Christian Lundgaard Reveals the “Fairy Tale” Behind His Record-Breaking IndyCar Moment at Laguna Seca 2023 — and Why It Means So Much to Him
MONTEREY, Calif. — In the high-stakes world of IndyCar racing, where split-second decisions and raw speed define legacies, few moments capture the imagination quite like a track record lap. For Christian Lundgaard, the 23-year-old Danish sensation now driving for Arrow McLaren, that moment arrived under the California sun at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in September 2023. It wasn’t a checkered-flag victory or a championship-clinching drive, but a blistering qualifying lap that shattered a 23-year-old benchmark, etching his name into the circuit’s storied history. Recently, in a candid interview ahead of the 2025 season, Lundgaard opened up about the “fairy tale” origins of that achievement and the deep personal resonance it holds for him—a story blending childhood dreams, serendipitous timing, and an unyielding passion for one of motorsport’s most unforgiving layouts.
Laguna Seca, with its 11-turn, 2.238-mile ribbon of asphalt snaking through the Monterey hills, has long been a proving ground for the bold. The infamous Corkscrew—a blind, downhill plunge from Turn 8 to 10—tests not just a driver’s skill but their courage, demanding a leap of faith over elevation changes that drop 59 feet in mere seconds. For decades, the track’s surface had aged, its grip waning under the relentless assault of open-wheel machines. That all changed in 2023 when a full repave transformed the venue into a grippy paradise, shaving seconds off lap times and unlocking speeds unseen since the circuit’s early IndyCar days. It was against this renewed canvas that Lundgaard unleashed his magic.
The weekend kicked off with promise for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver, who was in his sophomore IndyCar season after a rookie year that saw him snag the 2022 Rookie of the Year honors. In the second practice session on September 9, Lundgaard topped the charts with a 1:07.6154 lap, edging out Rinus VeeKay by a mere 0.0392 seconds amid a flurry of red flags that disrupted the field. The session was chaotic—red flags flew for off-track excursions and mechanical gremlins—but Lundgaard’s No. 45 Honda remained unflappable, a sign of the pace that would soon follow. “The car felt alive from the moment we hit the track,” he recalled in his recent chat. “That repave was like discovering a new playground; the tires bit in ways they never had before.”
Qualifying that afternoon was the main event, the final shootout of a 2023 season that had already delivered Lundgaard his maiden win in Toronto. The air buzzed with tension as drivers pushed their Dallara chassis to the limit. Felix Rosenqvist, on the cusp of departing Arrow McLaren, seized pole with a 1:06.6416 effort, nipping Scott McLaughlin by a hair. But it was Lundgaard who stole the show in Group 2, uncorking a lap of 1:06.4610—good for an average speed of 121.226 mph. The time eclipsed the previous IndyCar record of 1:06.7765 set by Kenny Bräck in 2000, a mark that had stood impervious for over two decades. Starting third on the grid behind Rosenqvist and McLaughlin, Lundgaard’s run was pure poetry: a flawless entry into the Corkscrew, where he later admitted to “just trusting the setup and letting it rip,” followed by a late-braking masterclass into the Andretti Hairpin.
The record wasn’t without its fairy tale charm, as Lundgaard revealed with a grin during his interview. Growing up in Copenhagen, Denmark, far from the roaring ovals and twisting road courses of American open-wheel racing, the young karting prodigy first encountered Laguna Seca through grainy YouTube clips and grainier VHS tapes borrowed from his local racing club. “I must have been 12 or 13, obsessed with old IndyCar footage,” he said, his eyes lighting up. “There was this one video of the Corkscrew—drivers plummeting down like they were on a rollercoaster from hell. I replayed it a hundred times, dreaming of being the one behind the wheel. It wasn’t even about winning; it was about conquering that drop, feeling the car dance on the edge.” Those solitary viewings, often late into the night while his parents urged him to sleep, planted a seed. Laguna Seca became his North Star, a symbol of the fearless racing he aspired to embody.
Fast-forward to 2023, and reality mirrored those childhood fantasies in ways Lundgaard could scarcely believe. The repave, announced months earlier, had sparked whispers of record-breaking potential, but no one anticipated the Danish driver’s precision. “It’s kind of like a little bit of a fairy tale story from that,” he mused. “Looking up to those legends—Bräck, Zanardi, all the greats who tamed this place—and then, out of nowhere, you’re the one rewriting the book. It’s the only real story in my IndyCar career so far that feels like destiny.” He paused, reflecting on the post-qualifying debrief with his Rahal crew, where engineers pored over telemetry showing his lap was “optimal” save for a whisper of understeer in Turn 11. A small mistake in the Corkscrew during his pole-attempting run had cost him the top spot, but the record lap? That was untouchable.
Yet, for all its magic, the moment’s significance runs deeper than stats or headlines. In a sport where wins are fleeting and mechanical failures unforgiving, Lundgaard views the record as a personal anchor. “Laguna’s still my favorite track, hands down,” he affirmed, even as hybrid energy systems added 100 pounds to the cars in 2024, making outright pace harder to chase. “Racing there now with the extra weight? It’s tougher, more about strategy than raw speed. But that one lap in ’23… it reminds me why I left Europe, why I grind through the Indy 500 quals and the long-haul seasons. It’s proof that dreams don’t just happen—they’re built lap by lap.” He credits the record with boosting his confidence into 2024, where he notched podiums and inched toward consistent front-running form before his move to McLaren in 2025.
The 2023 Laguna Seca race itself was anything but serene, a chaotic finale that underscored IndyCar’s unpredictability. Starting third, Lundgaard’s afternoon unraveled in Turn 1 when he clipped McLaughlin’s rear, sparking a multi-car pileup that ensnared Josef Newgarden, Graham Rahal, and others. A drive-through penalty followed, dropping him to the midfield, but he clawed back to a respectable 11th, his focus already shifting to the off-season. Scott Dixon emerged victorious in the melee, but Lundgaard’s qualifying heroics lingered as the weekend’s true highlight.
Two years on, as IndyCar evolves with hybrids and new talent, Lundgaard’s tale endures. It’s a reminder that in racing, the greatest stories aren’t always told at the finish line but in the fleeting perfection of a single lap—a fairy tale scripted in asphalt and adrenaline, forever linked to the boy from Denmark who dared to dream of the Corkscrew. For Lundgaard, it’s more than a record; it’s a cornerstone, fueling his drive as he eyes championships and more chapters in his burgeoning legacy.
