After impressing the team on his debut last weekend in Nashville, Linus Lundqvist will remain in Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 60 Honda on Friday and Saturday at the 85-lap Brickyard Grand Prix as the substitute for the injured Simon Pagenaud. It will …
After impressing the team on his debut last weekend in Nashville, Linus Lundqvist will remain in Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 60 Honda on Friday and Saturday at the 85-lap Brickyard Grand Prix as the substitute for the injured Simon Pagenaud. It will mark the sixth straight race where Pagenaud has not been cleared to drive by IndyCar’s medical staff.
Lundqvist qualified 11th on the unforgiving street course and ran as high as third in the 80-lap contest, but he made a mistake late in the event and struck the wall. Despite the error that left the No. 60 in 25th, the young Swede energized the MSR outfit — which also saw teammate Helio Castroneves earn a solid 11th in the No. 06 Honda — and made it easy for team owners Mike Shank and Jim Meyer to keep Lundqvist in the car for his second consecutive event.
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“Linus did an awesome job for us in Nashville,” Shank told RACER. “He had the fastest lap of the race, which is really cool, and he passed more people than I could ever imagine. He did a really did a good job and showed a lot of respect for Simon, which we appreciated.”
Lundqvist was humbled by MSR’s decision to keep him in the car.
“First I want to say a massive thank you to Mike and Jim for their trust to put me back in the car again,” he said. “The Nashville weekend was great in so many ways. Obviously, a lot of impressions and a lot of new stuff for me going on that weekend and I was pretty disappointed with the way that it ended. It was my mistake and I enjoyed it up until that point. I think it also left me and the team wanting more, which I am grateful for another opportunity at Indy.
“I know it is going to be tough again, but now I have a whole race weekend under my belt. Hopefully we can string some good results together and find some good speed, but I feel like it is going to be a super weekend.”
The dream IndyCar debut continues for Linus Lundqvist who rocked qualifying on Saturday at Nashville after earning a start in the Firestone Fast 12 for the heavy-hearted Meyer Shank Racing team. Everyone from team owners Mike Shank and Jim Meyer to …
The dream IndyCar debut continues for Linus Lundqvist who rocked qualifying on Saturday at Nashville after earning a start in the Firestone Fast 12 for the heavy-hearted Meyer Shank Racing team.
Everyone from team owners Mike Shank and Jim Meyer to the crews of the Nos. 06 and 60 Honda, the MSR organization has been in a funk since the scary crash that has sidelined Simon Pagenaud since the end of June. And thanks to Lundqvist’s run that earned 11th among the field of 27 drivers on the starting grid, the team felt joy and happiness for the first time in a long time.
“It feels good to do this for Simon and for every person and every company associated with this team,” Lundqvist told RACER. “I know how much of a hard time they’ve had since the crash, and Simon was helping me coming into the weekend to get ready with some phone calls giving notes and tips–and we’ve been texting—and it’s helped really quite a lot.
“I had no idea what to expect in qualifying, so that we even made it made it through the first group there was the best possible outcome for us. I’m just over the moon at the moment.
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With the run to 11th, Lundqvist also secured the No. 60 entry’s second-best start of the season, bettered only by Pagenaud’s 8th-place performance in qualifying at Detroit. MSR teammate Helio Castroneves will open the 80-lap race in 17th.
Despite the giant learning curve to overcome, Lundqvist has been fast and composed since the start of practice, and for those who watched the Swede utterly dominate last year’s Indy Lights championship, his remarkable pace and laser-focus should not come as a surprise in his maiden IndyCar outing.
“I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a very, very long time, and in my mind, I’ve been ready for a very long time,” he said. “So to get this opportunity, I’ve had this moment play in my mind so many times that now that I’m actually here, it feels a little bit surreal. But also, this is what I’ve been expecting, so I think that helps.
“And the team has done a tremendous job to make me feel at home, both within the car but also outside of the car, and the engineers are very good at making me feel comfortable in the car and getting to grips on an IndyCar weekend. It’s been a pretty tough time for the team, so seeing them smiling means a lot.”
