Track Walk: Long Beach 2026

The fifth round of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season will be the 51st Grand Prix of Long Beach. Honda has won the last three trips to Long Beach, and Honda has also won all three road/street courses this season. While Honda has the top two drivers in the championship, Chevrolet takes the next five spots, but Honda closes out the top ten with the final three. Only one driver has finished in the top ten of all four races this season, but he has the defending champion breathing down his next with 14 races remaining. These two had a notable battle last year on Shoreline Drive.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 5:30 p.m. ET on Sunday April 19 with green flag scheduled for 5:45 p.m. ET.
Channel: Fox
Announcers: Will Buxton, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Georgia Henneberry and Jack Harvey will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 6:00 p.m. ET (75 minutes)

Saturday:

Second Practice: 1:30 p.m. ET (75 minutes)
Qualifying: 6:30 p.m. ET 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 1:00 p.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 5:45 p.m. ET (90 laps)

Is it Kirkwood vs. Palou?

Last year, Kyle Kirkwood and Álex Palou started nose-to-tail and they practically ran that way for the entire 90-lap race. Kirkwood was able to hold on and take the victory 2.6859 seconds ahead of Palou, but Palou kept Kirkwood honest until the very end. 

So far this season, it is developing to be another tussle between these two. Last season, they split the first nine races of the season with Palou winning six and Kirkwood winning three. Through the first four races of 2026, Palou has won twice and Kirkwood has won once, but Kirkwood's victory came at Arlington after Palou had taken the lead in the middle of the race. A darting move to the inside of the final corner with 16 laps remaining gave Kirkwood the lead and he pulled away before a late caution forced a one-lap dash that didn't even make it to the green and white flag. 

Both these drivers have been stellar on street courses.

Five of Kirkwood's six career victories have come on street courses. He has finished in the top ten in 11 consecutive street course races dating back to 2023. Eight of those have been top five finishes with five being podium finishes, four of them being victories.

Palou also has eight top five finishes in the last 11 street course races. Six of those have been podium finishes with two victories in that timeframe. 

While Palou has won twice this year and finished second, his 24th at Phoenix for an early accident is the only thing keeping him out of the championship lead. He is two points behind Kirkwood. Kirkwood has finished in the top five of every race this season, and four consecutive top five results is the longest streak of his IndyCar career. He has never finished outside the top ten at Long Beach. 

Palou has never won at Long Beach, which sounds strange for him, but he has also never finished outside the top five at Long Beach. Three times he has stood on the podium. He has also never started worse than tenth in this race. Kirkwood's worst starting spot at Long Beach was 12th in 2022.

Only three of Palou's 21 career victories have come on street courses, which is only one more than his number of oval victories. Two of Palou's street course victories have been at St. Petersburg. 

Kirkwood will be looking to become the ninth driver to win consecutive Long Beach races and the first to do it since Alexander Rossi in 2018 and 2019. Kirkwood would become only the fifth driver to win at least three Long Beach IndyCar races. Al Unser, Jr. won six times, four consecutive from 1988 to 1991 and then back-to-back in 1994 and 1995. Mario Andretti won three of the first four Long Beach IndyCar races as well as winning the 1977 Formula One race held here. Paul Tracy won in 2000 and then consecutively in 2003 and 2004. Sébastien Bourdais won three consecutive from 2005 to 2007. 

A victory for Palou would be Chip Ganassi Racing's eighth Long Beach victory, and it would break a three-way tie for most Long Beach victories for a team. Ganassi, Andretti Global and Team Penske are all tied on seven entering this weekend. These three teams have combined to win the last seven Long Beach races.

The Man Moving Forward

While Kirkwood and Palou fight it out up front, there is a man who is chasing from behind, and he has made a habit of moving forward this season. So far, it has gotten him up to third in the championship. 

Christian Lundgaard has improved from his starting position in every race this season, and in every road or street course race, he has made up at least eight position. Twice it has led to podium results. At St. Petersburg, he gained nine spots from 12th to finish third. Two races later, Lundgaard improved from 18th to seventh at Arlington. At Barber Motorsports Park, he went from tenth to second, and it could have been better than that. A problem changing tires on his final stop cost Lundgaard a potential battle with Álex Palou out of the pit lane for the lead and potentially the race victory.

