Musings From the Weekend: Farewells and the Future

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...

Of all the drivers in the world, Álex Palou caught a break to win the IndyCar race from Long Beach. But remember, only twice has a driver won Long Beach and the Indianapolis 500 in the same year. Which means Palou is going to become the third. NASCAR had a solid race from Kansas. The party was spoiled in Imola. Supercross lost a championship contender before the race even started in Cleveland. However, another year in Long Beach but this time without an old friend made me wonder. 

Farewells and the Future

James Hinchcliffe got me thinking after listening to the latest episode of Off Track with Hinch and Rossi on Thursday. On the show, Hinchcliffe mentioned the melancholia that was hanging over this year's Grand Prix of Long Beach after the passing of long-time event president Jim Michaelian on March 21, aged 83.

Michaelian was instrumental in the development of the Long Beach race from its early days hosting Formula One though the present where it has become an encompassing week of racing starting with Formula Drift before hosting IndyCar and IMSA with Stadium Super Trucks also on the bill. Long Beach is not what it is without Michaelian's work for 50-plus years. I highly recommend listening to Dinner with Racers' podcast with Michaelian to learn more about the event. 

It is a reminder that many of these torchbearers for American motorsports are getting older and will not be around forever. So many people involved in all forms of American motorsports, IndyCar, IMSA, NASCAR included, have been around for decades and decades, and there are many prominent names still in charge and active deep into their 70s and 80s. Some of these individuals have seen significant changes not only from what is on the track but how events operate and procedures surrounding events. They are living history books, but they will not be around forever. 

There is a difficulty in moving forward without someone like Michaelian around. Long Beach is the one successful street race in the United States. It has lasted more than half a century. Most street races in the United States don't even make it three years. They are lucky to see five years. There have been a few other outliers and the likes of St. Petersburg deserves its recognition as it closes in on a quarter-century, but none have come close to what Long Beach has become and what it has meant. 

Long Beach is arguably an underrated event, even in the United States. The quintessential American street race isn't appointment viewing for the casual sports fan. Few motorsports events are, but Long Beach deserves it. It has long been a gathering of the top competitors in American motorsport with IndyCar and IMSA racing together, but prior to that with Trans-Am as well. It is an event steeped in history, and much of the course is the same. It has had a few alterations. The fountain section has only been around for about half its existence, but it is still Shoreline Drive. It is still Seaside Way. It is still the hairpin. Hell, even Monaco has had some minor alternations in its near century of hosting races but the hairpin and the chicane and Casino Square have all been there. 

It is a special event to motorsports fans, but it should be greater than what it is. 

The future is tough in these moments, but it was already being considered. Michaelian was planning to step down after this year's race. IndyCar purchased the Long Beach race in November 2024, securing the event for years to come and preventing it from possibly taking on another headliner. Everything changes, and someday someone else would be in charge. Now that day is here. We were always going to have to face this moment. 

With the steadiness Michaelian had running Long Beach through many difficult periods of American open-wheel racing, the challenge will be on the next generation and IndyCar to keep the event going. I don't think that will be an issue, but Michaelian had a special touch. It was a local running the event, and IndyCar is based in Indiana. There will be a challenge to keep the connection communal. It must feel like this is a grassroots event with someone who cares about Long Beach and wanting what is best for the event and the city. It is going to become a little more corporate with IndyCar in charge. The goal will be to lessen the friction and not have the race evolve into a hinderance.

Scheduling has not been easy for IndyCar in recent years. Who are we kidding? It hasn't been easy in a long time, possibly ever. There is always a battle to keep a race alive and keep the fans interested. Iowa was once a jewel for the series, and we saw how that deteriorated. The series has no roots in the Northeast, and you could argue it has no roots on the entire East Coast. It just returned to Texas after a brief spell away. There are still geographical pockets where IndyCar is absent. Efforts are always being explored to expand, but IndyCar isn't the quickest to lay down a foundation. It will put off taking a risk for years and still not do a thing. 

Long Beach represents the best that can happen. It is on its own as a street race, but it does show an event can form from nothing more than a hope and prayer, and transform into an annual gathering that all celebrate. There is always a way to reach people and connect with people who are looking for an event of their own, something that is a planned weekend months in advance. It doesn't have to be a street race. It could be a short oval or a intermediate-sized road course. An event can rise up and become more than a race weekend. It can become a community celebration that is largely successful because the locals show up and the visitors coming from far and wide are the cherry on top. 

