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In his first IndyCar session Linus Lundqvist turned the 11th fastest lap in Friday practice at the Music City Grand Prix.
The 2022 Indy NXT series winner, Lundqvist is making his IndyCar debut this weekend at Nashville in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda as a fill-in for Simon Pagenaud.
Lundqvist turned in 30-laps during the opening session, more than any other driver across the 27-car field, posting a fastest time of 1:17.3524 to be 0.9482s slower than session leader Will Power.
“I felt myself that there was quite a lot of time within it and just getting comfortable, but overall, I think we rolled out and had a very good package, so massive thank you to the team,” Lundqvist said.
“Obviously I’ve still got plenty to work on, but it’s going to be a good night, going to sleep on it, get a lot of impressions done and hopefully we can take another step tomorrow.”
After Conor Daly and Tom Blomqvist filled in for Pagenaud, Lundqvist is the third driver in four events to deputize for the 2019 Indianapolis 500 winner, with the Swede using some of his Indy NXT championship scholarship winnings to fund the seat.
Lundqvist’s scholarship for winning the 2022 Indy NXT championship was a lot less than those of previous champions, limiting his options for finding a full-time IndyCar Series ride.
While Lundqvist has tested with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Ed Carpenter Racing this year, seat options have been limited for the 24-year-old.
“I know this is probably – well not probably – it is going to be the toughest thing that I’ve ever done,” Lundqvist said before practice.
“Jumping into the end of an IndyCar season and not having any experience with a race before and [being] asked to perform. It’s going to be very, very tough. But it’s also what I’ve been waiting for, it’s been a long time coming and I’ve been working extremely hard for a situation like this to go and perform and we’ll try our best.”
Lundqvist has previous experience at the Nashville circuit, winning the 2022 Nashville Indy NXT race ahead of Sting Ray Robb by over seven seconds.
Despite winning the 2022 title over Robb in second and Benjamin Pedersen (fifth in points), Lundqvist was on the outside looking in after not having enough sponsorship for an IndyCar seat of his own.
The wait to compete has been agonizing, feeling much longer than the 11 months since wrapping up the title at Laguna Seca.
“It’s been a very, very long season,” Lundqvist said. “A lot of sleepless nights, I’ll tell you that. It’s been something that we’ve been working very, very hard and very long for.
“I’m very, very happy that it finally got done and I’m making my debut and hopefully it’s more than one race and we can string together a couple more at the end of the year.
“Still the focus is to be on the grid full time in 2024 and hopefully we can do a good job this weekend and maybe my chance will improve.”
The second Nashville practice will take place Saturday at 10:40 Nashville time, 01:30 AEST.