Despite a 13th at Phoenix, Lundgaard sits 34 points off the championship lead in third, closer to the top spot than he was at this point last season. Through four races in 2025, Lundgaard was second in the championship, but he was also 60 points off the championship leader. That championship leader had won three of the first four races and his worst finish was second. Either way, Lundgaard is closer to the top, and in each race he has been making progress through the field. 

One issue for Lundgaard is for all the positions he has made up, he has been starting poorly each race. His best starting position this season is tenth. His average starting position of 14th ranks 12th in IndyCar through the first four races. However, he has the second-best average finish at 6.25. With a difference 7.75 between his average starting position and average finishing position, Lundgaard has the best improvement this season, and he is finishing 1.25 positions better than the next best driver. Kyle Kirkwood's average finish is 6.5 spots better than his average starting position. 

Qualifying form has been a weak spot for Lundgaard ever since has entered IndyCar. In every season he has competed full-time, his average finishing position has been better than his average starting position. Last season, he started outside the top ten in seven races, and he finished in the top ten in three of those races. In two of those races he gain more than ten positions. This season, he has already started outside the top ten in three races and he has finished in the top ten in two of those.

Lundgaard's drive last year from 12th to third was the first time a Long Beach podium finisher started outside the top ten since 2021 when Colton Herta won from 14th. Since the introduction of the DW12 chassis in 2012, there have been 11 instances of a driver finishing on the podium after starting outside the top ten at Long Beach. The 2014 race saw all three podium finishers start worse than tenth. In the first 28 Long Beach races, only 12 times did a podium finisher start worse than tenth. The only race in that span that saw multiple podium finishers start outside the top ten was in 2002 when Michael Andretti won from 15th and Max Papis finished third from 18th. 

Hoping to Pick Up Where They Left Off

After having four races within the first 29 days of March, there were likely a handful of drivers who were hoping the 2026 season could continue at a consistent pace. Instead, the previous two weekends have been off for IndyCar, and a handful of drivers are hoping this break doesn't stop the momentum they were on. 

David Malukas likely does not want to lose what he started in the first four races. His first career pole position, his first podium finish with Team Penske as well as matching is career-best street course finish and getting his first top five finish on a road course, the first four races of 2026 could not have gone much better for Malukas. He is also tied for best average starting position this season at 4.25 with Álex Palou. To top it all off, he is fourth in the championship on 116 points, the top Team Penske competitor, three points ahead of Josef Newgarden.

Malukas has three consecutive top ten finishes for the first time in his career. Now the next two races are at two circuits where he has struggled. He has never finished better than 17th in three Long Beach starts, and his best finish on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course is 12th in four starts.

Josef Newgarden might be the second-best Penske driver in the championship through four races, but Newgarden is still ranked in the top five of the championship. He has been ranked in the championship for the last three races, ever since his victory at Phoenix. Last season, Newgarden was ranked in the championship after only one race, the season opener where he was third at St. Petersburg.

Newgarden's Phoenix victory remains his only top five finish of the season, but he has three top ten finishes from four races. Last year, he did not have three top ten finishes until seventh race at Detroit. At Long Beach last year, Newgarden was looking good for a top five finish before a seat belt issue derailed his race. Prior to 2025, Newgarden had nine consecutive top ten finishes at Long Beach with a victory and four podium finishes during that spell. 

This has been the best start to a season for Marcus Armstrong. The New Zealander has not finished worse than 11th this season, and he has three consecutive top ten results with his best finish being fifth at Phoenix. Armstrong did not get his first top five finish until the ninth race of last season at Road America. His qualifying form has also been pretty strong, averaging a grid position of 7.5, tied for fourth-best.

Armstrong is looking for his first career victory, and this will be his 51st start. While Long Beach was the location of his first top ten finish, an eighth in 2023, his finishing position has declined over each of the last two years, dropping to 12th and 14th respectively. 

A highlight from the Barber Motorsports Park weekend was Graham Rahal taking third, his first podium finish in 40 starts. Rahal also started third in that race, and he has started third twice this season. Through four races, Rahal is 12th in the championship on 82 points, only three points outside the championship top ten. With a ninth at Phoenix, Rahal picked up his first top ten finish on an oval after a nine-race oval slump without a top ten result. 

