After a scary incident during practice at Mid-Ohio in early July, Simon Pagenaud has yet to be cleared by the IndyCar Series medical team to return to the #60 Honda for Meyer Shank Racing. This will be the sixth consecutive race that the Frenchman has missed out on after the crash, with Conor Daly and Tom Blomqvist filling the seat at Mid-Ohio, Toronto, and the doubleheader at Iowa. As he did in Nashville, Linus Lundqvist will occupy the seat this weekend for the Gallagher Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
The 24-year-old Swede missed out on a full-time ride in IndyCar after capturing the Indy Lights (now Indy NXT) championship one year ago and has been searching for opportunities during the 2023 season. Lundqvist tested with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing at Texas Motor Speedway in April, along with another test with the Ed Carpenter Racing squad in June at Sebring. He also tested with Andretti Autosport in the Formula E rookie test earlier this year.
“…I know it is going to be tough again, but now I have a whole race weekend under my belt.” said Lundqvist in Tuesday’s press release. “Hopefully we can string some good results together and find some good speed, but I feel like it is going to be a super weekend.”
In his IndyCar debut on Sunday at the Music City Grand Prix, Lundqvist impressed by qualifying 11th and running inside the top 10 before crashing out of the race on Lap 69.
Swedish-born Lundqvist began racing in the United States in 2019, capturing the Formula Regional Americas championship in 2020 and occasionally competing in the GTD class of the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
