\u201cI came out of Turn 3 and couldn\u2019t see anyone on the long straight,\u201d Tracy said after his remarkable victory. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t get angry and I didn\u2019t get depressed. I just got going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christian Lundgaard<\/a>, who won this year\u2019s IndyCar race at Road America, could relate to Tracy\u2019s plight. Lundgaard bumped Scott Dixon<\/a> in the first corner accordion at the start of the 55-lapper, sustaining a broken front wing and punctured left-front tyre that put him at the back of the 25-car field. But the Dane systematically worked his way forward, and when the cautions fell his way, found himself in position to pull away at the front to take his third career IndyCar race win, the second of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n Tracy pulls into the winners’ circle after a last-to-first charge at Road America in 2000<\/p>\n Photo by: Tannen Maury \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n Lundgaard also benefitted from some good old-fashioned Road America bad luck; Marcus Armstrong<\/a> held a three-second lead with three laps to go when his Honda engine lost power and subsequently blew up, creating a caution and a one-lap sprint to the chequered flag that Lundgaard was running away with before a clash between Will Power<\/a> and Graham Rahal<\/a> caused the race to end under yellow.<\/p>\n Already not in the best frame of mind after qualifying only 12th, Lundgaard blamed himself for running into Dixon in the Turn 1 funnel. But like Tracy more than a quarter of a century ago, he got down to work.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew how long the race was, and staying on the lead lap was the main goal,\u201d Lundgaard related. \u201cFrom there on, it\u2019s such a long race, and one caution brings you back in the game. You\u2019ve just got to take it from there. I knew we had the pace to come back and fight in the top 10. I just didn\u2019t expect it to be a win.<\/p>\n Malukas has strung together a series of second places but is yet to break through for his first IndyCar win, while Kirkwood and Lundgaard have experienced flashes of brilliance but have not shown the consistency needed to mount a serious championship challenge<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like this one today is a little bit of a cheat code,\u201d he added. \u201cI think Marcus should have won this race. That\u2019s racing. We’ve all had that.\u201d<\/p>\n One thing Road America did not produce was another ho-hum Alex Palou<\/a> victory. But his excellence was still on display. The Spaniard qualified on pole position for the fifth consecutive race, matching a streak last achieved by Danny Sullivan in 1988 and Alex Zanardi across six races spanning the 1997 and \u201998 seasons.<\/p>\n Palou was jumped by Indianapolis 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist<\/a> in the first round of pitstops, then got nicked for speeding in the pits during a green flag stop on lap 28. That earned the four-time IndyCar champion a drive-through penalty and he was only able to rebound to fifth place by the end.<\/p>\n Polesitter Palou had an off-day but still ended up fifth<\/p>\n Photo by: Michael L. Levitt \/ Lumen via Getty Images<\/p>\n Rosenqvist\u2019s race was ruined when Christian Rasmussen<\/a> pulled off with a duff hybrid unit which brought out a caution that required the Meyer Shank driver to stop for emergency service while the pits were closed. That handed the lead to his team-mate Armstrong, a 25-year-old New Zealander viewed as the heir apparent to six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon in the top-tier Chip Ganassi Racing<\/a> organisation.<\/p>\n But Armstrong felt his Honda engine start to tighten in the late stages, and within a lap or two, it let go in a cloud of smoke to create a dramatic final restart. There was little drama, as Lundgaard pulled away from David Malukas<\/a> and was established far out front when Power and Rahal disputed third place into Canada Corner on the last lap. Rahal\u2019s blatant block only got him dumped by Power, who was cleared of incident responsibility by IndyCar officiating.<\/p>\n![\"Tracy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/paul-tracy.jpg\")
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