Christian Lundgaard speaks with a reporter at Mid-Ohio on the same weekend he was told he would not be re-signed by McLaren.
Lundgaard and former teammate Nolan Siegel were deposed by McLaren for 2027 in favour of six-time IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon and Indianapolis 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist.
Those drivers come with awesome achievements in their own right, but Lundgaard has struggled to make sense of it when he was McLaren’s best finisher in the 2026 championship in third.
McLaren claimed Lundgaard lacked oval results and did not see him as an Indianapolis 500 contender, so it elected against re-signing him amid a quest to clinch the coveted Borg-Warner.
Lundgaard was left in the lurch but didn’t have to wait long to receive a call from Chip Ganassi, who swooped on the Danish driver when it became apparent veteran Dixon would depart.
“It’s still a big question mark to me and I think it is to many,” said Lundgaard of McLaren’s decision to let him go.
“I choose to look at it in a very different way. I’ve done well and a better opportunity has arisen versus what it could have been.
“I think this is a conversation that Chip and I have already had. We’re just looking forward now. It’s not really looking back.
“I would say as soon as the conversations really started [with Ganassi] that was when I would say my excitement changed,” he added.
“Obviously I was very disappointed, very confused, and I’m sure I share that opinion with many.
“But as soon as the conversations started, that was when I knew there was a chance and all I had to do was keep performing on track and it would all fall into place.”
Chip Ganassi Racing confirms Scott Dixon’s replacement
Lundgaard quickly emerged as the front-runner to join Ganassi.
Other names were in the mix including Marcus Armstrong, who ultimately re-signed with Meyer Shank Racing.
Ganassi said he had candidates from outside of IndyCar too but for a variety of reasons elected to fish in his own pond.
“There were some options outside of the series, but maybe the timing didn’t quite line up,” said Ganassi.
“You have guys that are in other series that aren’t done or are in a contract and they can’t talk until a certain date or they’re waiting to hear from their team or something.
“There are a lot of timing issues that come into play on these types of transactions.
“Christian’s name kept landing back as the obvious one. Like ‘wait a minute, we’re not overlooking this guy, are we?’
“Every name that came along, we said, ‘okay, well, how does that compare with Lundgaard?’
“Did they have to learn the tracks? Are they current with this type of drive style that you need? Or are they committed to maybe coming to the US?
“All these sorts of questions you have to ask when people pop up that aren’t in the normal week-to-week lexicon of drivers available.”
Lundgaard isn’t putting pressure on himself to overcome his speedway hoodoo.
After all, Palou’s first speedway win came in his sixth season in his 87th start when he won the 2025 Indianapolis 500.
“Alex had never won an oval until he won the 500 and kind of mastered it ever since. I think it’s the right place to learn that,” said Lundgaard.
“We want to figure it out. It’s not like I’m sat on the couch just waiting for it to happen. We’re working hard behind the scenes.
“I think we’ll figure it out very quickly here.”