SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Christian Rasmussen drove a calculated and careful race to nab a career-best finish of 12th in his first Indianapolis 500, putting himself in contention for Rookie of the Year honors in the process.
Driving the No. 33 Chevrolet rather than his usual No. 20 entry, Rasmussen rolled off 24th, on the outside of row eight, for the May 26 event. The Dane was the lowest of the ECR cars in qualifying behind Rinus VeeKay, who advanced to Pole Day inside the top 12, and team owner Ed Carpenter, who qualified 17th for his lone appearance on the NTT IndyCar Series calendar for 2024.
Rasmussen’s effort eclipsed his previous best finish of 19th from the season-opening race at St. Petersburg. And with further finishes of 27th, 24th and 20th stretching from Long Beach to the Indianapolis road course, Rasmussen was more than pleased to lead the 2024 rookie class to the checkered flag in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
“I feel great,” Rasmussen told Fronstretch. “It’s been a rough start to my IndyCar career, so to finally get a result where I feel like we really deserved it, we fought for it, was awesome. And then doing it at this amazing place in front of all these amazing fans… so cool!”
Conditions couldn’t have been much more unorthodox for Rasmussen’s first attempt at the 500. A four-hour delay for heavy rain meant the race went green at 4:45 p.m. ET rather than the planned 12:45 p.m start. The resulting combination of a freshly-rinsed track, cooler temperatures and, likely, a fair amount of frustration and impatience among the drivers produced some of the most intense and frantic racing in recent memory at the Brickyard.
As a rookie on a good run, Rasmussen was confronted with the choice between pushing for more or knowing when to settle into a good position. He chose the latter.
“At the end I was like ‘Ugh! I want to move forward’ but I also don’t want to ruin a good day,” he recalled. “I was sitting in 12th, and I was very, very happy with that. I just tried to bring back the car, finish the day strong, and I think we did.”
When asked about dodging the day’s chaos, Rasmussen joyfully recalled that his race was comparatively calm.
“It was a lot of chaos, most of it was behind me,” he said. “I think it was Colton [Herta] that hit the wall in front of me, that was the only incident that was in front of me. I…
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