Christian Rasmussen put on a show for fans Sunday night, passing more cars than anyone to earn his first IndyCar podium at World Wide Technology Raceway.
The second year driver started in the 25th position, but quickly began carving his way through the field. By the halfway point, he was up to fifth position and looking for more.
Rasmussen was forced to make a pit stop in a closed pit lane, however, as he was about to run out of fuel. He was issued a penalty that sent him back down to 18th.
It only took him 25 laps to climb back into the top 10, and ultimately he ended up with a third place result.
Overall, he completed 62 passes for position, more than any other driver.
“I definitely got a little frustrated with just having to do it all over again,” said Rasmussen referencing his penalty. “But on the flipside of that, I knew that I could do it.
“I knew that I had been moving forward and I was the car probably in the field that was moving the most forward. I just kept my head down and kept passing cars. There was no other way around it.
“We really, really struggled in practice 1 as well as qualifying. But knew what we needed out of the car, and obviously hit some good changes for the race.
“Yeah, as soon as I kind of found out how well my car worked on the high side, it was just game on.
“It was awesome. I haven’t done one of these in a while, so it’s good.”
There were 254 passes for position completed by the entire field, which tied a record for the speedway set last year.
For his efforts, Rasmussen was drenched in champagne on the podium stage. But he still wore the biggest smile of them all throughout his late night media duties.
