his fourth win of the season and third in a row, Christian Rasmussen is stepping up at the right time. The 2020 USF2000 and 2021 Indy Pro 2000 champion has …

We’ve been waiting for an Indy NXT driver to stake their claim on the championship, and with his fourth win of the season and third in a row, Christian Rasmussen is stepping up at the right time.

The 2020 USF2000 and 2021 Indy Pro 2000 champion has used his switch from Andretti Autosport’s NXT program to HMD Motorsports for his sophomore season to full effect, romping to commanding wins at Barber Motorsports Park, Iowa Speedway, the Nashville Grand Prix, and Saturday night at World Wide Technology Raceway.

Combined, the 23-year-old has tamed a natural-terrain road course, the shortest oval on the calendar, a street course and another short oval, which speaks to his exceptional talent. Factor in his two NXT wins from 2022 and the 11 times he’s stood on the podium since moving up to IndyCar’s top training category, and Rasmussen is doing all the things IndyCar team owners are looking for at this stage in his career.

“It’s super important to be a good all-around driver,” Rasmussen told RACER. “I think I really learned some good lessons last year running Indy NXT about how to really compete in the championship on this level. And we’re just doing super well this year.”

With HMD storming to last year’s NXT title with Linus Lundqvist, who was confirmed today as Chip Ganassi Racing’s newest IndyCar driver, Rasmussen’s decision to join the program — which entered 2023 with nine cars on the grid – has had a similarly transformative effect on his career.

“It just shows you how good of a package we’ve got,” he said. “We have so many cars in the team, which [had] some people thinking ahead of the season that that was going to be an issue. It really wasn’t. We have a lot of data, which helps us get up to speed super quick. And we’re just getting it done. It’s a team effort.

“I’d like to take some of the credit. I think I’m doing an all-right job out there. But without the proper package to do so, it’s very hard. Team effort.”

He’s got a 51-point lead over Andretti’s Hunter McElrea with three races to go, and while he can’t clinch the title this weekend in Portland, he does have the ability to make it all but impossible for McElrea to overtake him next week at the Laguna Seca NXT doubleheader finale if he has an excellent result in Oregon.

Rasmussen and the rest of the NXT field go green on Sunday at 1:15 pm ET on Peacock.

Rasmussen motors to fourth Indy NXT win of 2023 at WWTR

Christian Rasmussen of HMD Motorsports extended his points lead over Hunter McElrea by scoring his fourth win of 2023, as his opponent lost second to Andretti Autosport teammate Louis Foster following a late-race restart. Due to the horrendous …

Christian Rasmussen of HMD Motorsports extended his points lead over Hunter McElrea by scoring his fourth win of 2023, as his opponent lost second to Andretti Autosport teammate Louis Foster following a late-race restart.

Due to the horrendous weather that afflicted Madison, Illinois, the Indy NXT field at World Wide Technology Raceway was set by championship points, meaning HMD Motorsports’ Rasmussen would start on pole with McElrea’s Andretti Autosport car alongside. Rasmussen’s teammate Nolan Siegel lined up third ahead of Jacob Abel of Abel Motorsports, while the Andretti cars of Foster and James Roe filled out the third row ahead of two more HMD cars — those of Reece Gold and Danial Frost.

There were 75 laps scheduled but there were doubts beforehand that the next shower would stay away long enough to compete the full race distance. Thankfully the 15 starters lined up well so there was no false start, and when the green dropped, Rasmussen pulled away from McElrea. However the strongest cars in the early laps were Frost – up from eighth to third – and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Matthew Brabham, who rocketed from 11th to fifth in two laps.

By contrast, Siegel, Abel and Foster had dropped from 3-4-5 to 6-7-8, and Foster was desperate to remedy the situation, even rubbing Abel as he passed him on lap 10.

Up front, Rasmussen had pulled only a 1.2s margin over McElrea, who was doubtless nursing his tires by trying to not sit indefinitely in the dirty air of his opponent.

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Foster and Abel moved past Siegel on lap 16, Foster passing him on the outside of Turn 3, Abel getting him on the way out of T4. Siegel was being somewhat cautious after suffering a shunt in the sole practice session this afternoon.

The Foster and Abel double-act continued on lap 23, zapping past Brabham to claim fifth and sixth. Then attention swung to the front, at one-third distance. Rasmussen, who had extended his lead to 2s, suddenly found his mirrors full of McElrea as he hit traffic. Over 10s back, Foster and Abel demoted Roe to claim fourth and fifth.

On lap 30, Rasmussen found himself driven high by Jamie Chadwick as he lapped her at Turn 1, and he inevitably lost momentum as he gathered it up. That allowed McElrea to close in and draft past the HMD car to take the lead.

McElrea lost momentum behind the second JHR car of Rasmus Lindh, and ceded the lead to Rasmussen. In fact, by lap 40 he was almost 3.5s behind the HMD car, and was starting to fall into the clutches of Frost. He finally stopped the rot with around 30 laps to go and started to shave his 4.7s deficit, and reestablish more than a 3s lead over Frost. In fact, by lap 50, the latter started to come under pressure from Foster who had left Abel 14s behind, fully focused on trying to claim a podium position.

