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| Alexander Rossi is on pole position again at Long Beach |
Scott Dixon joins Rossi on the front row after the New Zealander missed out on pole position by 0.2668 seconds. Dixon has three runner-up finishes in the last four races and he has five podium finishes since his most recent victory at Toronto. The most podium finishes Dixon has had between victories is six and it has happened twice in his career. He had six runner-up finishes between his victories at Richmond in 2003 and Watkins Glen in 2005 and he had six runner-up finishes between his victories at Nashville in 2006 and Watkins Glen in 2007. The last two times there have been 23 entries for Long Beach, Chip Ganassi Racing has won the race, with Dario Franchitti in 2009 and Dixon in 2015.
After none of the three Penske cars advanced to the final round of qualifying at Barber, Team Penske swept row two and took the final three positions of the top five. Will Power and Josef Newgarden will start on row two. Will Power enters Long Beach ninth in the championship. It is the fifth consecutive season Power has not been in the top five of the championship after the first three races of a season. In four of the previous five seasons Power was either first or second in the championship after three races. This is Newgarden's sixth consecutive top ten start at Long Beach and he enters with four consecutive top ten finishes in this race, however, his third place result in 2017 is his only top five finish at Long Beach. Newgarden could become the sixth different Team Penske driver to win at Long Beach. Team Penske is tied with Chip Ganassi Racing for most different drivers to win for a team at Long Beach with each having five different winners.
Simon Pagenaud rounds out the top five and his 2007 Atlantics Championship title rival Graham Rahal joins him on row three. Pagenaud has not a led lap in the first three races of the season. He has not failed to lead a lap in the first four races of a season since 2013, when he did not lead a lap in the first six races. He won the seventh race at Belle Isle, his first career IndyCar victory. Rahal enters having finished 23rd in three of the last five races. He has finished outside the top twenty in four of the last 14 races. In the 55 races prior, he had only two finishes outside the top twenty. Last year, Rahal ran into the back of Pagenaud into turn one at the start and it ended Pagenaud's race and a stretch of 22 consecutive finishes, all lead lap finishes, for the Frenchman. This is Rahal's third consecutive year starting on row three at Long Beach.
Ryan Hunter-Reay will start seventh. If he takes the green flag, this will be Hunter-Reay's 239th career start, putting him ahead of Jimmy Vasser and into 15th all-time. Hunter-Reay will have the tenth most starts all-time for American drivers behind Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, Jr., Al Unser, Michael Andretti, Johnny Rutherford, Gordon Johncock and Bobby Unser. Hunter-Reay enters this race having made 195 consecutive starts. It is the fifth longest streak in IndyCar history but it is the fourth longest active streak. Hunter-Reay's only victory from seventh starting position was at Iowa in 2012. His best result from seventh starting position at a road or street course was third at Watkins Glen in 2017. Barber winner Takuma Sato joins Hunter-Reay on row four. Since winning at Long Beach in 2013, Sato has finished 22nd, 18th, fifth, 18th and 21st with two retirements, two lead lap finishes and he has not led a lap. This year was only the second time Sato has made it out of the first round of qualifying since his 2013 victory.
Two rookies and two former Indy Lights teammates will start on row five with Patricio O'Ward ahead of Colton Herta. O'Ward becomes the first Mexican driver to contest the Grand Prix of Long Beach since Mario Domínguez and David Martínez in 2008. Domínguez was the third place finisher in that race. Adrain Fernández has the best finish for a Mexican driver at Long Beach as Fernández was the runner-up finisher in 2003. Two of the four Mexican drivers to win an IndyCar race scored their first victory on a street course. Fernández's first career victory was at Toronto in 1996 and Domínguez scored his first victory at Surfers Paradise in 2002. This will be Herta's Long Beach debut. His father Bryan made seven starts at Long Beach and he had five top ten finishes, including a pair of third place finishes in 1998 and 1999.
Marco Andretti advanced to the second round of qualifying for the first time this season but he will start in 11th position. This will be the 11th time Andretti has started 11th in his career. His best finish from 11th was fourth at Sonoma in 2013 and at Toronto in 2017. He has six top ten finishes from 11th starting position. Felix Rosenqvist was set to advance to the final round of qualifying but brought out a red flag on his second hot lap and instead of advancing Rosenqvist will make his Long Beach debut from 12th position. Rosenqvist could become the first driver to score a first career victory in a fourth career start since Sébastien Bourdais did it at Lausitz in 2003. The last road or street course race won from 11th on the grid was the 2015 Toronto race with Josef Newgarden taking the victory. The last road or street course race won from 12th on the grid was the 2012 Long Beach race when Will Power had to start 12th after serving a ten-grid spot penalty for an engine change. The last road or street course race won from 12th by a driver not forced to serve a grid penalty was Ryan Hunter-Reay at Surfers Paradise in 2003.
