2018 BRDC British F3 champion Linus Lundqvist claimed his maiden IndyCar Series podium at the Barber Motorsports Park yesterday (Sunday), after a stunning surge through the order from 19th on the grid.
The Swedish driver ran a bold three stop strategy, and even the led the race for a few laps at one point before claiming third in just his sixth IndyCar start.
Having made a strong start to life in IndyCar, with three excellent substitute appearances last year, he's now in the Chip Ganassi Racing line-up and has impressed again in 2024, with two strong race performances at St Petersburg and Long Beach, before his breakthrough podium, having also taken sixth place in the non championship Thermal Club event.
With his differing strategy, Lundqvist was the man on the move, passing series regulars including double champion Alex Palou with ease and attacking right until the end of the 90 lap contest.
"Man, it was amazing," said the 25-year-old afterwars. "I think for the first time ever I was not on the save fuel strategy. I was not the one being passed, which was nice.
"Obviously we had a bit of everything in that race for us. We started obviously quite far back, in 19th. In the beginning it was just about basically saving fuel as much as we can, see what we can do later in the race. The team kept telling me to hit your number, you'll reap the reward at the end. That definitely happened.
"I think after that second to last yellow, as well, I think it was Ferrucci ahead, then me. When he pitted, we had four or five laps that we went hard and tried to stretch the field a little bit. That kind of made our race.
"We came out with sticker reds, no fuel saving. Came out with a bunch of guys that had 25 laps on their tires, a bunch of fuel saving to do.
"That was a fun stint for me. When the guys came on the radio said I was third, I couldn't believe it. At the same time I was passing people like Palou. They're usually high up, we can't be doing too bad.
"Super happy and super proud of this for the whole 8 crew. It's amazing."