LEEDS, Ala. — Just four races into his first full-time NTT IndyCar Series season, Linus Lundqvist has checked his first podium finish off the to-do list after finishing third in Sunday’s (April 28) Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park.
Lundqvist qualified 19th on Saturday, the second-lowest of the Chip Ganassi Racing cars, trailed only by Kyffin Simpson in 23rd place. Much in the style of his other teammate, Scott Dixon, the young Swede used an alternative strategy to turn a lack of track position into a result that hadn’t been on the radar going into the race.
“Oh man, it was amazing,” Lundqvist said. “I think for the first time ever I was not on the save-fuel strategy. I was not the one being passed, which was nice.
“Obviously, we had a bit of everything in that race for us. We started obviously quite far back, in 19th. In the beginning, it was just about basically saving fuel as much as we can, see what we can do later in the race. The team kept telling me to hit your number, you’ll reap the reward at the end. That definitely happened.”
Lundqvist was among those to pit under a caution brought out when Pietro Fittipaldi spun into the wall on lap 6, knocking out the first of the No. 8 team’s three stops on the day and getting off the harder, slower Firestone Primary tires. Lundqvist emerged from the pits in 20th place on a set of fresh, faster Firestone Alternates and cycled as high as third place while the front half of the field made their pit stops.
On lap 37, Lundqvist was called in from third for a set of used Alternates, which the team was looking to stretch as long as possible to set up a short stint on fresher tires. They were aiming to give their driver an advantage over much of the field, who would be on used Alternates or fresh, but slower Primaries.
Lundqvist was able to stretch his rubber to lap 71, meaning it would be fresh, fast tires for the final 20 laps of the race. Leaving the pits in 14th place, without worry of saving fuel or conserving tires, the Ganassi freshman was turned loose and told to push as far as he could until the checkered flag.
On paper, nothing major, just some fancy strategy, right?
Maybe, but the action on track showed something much more potent. Lundqvist wanted this bad, and the team put him in position to light the track on fire in his pursuit of a podium result.
“No, I think this kind of goes for everybody,”…
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