If you’re having trouble understanding the Arrow McLaren decision to jettison Christian Lundgaard, you’re not alone.
During their “SPEED with Harvick and Buxton” show on Monday, FOX broadcasters Will Buxton and Kevin Harvick wondered the same thing as they talked about the biggest INDYCAR free agent move in decades with six-time series champion Scott Dixon leaving Chip Ganassi Racing after 25 years and race for Arrow McLaren, who in the process moved on from Lundgaard despite the Denmark driver currently sitting third in the championship standings.
“When you look at Lundgaard, he’s now got after this weekend, since he joined McLaren, he’s been on the podium for 39 percent of his race starts with that team,” Buxton said on the show. “What more are you supposed to do to prove to the team that you’re the guy?”
Arrow McLaren announced Monday that Dixon and former McLaren driver Felix Rosenqvist will join the team, while Lundgaard and Nolan Siegel will not return in 2027. McLaren has not been shy in its goal to win the “triple crown” of Grand Prix of Monaco, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Indianapolis 500. Dixon (2008) and Rosenqvist (2026) have won the Indy 500. Lundgaard, who has two road-course wins, has not yet mastered the ovals.
Buxton compared that move to the biggest moves in football and soccer in the last decade.
“Dixon to McLaren for me, it’s [Tom] Brady to the Bucs,” Buxton stated. “It’s [Lionel] Messi to Miami. It’s a generational nice who has achieved all the pieces, going someplace to create a brand new ethos, a brand new sense of crew, and take them to the titles that they need. However they need the [Indy] 500, not the title.”
Arrow McLaren crew principal Tony Kanaan instructed FOX Sports activities that Dixon brings a “championship mentality” as a six-time champ.
“If Zak’s acknowledged intention is the Indy 500, I really like Scott, he’s accomplished 25 years with Chip Ganassi Racing — he’s received the Indy 500 as soon as,” stated Buxton of McLaren CEO Zak Brown. “He’s received six titles in that point. He would love a seventh. However Zak has stated his acknowledged intention is to not win the championship, as a result of if you wish to win the championship, you retain Christian in your crew.
“So the 2 acknowledged goals do not mesh for me in a straightforward clarification of why they’re letting Christian go. And perhaps I am taking it, perhaps I am getting too emotional about it and too private about it, as a result of I really feel for Christian. I do not know what extra the child must do.”
Current McLaren driver Pato O’Ward has completed second in each the championship standings and Indy 500 however has by no means received both. He’s the closest a present McLaren driver has gotten to reaching both of these feats.
Kanaan indicated that having Dixon, O’Ward and Rosenqvist will give the crew a driver steady like he had within the mid-2000s with Dario Franchitti and Brian Herta that has nice chemistry.
“It looks as if a good friend rent,” Harvick stated. “And typically from a enterprise standpoint, it’s a must to separate what is going on to be nice for the crew and your friendships.”
That’s to not say Harvick doesn’t just like the transfer for the drivers. He in contrast Dixon’s transfer to the one he created from Richard Childress Racing to Stewart-Haas Racing throughout his NASCAR profession.
“The attention-grabbing half to me is you need to win a championship and also you’re eliminating your championship contender,” Harvick stated. “And now you are bringing in Scott Dixon, which, look, if I am Scott Dixon and I am on the finish of my profession and I am having enjoyable and need to go expertise one thing else, it was precisely what I did once I went from RCR to SHR.
“And it offers you an opportunity to reboot and do all these issues and have some management in a crew. It is going to be a enjoyable experiment for Scott to have the ability to do this. However can he nonetheless win?”
Buxton stated he felt this was a transfer fueled by Rosenqvist profitable the 2026 Indy 500.
“Felix was seen as one of many quickest drivers within the sport, however a driver who could not get it accomplished,” Buxton stated. “He would choke repeatedly. He wins the Indy 500, the most important race on the planet, good, with one of many best final laps you are ever going to see. Gutsy. Did he choke? Completely not.
“He put in one of the best final lap of an Indy 500 you might be ever going to see. However how a lot of that is recency bias? Would Tony Kanaan imagine the phrases popping out of his mouth if Felix Rosenquist had come again second? I do not imagine he would.”
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