In last year’s IndyCar race at the Milwaukee Mile, Christian Rasmussen earned his first and to date only victory.
He showed immense skill on the banking and made a statement near the end of his sophomore season.
This season, however, the Danish driver has had a torrid time. He has suffered seven DNF results and two others where he finished off the lead lap in the 15 races this year.
As a result, his #21 Ed Carpenter Racing entry is sitting right at the Leaders’ Circle cutoff in the 22nd points position.
Any entry finishing 23rd or lower in the standings loses out on a roughly $1.7 million payout from the series, meaning there is strong incentive to not be one of the bottom three entrants when the season is over.
Rasmussen spoke ahead of the Milwaukee weekend, and related his hopes for a repeat of last year’s success.
“Had you asked me at the end of last year, ‘Christian, where would you like there to be a double-header event?’ I probably would have said the Milwaukee Mile,” said Rasmussen.
“It’s the one I won at, the one we did the best. So that worked out. I’m excited. I think there is a lot of potential for us to have a great weekend. And if we can’t [repeat a win] in the first race, there’s an opportunity to do it in the second.
“The name of the game for me for the rest of the year is to score as many points as possible.
“We’ve found ourselves in a lot of unfortunate situations this year, with mechanical failures, getting caught up in other people’s mistakes, and stuff like that. It just kept taking us out of races this year.
“We are finding ourselves at the very bottom of the championship fighting for Leaders’ Circle money. The name of the game for us is to score as many points as possible and get the car securely into the Leader Circle.”
Unfortunately for Rasmussen, he was involved in an incident during the first practice session on Friday, and his team was evaluating the use of a backup chassis for the remainder of the event.
Even so, any strong result he can manage across the weekend’s two races could help him in his quest to move forward in the standings.
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