On the heels of a pivotal 12th-place finish in Meyer Shank Racing's No. 60 Honda on the IMS road course Aug. 12, IndyCar rookie Linus Lundqvist will make his third consecutive start for the team, filling in for the still-injured Simon Pagenaud, and make his IndyCar oval debut at World Wide Technology Raceway on Sunday.

Pagenaud remains sidelined after a violent crash during practice at Mid-Ohio July 1, where his brakes failed while running at least 180 mph before a heavy braking zone headed for Turn 4. He flew over a drop-off before his car barrel-rolled nearly seven times before and came to a rest up against a tire barrier. In the moments afterwards, Pagenaud said he "felt fine," but IndyCar medical director Dr. Julia Vaizer opted to hold Pagenaud out of the cockpit for the rest of that weekend.

The 39-year-old driver told IndyStar at the time he had high hopes he'd be back for IndyCar's next stop at Toronto July 16, but he's yet to return and will now miss his seventh consecutive race after making 190-straight starts across his full-time IndyCar career.

"I'm OK but I'm not a doctor," Pagenaud told IndyStar on July 2 at Mid-Ohio, the morning of his first missed start. "When you look at the violence of the crash, I think that had a big influence on it all, and I'm not going to fight the doctors that are telling me I'm not 100%. I feel fine, but I respect their opinion. You can't negotiate with the doctors."

MSR co-owner Mike Shank told reporters Aug. 11 in an unrelated news conference that his driver was continuing to make progress, but he couldn't give any sort of concrete target for his return.

"Simon is progressing very well. He's doing to do it on his schedule and that of the physicians that are looking after him," Shank said. "We regret certainly what happened at Mid-Ohio. He's a great champion. We love him. When it's time, it's time.

"I don't know when. It's his body's schedule right now. We're not going to push any of that."

Lundqvist's third consecutive start for MSR, along with his crash late in the Music City Grand Prix that left him 25th, with just three races left in the season puts the Swedish driver in the thick of an all-important battle for the final spot in IndyCar's Leaders Circle program for next season, which pays nearly $1 million to the owners of the previous year's top 22 in entrant points. MSR's No. 60 Honda, driven this year by Pagenaud, Conor Daly, Tom Blomqvist and Lundqvist, currently sits 23rd in points, but 22nd in points among those eligible -- Chip Ganassi Racing's No. 11 Honda is not eligible due to IndyCar's policy allowing teams a maximum of three cars in the program (outside of Andretti Autosport, who was grandfathered in with four cars at the time of the program's birth).

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The No. 60 has logged 148 points this season, three behind Juncos Hollinger Racing's No. 78 Chevy (151 points, 21st among those eligible) and six points back of Ed Carpenter Racing's No. 20 Chevy (154, 20th). MSR's car on the bubble is just two points ahead of its closest challenger, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's No. 30 Honda (146 points, 23rd among those eligible) and three points ahead of Andretti Autosport's No. 29 Honda (145, 24th).

Lundqvist is eligible for the season's oval finale after undergoing an oval test for RLL at Texas Motor Speedway this spring. He received his first IndyCar test nearly two years ago with Andretti Autosport on the IMS road course after his 3rd-place finish in his debut Indy Lights season. The 2022 Indy Lights champion also tested with ECR this summer at Sebring.

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His biggest strength through two IndyCar races has been his qualifying speed, starting both races within the top-14 -- including an appearance in the Fast 12 at Nashville, where he started 11th. His MSR teammate, Helio Castroneves, delivered a strong qualifying performance at the Iowa doubleheader, placing his car 14th and 8th before finishing 14th and 16th, respectively, in the other short oval races on the calendar. Daly, who manned the No. 60 for MSR at Iowa, struggled in Race 1 but managed to start 15th and finish 17th in Race 2.

"The last few weekends in Nashville and at Indy have been the time of my life, and I can't wait to work with this team," Lundqivst said in a release. "We've been through some challenging race formats, and I will be learning once again. I know that it's going to be tough and tricky, but I know the team is going to give me a good car to have a solid result like we had at Indy."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar: Linus Lundqvist to make oval debut, Simon Pagenaud still out