Christian Lundgaard voices disappointment over Arrow McLaren’s Barber performance

Christian Lundgaard, driver of No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, qualified seventh for the Children of Alabama Grand Prix on Sunday, May 4. He expressed disappointment in his team's performance after qualifying.

Chip Ganassi driver and championship leader Alex Palou became the pacesetter for the qualifying, topping the session with a time of 1:07.2918. However, the three Arrow McLaren drivers, Nolan Siegel, Pato O'Ward, and Christian Lundgaard, were sixth, seventh, and eighth, respectively.

Siegel and O'Ward were pleased with their grid position, considering the circumstances; the former made his first Firestone Fast Six appearance, and O'Ward had little running time in the second practice due to an early crash. However, Lundgaard, currently third in the championship, had different emotions. Speaking post-qualifying, he voiced disappointment over the team's strategy.

"I'm a little disappointed, I will say. We didn't quite get the tires in the window for the push lap and went slower in Q2 than we did in Q1. I think there are a lot of positives to take from the weekend going into tomorrow's race. As a team, we're sixth, seventh and eighth. As long as we all make it through lap one, I believe we'll all be okay and definitely have some opportunities to bring Arrow McLaren forward in the race," he said.

One week after testing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the 27-driver grid of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series Championship is now at the Barber Motorsports Park for the fourth round of the championship.

Arrow McLaren TP claims Christian Lundgaard was on his radar for a significant time before signing

Honda Indy Toronto Grand Prix - Source: Getty

Christian Lundgaard is the lead Arrow McLaren driver on the grid; he is third in the IndyCar Series Championship with 96 points. The team's principal, Tony Kanaan, has expressed that the Danish driver was on his radar for quite some time.

The 23-year-old raced for Ed Carpenter Racing in 2023 and 2024 before replacing Alexander Rossi in Arrow McLaren for 2025. Impressed with his new driver, Kanaan shared that he had followed Lundgaard's career over the years, as one needed a backup plan in case Alexander Rossi switched camps.

"Over the years, I obviously followed his career — been watching him for quite a while. I had to have a backup plan if Rossi wouldn’t stay. You always have your instinct as a driver — you’re watching to see who might be the guy, and the conditions and the teams that he was in, because I was like that too, right?" Kanaan said via Racer.

Christian Lundgaard has had a promising run so far, finishing eighth in the first round at St. Petersburg, third in Thermal Club, and seventh in the Long Beach Grand Prix.