If every event could be half as successful as Long Beach, IndyCar would be in a tremendous spot. There are plenty of events outside of this one and the Indianapolis 500 that have strong support, but around a third of the race weekends are hit-or-miss. You aren't sure if they will be good, and if things do not change, the series will have to start over somewhere else. It is a return to square one. 

The beacon of hope is Long Beach. If it can work there for over 50 years, there is a way for any location to host an event. It just takes the right guidance.  

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Álex Palou, but did you know...

The #93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura of Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly won the IMSA race from Long Beach. The #12 VasserSullivan Lexus of Aaron Telitz and Benjamin Pederson won in GTD.

The #7 Toyota of Sébastien Buemi, Brandon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa won the 6 Hours of Imola. The #69 Team WRT BMW of Dan Harper, Anthony McIntosh and Parker Thompson won in LMGT3.

Tyler Reddick won the NASCAR Cup race from Kansas, his fifth victory of the season. Taylor Gray won the Grand National Series race.

Nicolò Bulega swept the World Superbike races from Assen, and Bulega is nine-for-nine this season. Jaume Masià and Philipp Öttl split the World Supersport races.

Kai Allen (race one), Brodie Kostecki (race two) and Matt Payne (races three and four) split the Supercars races from Ruapuna Park. 

Ken Roczen won the triple crown Supercross round from Cleveland with finishes of second, second and first. Hunter Lawrence and Justin Cooper won the first two races. Nate Thrasher won the 250cc triple crown round with finishes of second, first and fourth. Seth Hammaker and Cole Davies won the other two races. 

Coming Up This Weekend

MotoGP is back with the Spanish Grand Prix from Jerez. 

NASCAR is at Talladega.

Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters opens its season at the Red Bull Ring.

Super Formula has its second round from Autopolis.

GT World Challenge America heads to Austin.

The World Rally Championship ventures to the Canary Islands.

Supercross has its final East Coast round in Philadelphia. 

First Impressions: Long Beach 2026

1. In one of the more pedestrian IndyCar races, Álex Palou won after catching a break he never needed. A piece of debris led to the only caution, and it fell right as the final pit window opened. After spending much of the race chasing Felix Rosenqvist, the race would come down to one pit stop. Palou's crew was about a second faster and that was all he needed. Palou emerged from the pit lane clear of Rosenqvist, and for the remainder of the race, he was never challenged.

Palou drove off into the sunset and took his third victory of the season.

What else can you say? It wasn't Palou's victory. This goes down to the pit crew. It goes down to Chip Ganassi Racing. It goes down to the best team in IndyCar over the last 30 years being the best team in IndyCar on this Sunday afternoon in Long Beach. Palou didn't do anything wrong in this race. He started third and found himself in second. Rosenqvist had a great start and he drove away. When the caution came out, the race turned into one trip down the pit lane. Chip Ganassi Racing has the best personnel. Team Penske has an argument, but when it came down to one pit stop to decide the race under caution, who were you going to back, Chip Ganassi Racing or Meyer Shank Racing?

Once ahead, Palou was gone. You didn't need to give him a clear racetrack. In a race where no one was making passes anywhere, it would have required another Mid-Ohio-esque brain fade for Palou to lose this race. Do we really think that was going to happen again?

It was a brief detour, but Palou is back in the championship lead. Do we think he is going to lose it again this season?

2. This is a bummer for Felix Rosenqvist and Meyer Shank Racing because they were near-flawless today. It wasn't even a poor pit stop that cost them. That pit stop under green flag conditions would have been perfect, job done, and Rosenqvist would have maintained the lead. Under caution, it was a dagger.

MSR and Rosenqvist have been close for three years. They have these races where they are in the top five, but it doesn't lead to more. They don't find that next level and jump from third to first. They don't maintain the top speed and hold on to win. Today, they did. This wasn't like two years ago when Rosenqvist started on pole position at Long Beach and then dropped down the order ultimately to finish ninth. The team was locked in today, it just didn't add up to a victory.

3. Scott Dixon's third-place finish also comes down to the final round of pit stops. It leaped him into a podium position after Dixon spent practically the entire race in the top five. Dixon got a gift. He didn't need it, but he got it, and it makes his first top five finish look a lot better.

4. Kyle Kirkwood started fourth and he finished fourth. I am not sure he spent a lap outside of fourth. The worst part of this day is Kirkwood lost the championship lead to Palou. Palou was a little better but I don't think Palou was three spots better. Palou got some breaks. Kirkwood didn't. The championship swung 19 points and it is now 17 points in Palou's favor instead of two in Kirkwood's.