While Rahal has two standout results, he has finished 18th in each of the first two street course races this season. He has not had a top five finish on a street course since he was fourth at Toronto in 2022. His most recent podium finish on a street course was second in the 2018 St. Petersburg race. He has finished outside the top ten in four of the last five Long Beach races.

Who is Looking For a Fresh Start?

Some drivers were wishing this quick spring break would not come from IndyCar, but there are certainly a few drivers who are glad for the breather, and they likely hope Long Beach can be a reset.

It hasn't been a terrible start to the season for Scott McLaughlin, as he does have a podium finish and he is seventh in the championship, but McLaughlin's finishing position has gotten worse over each race this season. He was second at St. Petersburg, but he has followed that with finishes of eighth, 11th and 16th. He has failed to make it out of the first round of qualifying in the last two races. At Arlington, he drew a red flag after clipping a barrier. At Barber, a practice accident put his crew in a rush to repair the car ahead of qualifying. 

McLaughlin has never finished in the top five at Long Beach. His best finish came last year when he was sixth. 

Will Power's time at Andretti Global has been off to a rocky start. Power has had some kind of incident in three of four race weekends this season. At St. Petersburg, he had a practice accident in turn ten and then he slapped the barrier exiting turn ten during the race. Phoenix will be remember for the contact with Christian Rasmussen that cut down Power's tire as the two drivers were contesting for the lead. At Barber, a brake failure in turn five during qualifying put Power into the barrier, and he had to start 23rd. He did drive up to 12th in the race. This combination of results has Power 13th in the championship.

Power's average starting position through four races is 16.25, the fifth-worst. He has failed to make it out of the first round of qualifying in two of the last three years at Long Beach, but he does have a seven-race top ten finish streak in this event. 

Overshadowed within his own team, Felix Rosenqvist's start is nearly a complete opposite of how he started in 2025. In both cases, the Swede has finished 13th in the fourth race at Barber, but in 2025 he had three consecutive top ten finishes. In 2026, his best result is 12th. In each of the last two seasons, Rosenqvist has had at least three top ten finishes through the first four races. This year, he heads to the fifth race hoping to get his first top ten finish. 

Rosenqvist does have three consecutive top ten finishes at Long Beach, and he has never finished worse than 13th in this race. 

No driver feels like they should have won one of the first four races more than Christian Rasmussen, who had a spectacular day at Phoenix before making contact with Will Power and then slowly falling down the order to finish 14th. That remains Rasmussen's best finish of the season. He has finished no better than 19th in the other three races. Rasmussen ranks 22nd in the championship on 44 points. 

For all his pace on ovals, street courses have been notoriously dreadful for the Dane. In ten street course starts, Rasmussen's average finish is 22.6. He has finished outside the top twenty in seven of those races, and his best street course finish was 15th at St. Petersburg last year. He has finished 27th and 23rd in his first two Long Beach appearances. 

IMSA

As is an annual tradition, IMSA joins IndyCar at Long Beach, one of two shared weekends for the two series, and IMSA brings its GTP and GTD class to Shoreline Drive for a 100-minute race on Saturday April 18. Twenty-eight cars are entered between the two classes.

Through the first two rounds, the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche is undefeated, winning the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring with Felipe Nasr, Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich. Nasr and Andlauer will remain together in the #7 Porsche as Nasr looks to win at Long Beach for the second consecutive year. Heinrich will move to the #5 JDC-Miler Motorsports Porsche for this round alongside Tijmen van der Helm. 

Whelen Racing has been on the podium in the first two races with the #31 Cadillac for Jack Aitken and Frederik Vesti. Vesti will run at Long Beach as regular driver Earl Bamber has FIA World Endurance Championship responsibilities in Imola. The #7 Porsche has scored 755 points this season, 80 more than the #31 Cadillac. 

The #6 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor and Kévin Estre are third in the championship on 654 points after finishing second at Sebring. Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor sit fourth on 606 points in the #24 Team WRT BMW. Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly round out the top five with 567 points in the #93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura. The sister #60 Acura of Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun has scored 560 points.

The top Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac sits seventh in the championship on 548 points. That is the #40 Cadillac of Jordan Taylor and Louis Delétraz. Marco Wittmann and Philipp Eng have scored 482 points in the #25 BMW. Aston Martin THOR Team has scored 472 points with the #23 Valkyrie of Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis. 

