Christian Lundgaard reflects on the agony underlining his Long Beach podium

Christian Lundgaard pondered over his agony at the Long Beach Grand Prix. The #7 Arrow McLaren driver finished the race in third position.

During the qualifying session at the 50th anniversary of the ACURA Grand Prix of Long Beach, Lundgaard crashed his Chevrolet-powered McLaren, resulting in a damaged tub, and qualified in 12th. The team had to replace the chassis with a back-up chassis. Reflecting on this incident, Lundgaard spoke to Frontstretch about Dallara building strong parts and the chassis swap.

"Fortunately and unfortunately, Dallara built some very strong parts. The endplate made a dent on the chassis. It was a big hit but the end plate was fine basically, the chassis wasn’t, so we had to change it. It was a call straight away. We changed the chassis. The guys were back home by 10 p.m. last night.” Lundgaard said.

Lundgaard started the race on primary compound tire while the others started on alternate compound tire. He pitted early, eventually overtaking Felix Rosenquist on lap 86 to secure a third-place finish.

“I didn’t really think I was going to be able to go get Felix,” Lundgaard added. “I mean, Alex, Felix and Kyle just seemed stronger at the beginning of the stint. I think we came back to them at the end of the stint where I think we had a little more pace than they did.”

Christian Lundgaard finished in third behind Kyle Kirkwood and Alex Palou. During the 2024 season Long Beach Grand Prix, Lundgaard finished the race in 23rd for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

Christian Lundgaard dedicates his podium finish to Late Jon Edwards

Arrow McLaren driver Christian Lundgaard dedicated his podium finish to his team and Hendrick Motorsports' Jon Edwards.

Edwards, a former PR representative for Kyle Larson and Jeff Gordon, passed away last week. His death was mourned in both IndyCar as well as NASCAR. To pay their respects, Arrow McLaren put a decal dedicated to Edwards on all of their cars.

After climbing out of the car and preparing for the podium ceremony, one of FOX's reporters asked him about the race. The Danish driver praised the team for their efforts and also dedicated the podium finish to Edwards.

“This one's dedicated to the crew. I think everybody on the the number seven Velo Arrow Chevrolet got to rebuild the car yesterday. I damaged the car in the crash in qualifying. This is to them. Mr. Jon Edwards, who unfortunately passed away ... So this one's to everybody on the entire Arrow McLaren team,” Christian Lundgaard said.

Lundgaard had a huge crash during his qualifying, which impacted his session, and he ended up in 12th position.