For Kirkwood... ok, move on. Points were lost but this wasn't a "back to the drawing board" result. The team did well. It ended up being Palou's day. Turn your attention to the next race and go from there.

5. I am not sure you can say anything strongly positively or negatively about 21 drivers in this race. Few did anything great. Few did anything notably wrong. It was not a thrilling event. These races happen. They cannot always be classics. They aren't always this bland either. These races happen.

Is it frustrating that it seems like one year IndyCar has the tire wear where it should be and drivers and teams have to try and save the tire... and then the next it doesn't matter? Yes.

Tires didn't make a difference today. IndyCar made a rule where every team must use the alternate compound twice, but that still means races can be two-stop races. If it wants three stops and teams pushing, either make the alternate tire or primary tire junk way before a team reaches an empty fuel cell or make it so each team must use each tire compound twice. We have been saying this after each street course race this season.

6. Patricio O'Ward dropped from second to fifth. Yep. That happened. There is only one spot ahead of you when starting second and there are 23 behind you. You are more likely to drop than rise. O'Ward didn't quite have it for any of the Hondas.

7. Scott McLaughlin won the Team Penske class today, finishing sixth after starting eighth. David Malukas was seventh after starting fifth. Team Penske is stuck in the middle of the top ten if it isn't an oval. Has Team Penske been a threat anywhere but Phoenix this year? McLaughlin led the first 34 laps of the season but even at St. Petersburg it felt like the race was going away from Team Penske.

In a way, this is a good result for Malukas. He lost two spots, but he still ran in the top ten. He didn't look lost. He ran well. It is good that he is finishing in the top ten. This is something he was not doing on street courses on a regular basis in the first four seasons of his career.

8. Graham Rahal stayed in the top ten all day and finished eighth. Good. Rahal and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing needs these kinds of days. RLLR struggled everywhere not long ago. Rahal had finished 18th in the first two street course races this season. Eighth is a healthy leap forward.

9. Alexander Rossi went from 18th to ninth to get Ed Carpenter Racing its first top ten finish at Long Beach since 2017. Rossi did make some passes to get a few spots. He was pushing Rahal at the finish for eighth. Not a fantastic day but it could have been worse.

10. Kyffin Simpson didn't do anything flashy, and he finished tenth. Good for him.

11. We can breeze through much of the field.

Dennis Hauger drove a clean race and finished 11th. Nolan Siegel did nothing wrong and finished 12th. Both these guys also ran a two-stopper. The top 12 finishers all ran two stoppers. We saw this two years ago when the top 14 finishers all were two-stoppers. One fewer pit stop is an easy way to make up some spots when it is not quicker to stop three times.

12. Speaking of the three-stoppers, Rinus VeeKay committed early, and it is rather impressive he recovered to finish 13th. Josef Newgarden jumped onto the three-stopper and it allowed him to lead a handful of laps. For a moment, it looked like it could work in Newgarden's favor, but once he was back in traffic after his second stop, Newgarden stalled out and this strategy left him dead to rights. He was not going to turn it into some sort of run into the top five. Newgarden could not work his magic on slightly fresher tires.

Once the caution came out, Newgarden's race was over. He wasn't going to crack the top ten. He finished where he started in14th.

Christian Rasmussen also ran a three-stop race and was 15th. That is all.

13. The only driver I think who had a truly bad day was Louis Foster, and maybe Will Power because Power lost a possible top five finisher due to a penalty for hitting a Caio Collet crew member during the final pit cycle. I guess Collet's crew member also had a bad day.

Foster was positioned to get his first career top ten finish, and then he lost speed in the final stint. It sounded like he was battling some kind of mechanical issue. He was losing time, and he dropped like a rock. If the car let him down it is brutal because Foster put himself in the spot for the top ten. This result was not indicative of how Foster raced today.

14. Mick Schumacher got to complete every lap. He was 17th. It is good he ran every lap.

Santino Ferrucci was 18th and didn't get noticed.

It is a typical Will Power day where he lost a promising finish in a crazy manner. Add "hit another team's crew member" to the list. It is a shame because Power drove well. He has left a lot of points on the table this season.

Christian Lundgaard had a bad day. The three-stop strategy didn't work. He was not a factor in this one. Lundgaard and Arrow McLaren had these races last year. When they were not on it, they could not figure it out. That is a problem when Álex Palou keeps winning and Kyle Kirkwood keeps finishing in the top five.

