Rasmussen Continues Progression on Ovals, Banks First IndyCar Podium at Gateway
By David Morgan, Associate Editor
MADISON, Ill. – There’s a first time for everything.
NTT IndyCar Series sophomore driver Christian Rasmussen claimed his first podium finish on Sunday night at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, coming from 25th on the starting grid to do so.
On his way to an eventual third-place finish, the driver of the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet put on a passing clinic throughout the night, scoring a race-high 62 passes for position as he worked his way forward time and time again.
Climbing from his car after the checkered flag into the waiting arms of his ecstatic crew, Rasmussen was all smiles about finally checking a podium finish in IndyCar off his resume.
Take it all in @ChristianR_DK 🥹 pic.twitter.com/wpr8QBPhRV
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) June 16, 2025
“Just way to turn this weekend around,” said Rasmussen. “I think we really, really struggled in practice 1 as well as qualifying, but knew what we needed out of the car, and obviously hit some good changes for the race.
“Yeah, as soon as I kind of found out how well my car worked on the high side, it was just game on. 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.
“It was awesome.”
Told of how many cars he had passed to get to his place on the podium, Rasmussen explained that he was well aware of the show he was putting on behind the wheel as he knifed his way through the field.
“I had a good feeling,” said Rasmussen. “Obviously, I was around a lot of other cars and I could see how they were moving around. There was a couple cars that were making passes, but I don’t think there was anyone that was passing as much as I did. Not as I could see on the track. And obviously that supports it.
“But yeah, my car worked better on the high side than it did on the low side, so I was just going to use it. Then just full commitment and definitely passed a lot of cars tonight, so that was pretty cool.”
Aside from having to overcome setback over setback during the race, Rasmussen even had his car catch fire at one point during the race, but luckily it was quickly extinguished as he pulled away and got up to speed.
He explained that he wasn’t aware of the fire at first until his crew started yelling at him about it, but he just shrugged it off afterwards.
“I wasn’t, but they kind of were yelling in my ear, you’re on fire, you’re on fire, but I was looking at the fuel probe, I didn’t see anything, so I don’t know how bad it was. But I guess I’ll have to rewatch it.”
FIRE under the No. 21 🫣@ChristianR_DK keeps it going and is currently running P16. pic.twitter.com/LY6MpNcivG
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) June 16, 2025
Sunday’s podium finish marks a second straight oval start in which Rasmussen has delivered a strong result, after finishing in sixth-place in the Indianapolis 500.
Having proved he can handle himself on ovals in the Indy NXT Series, where he won the championship in 2023 before moving up to IndyCar, Rasmussen was not surprised that a track like Gateway would be the place where his first podium finish in IndyCar would come.
“I think it’s been coming,” said Rasmussen. “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.”
