In the week leading up to the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, I decided to start building my Lego Technic Red Bull RB20 Formula 1 car. With 10 bags of pieces, I figured it would be a realistic goal to get through the first five bags before leaving for Wisconsin.
Partway through the fourth bag of pieces, I was unable to find a brown piece that was necessary to finish the roll-over hoop assembly. After looking all over the nearby carpet, I decided to go to the trash can to see if the piece had somehow never made it out of the bag.
Sure enough, the little guy was sitting right there inside the clear plastic bag on top of the rest of the garbage, mocking my inability to make sure that I had every piece nearby before progressing with the instructions.
Every piece in the box is necessary to build a Lego set properly. The spares might even come in handy in case there’s a rare miscalculation. Such is also the case in winning an NTT IndyCar Series race. Having the right spares on hand to help construct a race can mean all the difference between winning and losing, and Christian Lundgaard‘s crew found that out in Sunday’s (June 21) XPEL Grand Prix of Road America.
At the start of the 55-lap race around the 14-turn, 4.014-mile road course, Lundgaard hit the rear of Scott Dixon‘s car, damaging his left front wing and puncturing the corresponding tire.
Looks like there are a couple of pieces missing from Lundgaard’s Lego set here. The Indianapolis road course race winner made it to pit road with a nearly three-minute-long lap.
The No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet got a new nosecone and front wing assembly, plus a new set of Firestone’s red sidewall Alternate compound tires. The softer compound would allow Lundgaard to turn fast laps, which he desperately needed at this particular time.
Race leader Alex Palou was only a handful of seconds behind Lundgaard, ready to lap the man running last at the time. If that happens, the metaphorical Lego set just lost an entire bag of pieces that will take an enormous amount of energy to find.
As it happens, Lundgaard didn’t go a lap down. Despite being on the same straightaway as the Spaniard, Lundgaard turned laps faster than the race leader to avoid going one lap down.
While Lundgaard’s team was counting their pieces, another team lost a critical one. Romain Grosjean exited the pit lane slowly, forcing teammate Dennis Hauger to take avoiding action on the way to turn one as both Dale Coyne Racing drivers rejoined the race track.
Something was indeed wrong with Grosjean’s car and it was about to become very evident very quickly.
Start looking under the couch for that special connector piece, because you can’t continue building without it.
Lundgaard moved up to 18th place after the pit stops under the full course yellow created by Grosjean’s loose wheel and was 12th at the race’s halfway point.
Running eighth at the beginning of the race’s final pit stop sequence, Lundgaard ran long for his penultimate stint, turning some of the race’s fastest laps as he built up his gap to the rest of the field so he could blend out in a possible podium place.
And blend out Lundgaard did, leaving the pits in what was effectively second place in the race since all of the cars in front of him and the effective race leader, Marcus Armstrong, had to pit.
Sure, David Malukas got around Lundgaard with tires that were already up to temperature, but that was but a temporary state of affairs as Lundgaard passed the Chicago native with six-and-a-half laps to go.
A fresh set of Firestone’s Alternate tires, with the rest of the field on the harder Primary compound tires, helped make those passes happen.
Three laps later, Armstrong’s No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda dropped its metaphorical Lego Star Wars Millennium Falcon from a third-story balcony. As Armstrong traveled around the back side of Road America, the engine behind the Christchurch, New Zealand, native sounded like a ticking time bomb that was beginning to detonate.
As Lundgaard took the lead, his crew began putting together the finishing touches on their Lego kit. All that was left was a last-lap shootout to determine who would win the race.
And on that last lap, Graham Rahal lost the final set of connector pieces for his Lego Technic race car set of his choosing as his No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda went spinning into the wall at Canada Corner following contact with Will Power.
By the end of the race, Lundgaard’s team had its kit fully built. Malukas’ team was one or two steps behind, while Power was a couple of steps behind Malukas. All three teams had the correct parts, but Lundgaard’s team assembled all of them correctly first.
And that’s how you win an IndyCar race despite nearly going a lap down.
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.
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