15. Romain Grosjean didn't have a great weekend. I am sure he isn't pleased. There was the practice accident on Saturday that set him back. The pace wasn't all that blistering before the accident. It is Dale Coyne Racing. You can only work so many miracles.

I don't know if the pit crew incident with Will Power hurt Caio Collet's day at all. I don't recall hearing him at all prior to that. He was 22nd. That is where rookies finish.

Sting Ray Robb was 23rd. Robb has gone from three consecutive 21st-place finishes to 22nd to 23rd. He is heading in the wrong direction.

16. Marcus Armstrong had to make an unscheduled pit stop late and it cost him a better finish than 24th, one-lap down.

Marcus Ericsson had hybrid issues end his day early.

Not a good day to be a Marcus.

17. Not the greatest race in the world. It is easy to over-react. We touched upon the tires above, but how about all these people, who were probably upset and calling it a snoozer as Rosenqvist was running away with it only to get a caution to hopefully liven up the race and it turned into be what handed Palou another victory? Yeah, I am sure that is what they wanted to see. Be careful of what you wish for.

Also, the worst time for a caution is right when the final pit window opens. Everyone is going to come! There is no strategy there. Everyone is going to do the same thing, and there is never a straight-up battle that is spectacular.

18. And onto another two-week break. There will be testing on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval during this spell. It is something to keep us busy. It is all Indianapolis from now until May 29. I guess it is that time of the year.

Morning Warm-Up: Long Beach 2026

Felix Rosenqvist took pole position for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach with a lap at 67.4635 seconds in the final round of qualifying on Saturday afternoon. It is Rosenqvist’s seven career pole position, and his first since he won pole at Long Beach in 2024. Rosenqvist has three consecutive top ten finishes at Long Beach, and his fourth-place finish last year was his best result in this race. The Swede enters this weekend 96 starts removed from his only career victory at Road America in 2020. Meyer Shank Racing won the IMSA race on Saturday from pole position with Renger van der Zande and Nicky Yelloly in the #93 Acura. Hélio Castroneves’ 2021 Indianapolis 500 victory remains MSR’s only IndyCar victory. 

Patricio O'Ward was 0.0441 seconds off Rosenqvist’s pole-winning time and O’Ward will start second. It is his best starting position of the season, and it is his best Long Beach start. Long Beach is historically one of O'Ward's worst races. He was fifth in 2022, but he has an average finish of 15th in six starts with three finishes outside the top fifteen. In his last 14 starts, O’Ward has ten top five finishes and four finishes of 17th or worse. 

Álex Palou takes third after running 0.0654 seconds off the top time. Palou could become the sixth different driver to win the Grand Prix of Long Beach for Chip Ganassi Racing. Alex Zanardi and Scott Dixon have each won the race twice for Ganassi. Jimmy Vasser, Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti each won it once. No Long Beach winner has started third since Simon Pagenaud in 2016. 

Kyle Kirkwood starts to Palou’s outside. Kirkwood is looking for his fifth consecutive top five finish. The most recent Andretti Global driver to have five consecutive top five finishes was Alexander Rossi, who had six consecutive top five finishes from the Indianapolis 500 through Toronto in 2019. No Long Beach winner has started third since James Hinchcliffe in 2017. 

David Malukas rounds out the top five, a personal best for Malukas at Long Beach. This is the fourth consecutive race Malukas is the top Team Penske starter. Last year, Malukas picked up personal bests in starting position and finishing position at Long Beach. While he started tenth, he ended up finishing 17th. It was his first lead lap finish at Long Beach. 

Scott Dixon starts in the top ten for the first time this season in sixth. Dixon has finished in the top ten of the last three races, but none of those results were in the top five. He has not had four consecutive top ten finishes that were also not top five finishes since 2020 when he was tenth in both races of the Mid-Ohio doubleheader and then ninth in both races of the Harvest Grand Prix doubleheader at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

Will Power was 0.0272 seconds from advancing to the final round, putting Power seventh on the grid instead. Though a two-time Long Beach winner, Power has not won this race since 2012. A victory this year would be the second-longest span between Long Beach victories at 14 years. Michael Andretti went 16 years between victories in 1986 and 2002. This will be a record-extending 20th Long Beach start for Power.

Scott McLaughlin starts eighth after having an accident in Saturday morning practice for the second consecutive race weekend. In his last ten street course starts, McLaughlin has two top five finishes, both at St. Petersburg. His most recent top five finish in a street race that wasn't St. Petersburg was second in the 2023 Nashville street race. 

