Indy NXT champion Christian Rasmussen did well in an IndyCar test with Ed Carpenter Racing and is hopeful he has done enough to secure a race seat for 2024, he tells Feeder Series.

By Jeroen Demmendaal

“I can definitely feel my neck today,” Christian Rasmussen says with a laugh when Feeder Series reaches him the day after his IndyCar test with Ed Carpenter Racing (ECR).

The day-long test this Monday at the physically demanding Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama was an old-fashioned shootout as ECR is looking for a new driver to put in its #20 Dallara Chevrolet alongside team leader Rinus VeeKay.

In that shootout, ECR pitted reigning Indy NXT champion Rasmussen against 2019 Indy Lights winner and onetime Arrow McLaren SP IndyCar driver Oliver Askew. Based on unofficial times seen by Feeder Series, Rasmussen was clearly the faster of the two drivers in short runs and was close to Askew in longer runs that also involved fuel and tire saving.

Does the Dane think he has done enough to convince ECR to hire him?

“I hope so! They don’t say much on days like that, but they seemed happy,” Rasmussen says. “And it went well, I think. I was happy with my performance. To go into a test day in a new car, against a driver who has done a full season in IndyCar before, and to be faster than him all day is all I can ask for, really.

“I think I showed everything I needed to show, was the fastest car out of the two. I got up to speed well in a new car for me and I worked together well with the team.”

It wasn’t quite Rasmussen’s first IndyCar test: in July of last year, the young Dane tested an Andretti Autosport machine at Mid-Ohio, sharing it over the course of a day with Sting Ray Robb. But that occasion was not comparable to the ECR test, he points out.

“I only did half a day with Andretti, and it’s hard to get up to speed and show what you can do in half a day.”

‘A cool track to drive’

The ECR test was the real deal, however. “I did over 100 laps. I’m not sure of the exact number, but it was somewhere between 100 and 120 laps. So yeah, a lot! And Barber is intense. It’s a super physical track, one of the most physical on the IndyCar calendar. But it’s a cool track to drive. I love that place.”

Because the test was a shootout, both drivers ran the same test programme throughout the day. “But we worked with our own engineers,” Rasmussen explains. “And then we made different changes to the cars obviously, in terms of what we needed.”

He also made use of the services of VeeKay, who attended the test as an observer. “He was super cool. It was good to get to know him a little bit better, but he’s also someone to ask for tips and tricks. There were a lot of new impressions for me, so it was good to have him there.”

Rasmussen is unsure about what’s next. “It will be a kind of waiting game now, but I think ECR would be a good fit,” he says. “But it’s a two-way street, of course. They also need to think it’s a good fit. I will just make sure to keep my phone charged and wait for a call!”

It’s equally unclear if Rasmussen will be required to bring funding to ECR – “we haven’t gotten that far into conversations yet,” he says – but his Indy NXT scholarship of $850,000 plus additional benefits will be a good conversation starter. Until then, Rasmussen is preparing for another IMSA Endurance Cup run with Era Motorsport at Petit Le Mans on October 14.

Header photo credit: Gavin Baker