Then on lap 55, out came the caution: Roe had smacked the Turn 2 wall hard. That gave everyone a chance to nurse their tires and meant the leaders no longer had to contend with traffic, come the restart.

The green waved again at the start of lap 64, and Rasmussen made a great break, ahead of McElrea, while after two laps, Foster swung past Frost on the outside at Turn 1. When McElrea tried and failed to pass Rasmussen, he lost momentum, and lost second to the charging Foster. Just a couple of seconds back, Abel elbowed Frost aside to grab fourth.

Foster had done a fine job after his poor start, but he had nothing for leader Rasmussen, who came home 1.8s ahead of Foster for his fourth win of the season, having extended his championship lead over McElrea to 50 points.

Abel held off Frost to claim fourth, with Siegel sixth ahead of Matt Brabham and Ernie Francis Jr.

RESULTS

Rasmussen dominates Indy NXT in Nashville

Christian Rasmussen led from pole to checkered flag, holding off Hunter McElrea to claim his third win of the Indy NXT by Firestone season and extend his points lead. The 19-car field was insufficiently packed up for race control, so the first start …

Christian Rasmussen led from pole to checkered flag, holding off Hunter McElrea to claim his third win of the Indy NXT by Firestone season and extend his points lead.

The 19-car field was insufficiently packed up for race control, so the first start was waved off although that first lap held under yellow counted toward the 35-lap total.

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With the grid lined up in championship order following the cancellation of qualifying due to bad weather, Christian Rasmussen got the jump from pole with HMD Motorsports tucking in behind to remain second, while Andretti Autowport’s Hunter McElrea jumped ahead of Jacob Abel (Abel Motorsports).

On lap 3, Siegel lost momentum as McElrea passed him and soon he had fallen to fifth, now behind Abel and Louis Foster (Andretti). This battle for second was a blessing for Rasmussen, who by lap 4 had a 3.5s lead over McElrea. Behind Siegel ran two of his teammates, Reece Gold and Danial Frost, while eighth placed James Roe of Andretti was pursued by two more HMD cars, Ernie Francis Jr. and Kyffin Simpson. Cape Motorsports’ Matt Brabham and Jagger Jones were up to 11th and 12th from 15th and 14th.

On lap 6, Frost passed Gold for sixth, and Francis took Roe for eighth.

By lap 8, McElrea had stablized his deficit to Rasmussen at around 3.5s, while pulling over three seconds away from Abel, who had Foster filling his mirrors. Siegel had fallen four seconds behind this pair.

His issues were as nothing compared with Gold, who on lap 10 tumbled down the order, apparently locking his front brakes at every corner.

The following lap, Foster finally used his push to pass boost over the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge on the way to Turn 9 to get past Abel despite a couple of rubs, and third was his. Immediately he set his fastest lap of the race, trying to close down the 3.5s gap to McElrea who had now slipped to 4.5s behind leader Rasmussen. At the same time, all three had to bear in mind the potential of a yellow flag period, so they didn’t want to take too much life out of their Firestones.

That circumstance almost arrived on lap 16 when Brabham’s attempted pass on Simpson at Turn 4 ended in a gentle run-on into the tires, from which he had to reverse and rejoin in 15th. On lap 17, that full-course caution appeared, when Christian Bogle smacked into the wall at Turn 10. With his broken front wing, he dropped some debris in the middle of the track which needed retrieving as he tried to limp to the pits.

The green flag dropped at the start of lap 20, and the only order change was Rasmus Lindh of Juncos Hollinger Racing passing Simpson for ninth. However, two laps later Francis and Roe jumped Frost to claim sixth and seventh respectively.

Up front, meanwhile, McElrea was not letting go of Rasmussen, the pair of them eking out a small gap over Foster, even before the next caution flag flew on lap 24, when Francis’s charge ended after ripping off his right-front on the tires at the exit of Turn 4.

At the end of lap 27, the restart saw Rasmussen kept clear of his pursuers, but on lap 28 Abel muscled past Foster on the run to Turn 11 to reclaim third. Then out came the next yellow, as Lindh and Frost came together, with the latter ending up in the wall at Turn 4.

There was less than six minutes remaining in the time-constrained race, so the full 35-lap distance looked unlikely. The very edgy battle between Abel and Foster ended in tears for the Andretti driver, as he disappeared briefly down the Turn 11 escape road. However, Abel was penalized for blocking and had to cede a position to Siegel. However, Abel came right back at the HMD driver and reclaimed third a couple of corners later.

Up front, Rasmussen showed the same form he had displayed in the opening laps, and pulled clear of McElrea, who was eight seconds ahead of Abel after the Canadian’s shenanigans.

On the final lap, Roe passed Siegel, while the recovering Foster demoted Lindh to claim sixth at the checker. Siegel’s fall to fifth meant that Rasmussen’s third win extends his points lead to 45 with five rounds to go.

RESULTS

Rasmussen goes lights to flag in Indy NXT Barber win

Christian Rasmussen completed his tour de force of Barber Motorsports Park on Sunday, winning the Indy NXT Grand Prix of Alabama from the pole position. Rasmussen led all 35 laps to drive his No. 6 HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing entry to a …

Christian Rasmussen completed his tour de force of Barber Motorsports Park on Sunday, winning the Indy NXT Grand Prix of Alabama from the pole position.