The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac has been classified in 11th for each of the first two races. The team retired from Daytona and was disqualified from third at Sebring due to a camber-related infraction. This leaves Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque on 455 points. 

Heart of Racing Team leads the GTD championship with the #27 Aston Martin on 690 points. The team has finished third and second in the first two races. Eduardo Barrichello is back for the third race, but Spencer Pumpelly will round out the lineup in place of Tom Gamble, who is competing in WEC at Imola this weekend.

The closest entered team in the championship is the #13 13 Autosport Corvette for Orey Fidani and Matthew Bell. 13 Autosport has scored 559 points in the first two races. Daytona winners Russell Ward and Philip Ellis have scored 544 points in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG, 13 points more than Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW.

With GTD Pro not competing, a few special entries are at Long Beach. Vasser Sullivan Racing has entered the #89 Lexus of Jack Hawksworth and Frankie Montecalvo. Harry King leads the #177 AO Racing Porsche with Mikkel Pedersen. Pfaff Motorsports will run the #46 Lamborghini for Andrea Caldarelli and Zachary Vanier, who makes his IMSA debut. 

Long Beach will also be the first race of the season for Robert Wickens, who returns to the #36 DXDT Racing Corvette to run the sprint races. Mason Filippi will be Wickens' co-driver. Wickens' best finish last season was fourth at Mosport. 

IMSA's Grand Prix of Long Beach will take place Saturday at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Fast Facts

This will be the sixth IndyCar race to take place on April 19 and the first since Scott Dixon won at Long Beach in 2015.

The only other Long Beach race to take place on April 19 was in 2009, and Dario Franchitti was the winner. That makes Chip Ganassi Racing two-for-two in Long Beach races run on April 19. 

The 2020 Long Beach was scheduled for April 19 before being cancelled due to the pandemic.

April 19 is also the birthdays of six-time Long Beach winner Al Unser, Jr. and 2001 Indy Lights Long Beach winner Townsend Bell. Unser, Jr. turns 64 this year and Bell turns 51.

Five drivers have had their first career IndyCar victory come at Long Beach: Paul Tracy 1993, Juan Pablo Montoya 1999, Mike Conway 2011, Takuma Sato 2013 and Kyle Kirkwood 2023.

Only two drivers have won the Grand Prix of Long Beach and the Indianapolis 500 in the same season (Al Unser, Jr. 1994, Hélio Castroneves 2001).

The average starting position for a Long Beach winner is 4.268 with a median of 2.5. 

Five of the last seven Long Beach races have been won from the front row. Nineteen of the last 25 Long Beach races have been won from one of the first two rows.

The third row has not produced a Long Beach winner since 1999 (Juan Pablo Montoya from fifth).

More Long Beach winners have started 17th than on the third row. Paul Tracy won from 17th in 2000 and Mike Conway won from 17th in 2014.

The average number of lead changes in a Long Beach race is 5.268 with a median of six. 

The last 11 Long Beach races have had five lead changes or more. 

The most recent Long Beach race with fewer than four lead changes was 2008, which only had three lead changes. 

The most recent Long Beach race with zero changes was 2001. In the IndyCar-era, only two other Long Beach races have had zero lead changes (1984 and 1987).

The average number of cautions in a Long Beach race is 2.731 with a median of three. The average number of caution laps is 10.926. with a median of 12. 

Eight of the last 14 Long Beach races have had three cautions or more. Twenty-two of the last 30 Long Beach races have had three cautions or more.

Last year was the fifth Long Beach race in the IndyCar-era to run caution-free. The other four were in 1985, 1987, 1989 and 2016.

There has never been rain on race day for the Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Predictions

Álex Palou makes it three-for-three for Chip Ganassi Racing on April 19 at Long Beach. Honestly, that could be the honest prediction. If it isn't Palou, it is probably Kyle Kirkwood taking his second consecutive Long Beach victory. Christian Lundgaard does not finish eight spots better than his starting position because he cannot finish eight spots better than his starting position. Scott Dixon has his best starting position of the season. No one outside the top twenty in the championship finishes inside the top ten. Felix Rosenqvist will be the best finishing Meyer Shank Racing driver. Sleeper: Marcus Ericsson.