Arrow McLaren prepping Linus Lundqvist as potential replacement for Nolan Siegel at Toronto
Siegel was not cleared for Sunday's race by IndyCar medical officials that morning. Given the short break between the races and belief late Saturday that Siegel would be cleared, Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan opted not to run Siegel's No. 6 car Sunday.
Doing so would've required requesting from IndyCar a special 15-minute shakedown session with a substitute driver on Saturday night, Kanaan said. And given the car repair time in the wake of Siegel's crash — one so hard that the SAFER barrier required repairs — the team principal didn't want the team scrambling with so much uncertainty.
'I missed it': Ex-Team Penske IndyCar leader relishing new chapter with Arrow McLaren
Arrow McLaren briefly explored the possibility of Kanaan starting Sunday's race and parking immediately after the green flag, but IndyCar wouldn't approve such a move because Kanaan hadn't taken part in an on-track session during the weekend. An emergency on-track session wasn't available Sunday morning.
Lundqvist was at Iowa Speedway on Sunday. The 26-year-old Swedish driver with 20 IndyCar starts will ready himself this week for what could amount to his first time inside an IndyCar cockpit since the 2024 season finale at Nashville Superspeedway.
As Kanaan told select media Sunday morning ahead of that day's race, Lundqvist will be in the team's shop throughout this week as Siegel is put through a regimented recovery plan that includes light workouts, time on a racing simulator and evaluation by Ryan Harber, the team's head of human performance, health and wellness. Siegel will be reevaluated by IndyCar's medical team Thursday morning to determine his ability to drive in Toronto.
How close was Tony Kanaan to driving?: Nolan Siegel's status, possible backup drivers for Toronto
Lundqvist will be with the team all weekend and available should Siegel experience any discomfort in his return or if he isn't cleared.
Lundqvist finished 13th in his lone start at Toronto a year ago. He finished 16th in points in his lone full-time IndyCar season in 2024 with five top-10s, a pair of podiums (Barber and World Wide Technology Raceway) and a pole (Road America), but he entered this season without a ride after CGR scaled back from five full-time cars to three as IndyCar launched its charter system that caps teams at three full-time entries guaranteed to start each race (minus the Indy 500).
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