ARLINGTON, Texas — Based on Christian Rasmussen‘s practice speeds ahead of Saturday’s (March 14) qualifying for the Inaugural Java House Grand Prix of Arlington, one would have expected the Danish racer to qualify toward the bottom third of the 25-car NTT IndyCar Series field.
Instead, the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing (ECR) Chevrolet will line up eighth for its primary sponsor’s race on Sunday (March 15).
“I don’t think we necessarily lived up to what we had in practice,” Rasmussen said. “We had a small little mistake on the setup in practice so we just knew we had more [performance] than that.”
Rasmussen turned a fastest lap of 1 minute, 34.1440 seconds (104.393 mph) in the second round of qualifying around the 14-turn, 2.73-mile street circuit. That lap was just under three-tenths of a second slower than Marcus Ericsson‘s lap that allowed the Swede to be the final driver to advance to the Firestone Fast Six Showdown.
Rasmussen was 17th and 21st in both of the pre-qualifying practice sessions before posting the fifth-fastest lap in the first qualifying group in round one of knockout qualifying. That enabled the 2023 Indy NXT Champion to move on to the second round of qualifying with teammate Alexander Rossi.
“I felt like we’ve had a good car all weekend,” Rasmussen said. “So we’ve just been kind of very unlucky with getting a red flag or a car that comes out in front of us or whatever happens that we just kind of messed up our laps. So we knew the pace was in there, it was just getting out and doing it. Which, yeah, I was quite happy with the qualifying. It’s definitely been one of our weaker points on the 21 crew, so P8, I think it’s a good start for tomorrow.”
Rasmussen is coming off of a frustrating finish to one of the more exciting drives last weekend at Phoenix Raceway. The 2025 Milwaukee race winner made 61 passes before a late-race collision with Will Power and the outside wall dropped Rasmussen to a 14th-place finish.
Will Power Apologizes to Ed Carpenter After Wreck With Christian Rasmussen
At Arlington, there’s no room for frustration with his team’s primary sponsor also sponsoring the race.
“I think all the drivers are blown away with how the event is, and it looks amazing,” Rasmussen said. “We have great suites, we have a great fan zone, we have a great track and I think Java House has been a huge part of making that happen, so it’s it’s really cool. It’s definitely a little bit of extra motivation to have a good weekend, so starting it off strong is very nice.”
IndyCar announced that the 70-lap race will start one hour earlier than originally scheduled due to forecasted high winds in the afternoon. The pre-race broadcast will begin at 11:30 a.m. ET on FOX with the estimated green flag time of Noon ET.
