By Austin Lawton, Staff Wrtier

Christian Lundgaard earned his second win of the 2026 IndyCar Series season on Sunday afternoon, taking the top spot late in the race after Marcus Armstrong’s engine went up in smoke. 

The result caught the Dane off guard, after a Lap One incident saw him mired in last. Lundgaard made contact with the back of Scott Dixon’s No.9 Honda in the chaos of the race start. Lundgaard came down pit road on Lap One to service his car. 

“It was a very eventful day, a very long day,” Lundgaard said. “Not quite what I had on my bingo card waking up this morning. Obviously this is what you hope for. I know on road courses, it didn’t really matter where we would start, we would always get good results. I think we produced very good race cars. We need to still figure out how to qualify better. Obviously this weekend has been a little bit of an outlier for me. Not felt comfortable, not had the pace in practice one or practice two, even though we tested here two weeks ago. A confusing weekend. To end with a win I would say confuses me even more.” 

Lundgaard was chasing down the No.66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda of Armstrong with five laps-to-go. Armstrong would start to experience the ill-fated engine issues with four laps left in the race. Lundgaard would guide his No.7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet to the lead, passing Armstrong on the inside of Turn 11. Armstrong would pull off the track, but a caution was thrown, setting up a one-lap shootout for the win. 

Armstrong, who had the fastest car all day and was en-route to a first career win, led 14 laps, en-route to a 24th place finish. 

“It was all smooth sailing,” Armstrong told FOX Sports after the race. “ I came out at Turn 6 and the engine just started sputtering like it was out of fuel, but it clearly wasn’t. It just completely died. We have to speak to Honda to see what the issue was. There was no indication that something was wrong. I’m massively proud of the guys. We had the quickest car out there today. We had the quickest car out there today. My engineers did everything right. Just gutted, really.” 

Lundgaard would lead eventual second place finisher David Malukas into Turn 1, with chaos and drivers jockeying for position, behind them. The race would finish under yellow when Graham Rahal squeezed Will Power in the Turn 12 braking zone. Power looked to the outside of Rahal, with both drivers under heavy braking. Rahal’s No.15 Honda would get turned across the nose of Power’s No.26 Andretti Global Honda, causing Rahal to spin into the gravel trap. 

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyffin Simpson was initially awarded third position, but race control would ultimately give Power the spot. 

Rahal would ultimately take blame for the incident with Power, telling media after the race:

“F**k yeah, I was blocking,” Rahal said. “It’s the last lap of the race, you’re allowed to. It’s not illegal. He [Power] had room to his left, so to run square into the back of somebody, it’s pretty disappointing and that’s all I’ll say.” 

Power’s view of the incident caught him by surprise, calling it “a pity” in the post-race press conference. 

Polesitter Alex Palou would end his day in fifth after leading early, but a speeding penalty in pit road on Lap 29 would have the CGR driver claw back to salvage some good points. 

“I just didn’t press the second button for the pit speed and as soon as I went on the power, I accelerated, so my fault,” Palou said regarding the penalty. 

SEE: XPEL Grand Prix at Road America Results

In what looked to be a cut and dry win for Palou, cautions once again played a factor in Sunday’s contest in Elkhart Lake, WI. The race saw five, all full-course, cautions, as IndyCar Officiating continues their new “standard” by not waiting for the pit stop cycle to complete in order to call yellows. 

The Lap 30 caution for Christian Rasmussen stopping on the front straight, due to a hybrid failure, played the biggest factor in the race.  The caution did not aid the leader at the time, Rosenqvist, who was poised to win after Palou served his drive-through for speeding. Armstrong would ultimately be the benefactor of said caution, becoming the lead driver out of the front runners. 

MSR driver Felix Rosenqvist would lead the most laps of the race at 18. Both MSR cars looked to have banner race days, but in conjunction with Armstrong’s engine failure, Rosenqvist was trapped in traffic late in the race, getting caught out on strategy after the Lap 30 caution, and would finish in eighth. 

The Indy 500 winner found it hard to pass while mired in the pack, but is content with his finish and the points that come with it. 

“It’s kind of a bittersweet day for us,” Rosenqvist said. “I’ll take the points and it’s a crazy race. This track is almost like an oval. You have so much dirty air and everything just gets hot, the tires and the brakes. You just have no downforce , so it’s pretty easy to get stuck mid-pack.”

Palou continues to hold his points lead going into Mid-Ohio on July 4 weekend, but looking ahead for Lundgaard, who sits fourth in points, 77 points behind Palou, the win comes at a crucial point in his season, as the Dane is seeking a contract extension with Arrow McLaren at season’s end. 

When asked if the win helps his case for a new contract, Lundgaard answered with a smile on his face. 

“Well it never hurts, does it?”