NEWTON, Iowa — On a track where passing has been difficult in the last few races, Christian Rasmussen was able to methodically work his way through much of the NTT IndyCar Series field to pull off a sixth-place finish in Saturday’s (July 12) Synk 275 at Iowa Speedway.
The Danish racer started 19th in the 27-car field and had to take advantage of restarts to gain many of his positions around the .894-mile oval. After the caution at the start of the race for Colton Herta‘s spin, the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet went from 19th to 16th place, moving around Kyle Kirkwood, Graham Rahal and Robert Shwartzman.
After losing two spots on pit road during the caution for Jacob Abel‘s accident in turn 2, Rasmussen moved up to 15th, where he spent the majority of the first half of the race.
The restart after Kirkwood’s wall contact was where Rasmussen began to shine. The 2023 Indy NXT Champion was 12th on the restart but moved by eventual fourth-place finisher Scott McLaughlin for 11th on lap 166, Louis Foster for 10th the following lap and then Marcus Armstrong for ninth on lap 183.
Eight laps later, Rasmussen got eighth from Scott Dixon. Santino Ferrucci was the next victim on lap 196, and Rasmussen quickly moved around Nolan Siegel for sixth the following lap.
Rasmussen ran in fifth as late as lap 267, but Alex Palou was just a little bit faster and kept the Dane behind at the finish.
“It was difficult, especially starting the race, but then as we got a little bit deeper into it, lane two kind of started to open up a little bit more,” Rasmussen said.
“And once that kind of happened, I started to use that. I think on my second and third stint, I was really starting to overtake and really starting to use that top lane, but at the same time I had to manage my right front tire temps, so it was a little bit tough, kind of a hard balance because I had McLaughlin coming from the rear.
“I had to defend from him, and almost the best way to defend for me in that situation was to go on the offense, and I think I passed Daly, Siegel, and maybe one more guy. So that was good, and we get to do it all again tomorrow.”
Rasmussen had a couple of scary moments as he had a near-spin in turn 3 early in the race and contact with Callum Ilott, but the car was not damaged.
“We were all fine,” Rasmussen said. “That seemed a little bit crazy, but we got out of it okay.”
Rasmussen will start 17th for Sunday’s 275-lap race.
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.