Hunter McElrea has finished second to winner Linus Lundqvist who celebrated his second victory of the Indy Lights Detroit Grand Prix doubleheader. Lundqvist led all 30 laps of the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires event at the Raceway at Belle Isle Park from the pole in the No. 26 HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing car. He won both Indy Lights races this weekend in Detroit and has won three consecutive races this season.
Swedish driver Lundqvist also led all 25 laps in Saturday’s race from the pole, and Sunday’s win marks his fourth Indy Lights victory in six races this season, already surpassing his entire win total of three from 2021. He leads the championship standings by 84 points – more than a race worth of points – over teammate Benjamin Pedersen.
Lundqvist led second-place finisher Hunter McElrea to the finish line by 3.7005 seconds. McElrea was the highest-finishing rookie in the No. 27 Andretti Autosport car. Fellow Andretti Autosport driver Sting Ray Robb rounded out the podium, finishing third in the No. 2 Sekady car.
St. Petersburg winner Matthew Brabham finished fourth in the No. 83 Andretti Autosport machine, and IMS road course Race 1 winner Danial Frost rounded out the top five in the No. 68 HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing car.
Lundqvist, 23, couldn’t be stopped Sunday in Detroit, often stretching his lead to more than five seconds before two cautions on the day bunched the field back on his gear box.
The first yellow came on Lap 9 when Lundqvist’s teammate Christian Bogle wiggled in Turn 13 and corrected his No. 7 HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing car hard into the outside wall. Bogle was unhurt and credited with 14th.
Heartbreak and frustration continued to follow Andretti Autosport rookie Christian Rasmussen this season. While running third on Lap 19, 2021 Indy Pro 2000 champion Rasmussen carried too much speed entering Turn 5. Unable to slow the car to make the corner, he made hard contact with the outside wall in the No. 28 Road to Indy/Stellrecht machine for the second caution of the day.
Even the threat of rain on the island between the Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, skylines couldn’t stop Lundqvist. Light moisture arrived on Lap 16, potentially throwing a curveball in the race. But given Lundqvist has won the last three Indy Lights races that featured rain, it continued to be smooth sailing for the Swedish driver as moisture never played a major factor.
The dominating performance cemented Lundqvist’s status as the favorite to win the Indy Lights championship and secure the NTT INDYCAR SERIES scholarship for winning the title. He leads the series on 283-points, 84 ahead of Benjamin Pedersen. McElrea sits sixth on 163 points.
Indy Lights is back in action next weekend, Sunday, June 12, at Road America alongside the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. Live coverage of the seventh Indy Lights race of 2022 begins at 10:35 a.m. (ET).
See also: McElerea 12th as Lundqvist wins Indy Lights race in Detroit
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