It has been a long time since Meyer Shank Racing ended the first day of running on a road or street course with one of its cars near the top 10. Reigning Indy Lights champion and NTT IndyCar Series rookie Linus Lundqvist solved that problem on …
It has been a long time since Meyer Shank Racing ended the first day of running on a road or street course with one of its cars near the top 10. Reigning Indy Lights champion and NTT IndyCar Series rookie Linus Lundqvist solved that problem on Friday in Nashville after he produced the team’s best opening practice results since April 28 at Barber Motorsports Park where the currently-injured Simon Pagenaud placed the No. 60 Honda in ninth on the time sheet.
Lundqvist, on his IndyCar debut, came close by finishing the 75-minute session with the No. 60 car in 11th, one spot and 0.0648s behind six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon from Chip Ganassi Racing, winner of last year’s Music City Grand Prix.
The 24-year-old product of Sweden also stepped from the car as Friday’s fastest rookie, one position ahead of Ganassi’s Marcus Armstrong. Among his countrymen, Lundqvist was the quickest Swede, out-pacing Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist (18th) and Ganassi’s Marcus Ericsson, winner of the inaugural Nashville race, in 25th. Teammate Helio Castroneves was 16th in the sister No. 06 Honda.
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Altogether, MSR’s decision to give Lundqvist his first shot in IndyCar while Pagenaud is on the mend appears to have been a smart one.
“Really, really happy with FP1,” Lundqvist told RACER. “I think neither me or the team knew what to expect, and we still don’t know. There’s a long way to go and I don’t think everybody maximized what they had, ourselves included, but either way, super happy. Speed was there, but obviously, there’s a lot of time within myself to find, but a big thank you to the team.”
Lundqvist got to sample Firestone’s faster alternate tires to prepare for his first IndyCar qualifying session on Saturday, but didn’t get much of a feel for their full potential which could limit his results as the grid is set.
“The car that we rolled out with was very, very quick, but we definitely were on the safer side, so I think we’re gonna dial it up a little bit for tomorrow and more time is gonna come with it myself,” he said.
“And I only got the one lap on the alternates, for example, which was my first pushing lap. I think there’s a lot of time to gain there just to get more experience and know more of what to expect. Nonetheless, it was a very good first day.”
Reigning Indy Lights champion Linus Lundqvist will make his long-awaited NTT IndyCar Series debut this weekend at the Music City Grand Prix in Nashville aboard the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda. The young Swede is the newest substitute for Simon …
Reigning Indy Lights champion Linus Lundqvist will make his long-awaited NTT IndyCar Series debut this weekend at the Music City Grand Prix in Nashville aboard the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda.
The young Swede is the newest substitute for Simon Pagenaud, whose crash nearly a month ago at Mid-Ohio has left the Frenchman with concussion-related symptoms that continue to linger and prevent the resumption of his season. To date, MSR has used Conor Daly and its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship title winner Tom Blomqvist to keep the No. 60 Honda in motion.
With Blomqvist committed to race the No. 60 MSR Acura ARX-06 IMSA GTP car this weekend at Road America, and the team’s desire to sample new talent as it evaluates its 2024 lineup, Lundqvist was at the top of Shank’s list to stand in for Pagenaud if his recuperation time extended through Nashville.
He’ll have big shoes to fill and plenty of peril to avoid on the Tennessean street circuit that’s produced high attrition in its first two runnings. Last year, Pagenaud was one of the lucky few who started in the midfield and survived, motoring from 13th to ninth at the finish.
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“This is a moment I’ve been dreaming of literally since the start of my career. I could not be more excited about the prospect of finally making my NTT IndyCar Series debut; I am extremely grateful to Meyer Shank Racing for this opportunity,” Lundqvist said. “This will be an incredible experience, but also the toughest challenge of my life. Sitting on the sidelines all year, it would be a massive task to join any championship towards the end of the season – let alone the NTT IndyCar Series on the streets of Nashville.”
Lundqvist was previously scheduled to make his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut in the LMP3 class, but with the chance to start his IndyCar career, the 24-year-old was given a release to reroute himself from Road America to Nashville where he’ll have four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves to guide the way.
