Christian Lundgaard is one of many drivers in the NTT IndyCar Series that was born in a country other than the United States, and the 21-year-old feels that the series should add more international races to the calendar to capitalize on that fact.
In recent years, the only trip outside the borders is a trip to the streets of Toronto, Canada, and all events at other international venues have not been held in some time.
Lundgaard agrees with many other drivers with his belief that this is an area that could be improved, and that the popularity of the series’ foreign drivers can help drive interest.
“I do think it’s important,” said Lundgaard when asked about IndyCar’s yearly trip to Canada. “Not necessarily just Toronto or Canada, but in my opinion, we need to go to South America more. We need to go more international.
“We need to do more fly-away races because, in my opinion, that’s what we see in F1 right now, moving more and more over here. They’re sort of exploding because of that, just because there’s more people around that are aware.
“That’s a problem with this racing series being a national racing series. But at the same time, we do have the best racing product in the world.”
There has been a lot of talk recently about IndyCar hosting a race in either Mexico or Argentina, with Penske Entertainment President and CEO Mark Miles saying recently that talks for an exhibition race in South America are promising.
Multiple drivers in the series have moved over to IndyCar from Europe in recent years, Lundgaard included, and there would also be multiple opportunities for a ‘home’ event for a race across the Atlantic.
However, the Dane feels that other locations in the Americas are a better option for the series at this moment.
“I definitely think we should [have a race in Scandavia],” continued Lundgaard. “How many — there’s me and Benjamin [Pedersen], which is two Danes. We actually got Josef [Newgarden] as well, who’s a half Dane. I think we’ve got two Swedes. So I think we’ll have to fight over where it’s going to be.
“I know there was plans of actually building a proper racetrack in Denmark. I don’t know what’s happened to it or if it’s been built or whatever. But that would definitely be something that I would be up for and would definitely push for it.
“Right now I don’t think it’s the right time for the series to move to Europe. I mean, obviously now with [Agustin] Canapino, I don’t think know if they’re looking for a race in Argentina or not. That would be a starting point. We’ll take it slow, but I do think we definitely need to move somewhere as well.”
This weekend’s IndyCar race takes place on the streets of Toronto, and provides plenty of opportunity to discuss the series’ future international plans.
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