It will be an all-Dale Coyne Racing row seven with Santino Ferrucci starting one position ahead of his senior teammate Sébastien Bourdais. Only twice in Ferrucci's six career starts has he finished better than his starting position. He went from 20th to 11th last year at Sonoma and at St. Petersburg last month he went from 23rd to ninth. Bourdais enters with top five finishes in the last two races and he has not had top five finishes in at least three consecutive races since 2007 when he won at Edmonton, finished fifth at San Jose and won at Road America and Zolder. After four podium finishes in his first five Long Beach starts, Bourdais has only three top ten finishes in his last eight trips to Long Beach.
James Hinchcliffe starts 15th for the third time in six races. In those prior two starts from 15th he finished 15th at Sonoma and 16th at Austin. He did finish third from 16th on the grid at Long Beach in 2013. The two laps Hinchcliffe led at Barber were his first laps led in nine races when he led 45 laps on his way to victory at Iowa. Hinchcliffe has only led laps in 10 of his 52 starts since the start of the 2016 season. Only seven times in Hinchcliffe's career has he had led double figures on a road/street course. Max Chilton will join Hinchcliffe on row eight. Chilton has not had a top ten finish in 21 consecutive races. His three finishes at Long Beach are 14th, 14th and 17th and he has finished a lap down the last two years.
Ed Jones will have his worst career starting position at Long Beach, as he will roll off from 17th on the grid. In Jones' first two Long Beach starts he started 13th. Jones has finished in the top ten in each of his two Long Beach starts, a sixth in 2017 with Dale Coyne Racing and third place last year with Chip Ganassi Racing. Long Beach is Jones' best track with an average finish of 4.5. Jack Harvey will make his second Long Beach from 18th position. Last year, Harvey's best result of the season came at Long Beach with a 12th place finish. Harvey's car has Acura branding on the car, the first time an IndyCar has carried the Acura name since Parker Johnstone ran six races in 1994 with Comptech Racing. Johnstone's best finish that year was 17th at Cleveland and Laguna Seca.
Marcus Ericsson was caught out by another red flag in his qualifying group and he will start 19th, as Ericsson continues to look for his first trip to the second round of qualifying in his IndyCar career. Ericsson has not finished in the top ten in the fourth race of a season since 2011 in the GP2 Series when he finished third in the sprint race from Circuit de Catalunya. Matheus Leist rounds out the top twenty. Leist finished 14th at Long Beach last year and 14th is Leist's best finish on a street course in his IndyCar career. He would also finish 14th in the second Belle Isle race last season. Since 2008, the best finish for the 19th and 20th starters at Long Beach both came in 2012 with Tony Kanaan going from 19th to fourth and J.R. Hildebrand going from 20th to fifth.
Tony Kanaan was sixth in group one in the first round of qualifying when he went into the tire barrier in turn six and brought out the red flag. The deletion of Kanaan's fastest two laps dropped him to 11th in his group and he will start 21st. Prior to this qualifying result, Kanaan had only started outside the top fifteen at Long Beach on one other occasion. Last season, Kanaan had three top ten finishes in the five street course races, including an eighth place finish at Long Beach. Kanaan enters Long Beach 18th in the championship. It is his worst championship position after three races since he was 19th after the first three races in 2002. Joining Kanaan on row 11 will be Zach Veach. This is Veach's worst starting position since he started 25th in last year's Indianapolis 500. Veach has finished outside of the top ten in the last five races. Last year, Veach entered Long Beach having not finished in the top ten in his previous four starts and he went on to finish fourth in that race.
Spencer Pigot will round out the grid from 23rd position, his worst qualifying result on a road or street circuit. His worst career starting position is 29th, which occurred in each of his first two Indianapolis 500 starts in 2016 and 2017. This will be Pigot's 43rd career start. No driver has had a first career victory come in the 43rd career start of a career. The worst an Long Beach winner has started in the IndyCar era is 17th; Paul Tracy did it in 2000 and Mike Conway did it in 2014. John Watson won the final Long Beach Formula One race from 22nd in 1983 and his McLaren teammate Niki Lauda finished runner-up from 23rd on the grid. The only driver to start outside the top twenty and finish on the podium at Long Beach in the IndyCar era was Justin Wilson, who finished third from 24th starting position in 2013.
NBCSN's coverage of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach begins at 4:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 4:42 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.