“There’s been very little time to prepare, but I feel like the sheer excitement of this moment will make up for some of that,” he said. “Of course, working alongside Helio – one of the true legends of this sport – will also be a huge asset. Last but not least, I would like to wish Simon Pagenaud a continued speedy recovery. While fully aware of everything I have to learn this weekend, I will do my very best to make him and everyone else on the team proud in Music City.”
Bijoy Garg, currently leading the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge LMP3 points, will team up with 2022 Indy Lights champion Linus Lundqvist for the next two two races in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship driving a second Jr III Racing Ligier …
Bijoy Garg, currently leading the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge LMP3 points, will team up with 2022 Indy Lights champion Linus Lundqvist for the next two two races in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship driving a second Jr III Racing Ligier PS J320.
Lundqvist (pictured above) has had a GTD start in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, but Road America and IMS will be his first races in LMP3 and first WeatherTech Championship starts outside of Daytona.
“I’m excited to be competing in an LMP3, this will be a new experience for me,” said Lundqvist. “I’ve tested in an LMP3, but haven’t raced in one yet so it will be exciting to see how it goes. It will be fun to be back, especially in a different class and on a different circuit.”
The race at Road America will mark Garg’s WeatherTech Championship debut, two years after Jr III’s debut at the Wisconsin circuit in 2021, and will be followed by the new race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“I’m excited to make the move to WeatherTech racing,” said Garg. “I believe the time I had in both the VP and Asian Le Mans Series really helped me prepare for the step up, but every field is different so you can’t really predict how it will go. I’m really looking forward to working with Linus and I think we will make a strong partnership.”
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Garg and Lundqvist will join WeatherTech Championship regulars Ari Balogh and Garett Grist for Jr III Racing. Grist is currently third in the points after Balogh had to miss a couple of races due to injury.
“We are beyond excited for the opportunity to run a second WeatherTech car,” said Jr III owner Billy Glavin. “We started out as a team running Prototype Challenge and have worked our way up to competing with two WeatherTech teams in just four seasons. The team has been working hard and we couldn’t have asked for a better team to do this with. I think Bijoy will do great in WeatherTech competition, he’s done really well in VP Challenge so I don’t see why this won’t be the same. This will be Linus ’first time with the team, but he has proved himself in an open wheel car and I believe he will do just the same in a P3.”
The Road America round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship takes place on Aug. 4-6. After the GT-only race at Virginia International Raceway (Aug. 25-27), the full five classes will be back in action for the inaugural TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sept. 15-17.
Reigning Indy Lights (now Indy NXT) champion Linus Lundqvist is getting closer to making his NTT IndyCar Series race debut. The 24-year-old Swede captured five wins, seven poles, and nine podiums last year on the way to claiming the title with HMD …
Reigning Indy Lights (now Indy NXT) champion Linus Lundqvist is getting closer to making his NTT IndyCar Series race debut.
The 24-year-old Swede captured five wins, seven poles, and nine podiums last year on the way to claiming the title with HMD Motorsports, and has conducted IndyCar tests on an oval with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and a road course with Ed Carpenter Racing this season in preparation for any opportunities that might arise.
Although he wouldn’t be drawn on the team in question, Lundqvist says he’s targeting the last few IndyCar rounds to make his series debut.
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“The last last two or three weeks, I’ve been back in Sweden and I did a Porsche Carrera Cup race, which was pretty fun, but it actually occurred to me that this was my first race of the whole year, which is insane to think about,” Lundqvist told RACER. “But it was nice to be back on track and I got a podium in my first race, so I was happy with that and it just motivates me even more to get racing in IndyCar.
“There is a good chance that I’ll be in one, two, possibly even three races before the end of the year. That’s at least what I’m working towards. I’m just waiting for a contract to be sent over and badly want to be on track soon.”
If the deal comes together, Lundqvist could be in the seat for the World Wide Technology Raceway oval and at least one of the road courses at Portland and Laguna Seca.
