Christian Rasmussen "not surprised" to earn his first IndyCar podium on an oval

Christian Rasmussen put on quite a show during Sunday night’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway’s 1.25-mile oval. The Ed Carpenter Racing driver made over 70 on-track passes to secure third place, finishing behind race winner Kyle Kirkwood and runner-up Pato O’Ward.

Rasmussen started in 25th place after struggling in qualifying, and had to overcome a fire on lap 50 coming out of pits, which left his fuel tank partially empty. He returned to the pits 33 laps later when he was in ninth place.

The Dane driver went a lap down but got it back when those in front of him pitted. He was in fifth place by lap 106, which turned into fourth place when Josef Newgarden crashed with Louis Foster.

Fighting back from mid-race penalty

Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global, Patricio O’ward, Arrow McLaren, Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter Racing

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

Rasmussen was looking good for the night, but his No. 21 Chevy ran out of fuel during the extended caution following the wreck, so he had to make an emergency pit stop on lap 134 when the pits were closed.

This earned him a penalty, putting him in 18th place to restart the race—last of all drivers on the lead lap—but he was back in the top 10 25 laps later and in fourth place by lap 190 before taking his penultimate stop.

He circled back to the top five ahead of his final pit stop on lap 225 and started the final 35 laps of the night in 15th place. Soon, he advanced to eighth place by lap 245 and to third place just four laps before the checkered flag.

Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter Racing

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

“As soon as I kind of found out how well my car worked on the high side, it was just game on”, Rasmussen said afterwards to emphasize the performance of his No. 21 Chevy.  

“I was able to pass cars – we even got hosed one time with having to take emergency service because we were out of fuel, so I had to restart at the tail end, and that was kind of right at the point where I had kind of driven through most of the field and was up front but had to go to the back, drove through again, and man, we were just coming.”

Although Rasmussen admitted that having to drive through the field twice was annoying, he was ready to take on the task.

“I definitely got a little frustrated with just having to do it all over again. 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”.

The result was just Rasmussen’s second top-10 finish on an oval, following his sixth-place finish in the Indianapolis 500 last month, which until Sunday was his best finish in the IndyCar series. However, the Dane wasn’t surprised.

“It’s definitely important, but I think it’s been coming. I’ve been good around ovals most of my career, or really all my career since I’ve started doing ovals. It just comes very natural to me. For a first podium, I’m not surprised it’s on an oval.”