Pagenaud has missed every race since his horrendous Mid-Ohio crash in practice last month, which was caused by a brake failure, as IndyCar’s medical team has refused to clear him to race after he displayed concussion-style symptoms.
Lundqvist made a highly impressive IndyCar debut in Nashville last weekend, qualifying in 11th and running as high as third during the pitstop cycles. He was on for a strong finish when he crashed out with 10 laps to go, but set the race’s fastest lap beforehand.
“First, I want to say a massive thank you to Mike [Shank] and Jim [Meyer] for their trust to put me back in the car again,” Lundqvist, the reigning Indy NXT champion, said. “The Nashville weekend was great in so many ways.
“Obviously, a lot of impressions and a lot of new stuff for me going on that weekend and I was pretty disappointed with the way that it ended. It was my mistake and I enjoyed it up until that point.
“I think it also left me and the team wanting more, which I am grateful for another opportunity at Indy. I know it is going to be tough again, but now I have a whole race weekend under my belt.
“Hopefully we can string some good results together and find some good speed, but I feel like it is going to be a super weekend.”
Linus Lundqvist, Meyer Shank Racing Honda, with Michael Shank
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Lundqvist will again partner full-season driver Helio Castroneves at the Brickyard weekend, which will see IndyCar run in conjunction with NASCAR. IndyCar runs its 85-lap race on Saturday, its second event of the year on the IMS road course.
The Swedish racer has four starts on the track in Indy NXT competition, starting from pole in three out of the four races. He has two wins on his resume, both of which were converted from pole.
Meyer Shank Racing has revealed there will be a further major announcement at Indianapolis on Friday at 11am local time, which is expected to centre on four-time Indy 500 winner Castroneves’ future with the team.