“The team asked me if I could do an oval and a road race, and they might try to throw another race in there,” he said. “Ideally, I’d like to finish out the three remaining races.”
Lundqvist says he’s been training and staying ready to race if the door to IndyCar opens at some point.
“My mindset the whole year, even though I haven’t had a drive, is to be as physically fit as I could be so if I need to get in a car right now, I would be ready for it,” he said. “I’m extremely thankful to the guys at PitFit for helping me out on that side, keeping me in the gym, always pushing me along.
“Over the IndyCar testing that I’ve done both with the Texas test and the Sebring test, I think I showed the teams and to myself that I was at a very good level, especially at Sebring with the temperatures in June. As a professional, you always have to be ready if something were to come up.”
Building off his test for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in April at Texas Motor Speedway, reigning Indy NXT champion Linus Lundqvist is expected to get another testing opportunity, this time in June at Sebring International Raceway with Ed …
Building off his test for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in April at Texas Motor Speedway, reigning Indy NXT champion Linus Lundqvist is expected to get another testing opportunity, this time in June at Sebring International Raceway with Ed Carpenter Racing.
Having received glowing feedback from RLL in its Honda-powered Indy car on the 1.5-mile oval, RACER has learned the young Swede is likely to sample Chevy power with ECR on Sebring’s short course which makes use of its outer road course loop — a favorite of IndyCar teams for decades — as the program evaluates the 24-year-old’s potential. Calls to ECR and Lundqvist for confirmation were not immediately returned.
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Since focusing his attention on American open-wheel racing in 2020, Lundqvist captured two dominant championships in a span of three years, starting with the Formula Regional Americas title where he won 15 of 17 races, and again in 2022 when he broke Andretti Autosport’s stranglehold on Indy NXT by winning five races and standing on 11 podiums from 14 rounds with the HMD Motorsports outfit.
With one NTT IndyCar Series road course test completed for Andretti Autosport, the next step in the education of 2022 Indy Lights champion Linus Lundqvist was to throw the Swede onto a big oval, and thanks to Bobby Rahal and the Rahal Letterman …
With one NTT IndyCar Series road course test completed for Andretti Autosport, the next step in the education of 2022 Indy Lights champion Linus Lundqvist was to throw the Swede onto a big oval, and thanks to Bobby Rahal and the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team, the 24-year-old nearly completed a full race distance on Monday at Texas Motor Speedway.
“I’ve followed Linus the last couple of years and being alerted to him by with Kenny Brack, and Kenny’s always spoken highly of him,” Rahal told RACER. “I wasn’t there, but all the feedback I got was that he did great. Very professional, very workmanlike. Just got in there and got with the program and he did as many laps as you would run in a race. All in all, you know, everyone was pleased.
“As I told him, we’re not looking for lap records. Just do a solid job, enjoy it, learn from it. It’s your day. I talked to him last night, in fact, and he was like a kid at Christmas. Was very appreciative of the opportunity. It was all good from our end.”
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Lundqvist turned his attention to American open-wheel racing after winning the 2018 British Formula 3 championship and soon added a 2020 Formula Regional Americas title to his quiver before graduating to Indy Lights. After dominating the series last season, the only educational gap left for the lifelong road racer to fill was at a 220mph oval like the one in Texas.
“I spoke to as many drivers and as many engineers I could before the test hoping to prepare myself a little bit, but nothing could prepare you for that, man,” Lundqvist said. “It was unbelievable. I’m not gonna lie…the first couple of laps, my stomach and head weren’t sure I if I should throw up or pass out…but I was fine. I had so many emotions on the first couple of laps.
“Proud of the day that we had, and it did run by very smoothly. Maybe the first 10 laps, I was like, ‘All right, this is fast.’ But then, by lap 11, you’re just like, ‘OK, how can we go a little bit faster and a little bit faster? How can we move my scrub?’ Very quickly, my brain turned on to performance mode. That was nice to see, because obviously I’ve never done an oval in IndyCar, I’ve never done a superspeedway before. So I wasn’t really sure how I was going to react. But I loved it.”