Rasmussen led all 35 laps to drive his No. 6 HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing entry to a 1.9983s victory over rookie teammate Nolan Siegel in the No. 39 HMD Motorsports with DCR car. It was the third career Indy NXT victory for Rasmussen, who won two races as a series rookie in 2022.

Danish driver Rasmussen also captured the IndyCar development series’ championship lead by five points over Siegel with the win.

“The HMD boys have just given us an amazing car all weekend,” Rasmussen said. “Right from the get-go in first practice, we were on top, and we just continued that the whole weekend.

“It was pure HMD domination this weekend. I can’t thank them enough. They make me look good out there.”

Toby Sowery rounded out the podium finishers in third in the No. 14 HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing. It was Sowery’s first Indy NXT start since 2021, as he was filling in this weekend for regular driver Josh Pierson, who had clashing commitments in the World Endurance Championship sports car race at Spa-Francorchamps.

Sowery’s first podium result since he placed third in 2021 in Detroit was part of HMD Motorsports’ sweep of the top three spots at the finish. But it could have been the top five spots, as HMD teammates Josh Green and Danial Frost collided on the final lap while dueling for fourth place and ended up ninth and 10th, respectively, after Frost was assessed a 30s post-race penalty for incident responsibility.

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That accident elevated rookie Enaam Ahmed to fourth in the No. 47 Rickshaw Rocket car fielded by Cape Motorsports and veteran James Roe to fifth in the No. 29 Topcon machine from Andretti Autosport.

Rasmussen’s march to victory was interrupted only by two full-course caution periods and a red flag.

Series rookie Louis Foster ran off course on lap 26 and hit the barrier in Turn 9 while running third in the No. 26 Copart/USF Pro Championship car, telling his Andretti Autosport team on the radio that his throttle stuck open. Rasmussen’s 3s lead vanished with that crash.

Race officials halted the race for 11 minutes with a red flag after Foster’s accident to provide more time for track cleanup. On the ensuing restart on lap 31, Rasmussen powered away and drove to the checkered flag under sunny skies.

Rasmussen was cruising out front on lap 14 when his 2.7s lead evaporated due to a collision between the No. 51 Abel Motorsports car of Jacob Abel and the No. 75 Juncos Hollinger Racing machine of Matteo Nannini at the exit of Turn 17.

But Rasmussen pulled away quickly on the restart on lap 18, stretching his lead to 1.3s after just one lap. From there, he padded his lead by a few tenths of a second each lap around the roller coaster of a 17-turn, 2.3-mile circuit until the second caution period and red flag.

The next race is the Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix on Saturday, May 13 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course (1 p.m. ET, Peacock, IndyCar Live, IndyCar Radio Network).

RESULTS

Rasmussen wins Barber Indy NXT pole with track-record lap

Christian Rasmussen won the pole for the Indy NXT Grand Prix of Alabama on Saturday, leading a train of 13 drivers quicker than the track record at Barber Motorsports Park. Rasmussen, from Denmark, saved his best lap for last in the frantic, …

Christian Rasmussen won the pole for the Indy NXT Grand Prix of Alabama on Saturday, leading a train of 13 drivers quicker than the track record at Barber Motorsports Park.

Rasmussen, from Denmark, saved his best lap for last in the frantic, eight-minute session, earning his second career Indy NXT pole with a time of 1m10.7371s in the No. 6 HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing entry. That lap obliterated the track record of 1m11.5149s set by Linus Lundqvist during qualifying in 2021 on the 17-turn, 2.3-mile road course.

“It was really just about getting a free lap,” Rasmussen said. “There was so much traffic out there. Very happy and got it strung together at the end, got a free lap. It was enough. That’s part one done. Now we have part two tomorrow, and hopefully we can stay in front.”

The 35-lap race is scheduled for 12:55 p.m. Sunday (live on Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network).

Rookie Nolan Siegel, quickest in practice Saturday morning, will join Rasmussen on the front row after his best lap of 1m10.8682s in the No. 39 HMD Motorsports with DCR car. Fellow rookie Louis Foster qualified third at 1m10.9247s in the No. 26 Copart/USF Pro Championship machine fielded by Andretti Autosport.

A top-three starting position has been an essential path to victory at this race. In 17 Indy NXT races at Barber, the winner has come from the first three starting spots. The polesitter has won 14 times and finished second three times, a good omen for Rasmussen.

“When you look back at history, 14 out of the last 17 races have been won from pole,” Rasmussen said. “We’ll just try to replicate that.”

Veteran Hunter McElrea helped Andretti Autosport lock out the second row of the starting grid by qualifying fourth at 1m11.0690s in the No. 27 Smart Motors car.

Toby Sowery, making his first series start since 2021, qualified fifth at 1m11.0836s in the No. 14 HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing car. His teammate Kyffin Simpson rounded out the third row of the grid after his best lap of 1m11.1578s in the No. 21 HMD Motorsports with CGR entry.

RESULTS