Along with the seat time, Lundqvist says the chance to be a part of RLL’s development process furthered his education toward a career as an IndyCar racer. Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment
Lundqvist spent the majority of the day working with RLL’s engineers to test different chassis setup concepts to find some of the speed that was missing during last weekend’s race. According to Rahal, a number of beneficial directions were identified with Lundqvist in the car that should improve the team’s fortunes on the next oval.
“It was great to have been a part of that,” said Lundqvist who spent almost eight straight hours strapped into the No. 45 Honda, barring a 10-minute break to heed nature’s call. “Obviously very impressive to see the scale of which they operate — the tools and all the data that they have access to is a big step and some new things to learn for me. It was great opportunity and a great honor to do a test together with those guys. The Indy 500 is coming up, and hopefully I played a small part and maybe they can then step a bit closer to the front.”
RLL doesn’t have any open seats to offer Lundqvist at the moment, but that didn’t stop Rahal from continuing his long tradition of helping young talent to gain more mileage or advance their standing in the IndyCar paddock.
“We are trying to help him, and I think I do have a little bit of a track record with bringing people into the sport or trying to help them resurrect their careers, whether it was Buddy Rice, or Ryan Hunter-Reay, or Danica (Patrick),” Rahal said. “Christian Lundgaard is someone we gave a shot to more recently, and we’ve tested Juri Vips a couple of times and there will be others.
“And now that Linus has done a big speedway like Texas, hopefully that makes him more attractive to anyone thinking about drivers for the Indy 500 or wherever else they might find themselves with a need. A lot of this goes back to my experience with Jim Trueman. Everybody thinks that I’m the only one he ever really got behind, but he got behind a lot of people and he enjoyed giving somebody a chance and seeing them run with it. I’m just trying to follow what Jim did for me and emulate him.”
Linus Lundqvist, the hard-charging Swede who won the 2022 Indy Lights championship after reeling off five wins and nine podiums from 14 races, was unable to take the small advancement prize offered by Penske Entertainment and find a seat in the NTT …
Linus Lundqvist, the hard-charging Swede who won the 2022 Indy Lights championship after reeling off five wins and nine podiums from 14 races, was unable to take the small advancement prize offered by Penske Entertainment and find a seat in the NTT IndyCar Series. But that didn’t stop Lundqvist from working hard throughout the offseason to create opportunities for himself, and after months of discussions, the 23-year-old has been rewarded with an upcoming test he’s arranged with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Set to test on April 3 at Texas Motor Speedway — the day after the IndyCar race on the 1.5-mile oval — Lundqvist will get a feel for RLL and a big and fast oval after being out of an open-wheel car since the final Indy Lights race in September.
“In this opportunity, I’m obviously very thankful and I want to say thanks to the RLL team and to Bobby Rahal for putting me in at this test,” Lundqvist told RACER. “I know that it’s going to be a little bit tricky for me because it’s been some time since I’ve been in a single-seater, but to do my first test with the team at Texas is gonna be exciting.”
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The outing with RLL will mark Lundqvist’s second time in an Indy car, having tested for Andretti Autosport late in 2021 as a reward for placing third on his Indy Lights debut. Although there are no guarantees, in a recent interview with a Swedish TV outlet Rahal did express his interest in fielding an entry for Lundqvist at unspecified IndyCar rounds later in the year.
“It will be about a year and a half since my last time in an Indy car, so hopefully I can do a good job and hopefully the team can get a good feeling for me,” he added. “Then maybe we’ll see what we can work out for the rest of the year. My dream is that we can put something together for more than just a test, but this is a great start. This test gets me going for the year.”
Although he’s lacked a home on the IndyCar grid, Lundqvist has maintained an intensive training regimen to be ready for any doors that might open.
“I’ve been going hard over the winter, both at the gym together with the Pit Fit guys, going to races like the 24 Hours of Daytona or wherever to see and meet with people, and doing everything else that I can do to stay in shape for any opportunities, and here we are,” he said. “Hopefully I’ve done a decent enough job over the winter to make the most out of things. I need to be out there, racing.”