Kyffin Simpson takes ninth on the grid, Simpson’s second top ten start this season. He started tenth at St. Petersburg. Last year, he drove from 17th to tenth in this race. Simpson has finished 20th in the last two races. He has completed every lap this season. 

Graham Rahal has his best Long Beach starting position since 2019 as he will start this race from tenth. Coming off a third at Barber Motorsports Park, Rahal has not had consecutive top five finishes since he was fifth in both races at the 2021 Belle Isle doubleheader. He has not had consecutive podium finishes since 2020 when he was third in the second Iowa race and third in the Indianapolis 500. 

Christian Lundgaard takes 11th on the grid, the fourth time in five races Lundgaard is starting outside the top ten. His average starting position this season is 13.6. Last year was the first time Lundgaard has finished in the top ten at Long Beach. Lundgaard was third. He started 12th in that race. 

Rinus VeeKay starts 12th this year at Long Beach, his best starting spot ever at Long Beach. VeeKay had never made it out of the first round of qualifying at Long Beach prior to yesterday. VeeKay has never finished in the top ten at Long Beach with an average finish of 19.4 over his five starts.

Marcus Armstrong was 0.0030 seconds off advancing out of the first round of qualifying, and this will place Armstrong 13th on the grid. He had started in the top ten in seven consecutive road/street course races. Armstrong has not finished in the top five of his last six street course starts.

Josef Newgarden missed out on the second round by 0.0169 seconds, placing him 14th. Newgarden could leave this weekend with four top ten finishes from the first five races. It would be the first time he has done that since 2021, and the fifth time he has done it in his career. In two of those seasons, he won the championship. 

Marcus Ericsson has his worst starting position of the season in 15th. Ericsson has three top ten finishes through the first four races of 2026. He had two top ten finishes over the entire 2025 season. Four of his last top five finishes have come on street courses. 

Christian Rasmussen starts outside the top ten for the ninth consecutive road/street course race. Rasmussen starts 16th. Ed Carpenter Racing has not had a top ten finish at Long Beach since Spencer Pigot was eighth in 2017. ECR has had one car finish outside the top twenty in three consecutive Long Beach races. 

Louis Foster will start 17th. Foster has finished in the top fifteen in his last three street course starts. His 13th at Arlington was his best street course finish. He went from 20th to 16th in last year’s Long Beach race. 

Alexander Rossi lines up directly behind his Ed Carpenter Racing teammate Rasmussen in 18th. Since winning consecutive Long Beach races in 2018 and 2019, Rossi has not finished better than sixth in this race. He has not finished worse than his starting position this season. 

Dennis Hauger makes his Long Beach debut from 19th on the grid in car #19. He started 19th at Arlington two races ago and finished 16th. Hauger won both his street course starts last season in Indy Lights. He is coming off his worst finish in his brief IndyCar career. Hauger was 23rd at Barber, one lap down. 

Caio Collet will be to Hauger’s outside. Through his first four starts, Collet has yet to finish worse than his starting position. He improved in each of his first three races. At Barber, he started and finished 21st. Collet has completed every lap in all three road/street course races this season. 

Mick Schumacher makes it three consecutive rookies on the grid with Schumacher starting 21st. Including the Formula One-era of the Grand Prix of Long Beach, Schumacher will become the sixth German to compete in this race. Jochen Mass, Hans-Joachim Stuck, Rolf Stommelen and Manfred Winkelhock all ran at Long Beach in Formula One. Timo Glock is the only German to run Long Beach in the IndyCar-era. Glock was sixth in the 2005 race.

For the third consecutive year, Santino Ferrucci starts outside the top twenty at Long Beach. Ferrucci starts 22nd. His best Long Beach start was 13th in 2019. In four Long Beach starts, Ferrucci has finished 21st, 11th, 21st and 11th.

Romain Grosjean starts 23rd. Grosjean has twice finished second at Long Beach. He is one of four drivers with multiple runner-up finishes at Long Beach to have never won the race. Bobby Rahal was four times the runner-up in this race. Emerson Fittipaldi and Justin Wilson each finished second twice. 

Sting Ray Robb rounds out row 12. The good news is Robb's streak of consecutive 21st-place finishes ended at three at Barber Motorsports Park. The bad news is he finished 22nd at Barber. This is Robb’s third consecutive race starting outside the top twenty, and he has failed to finish on the lead lap in six consecutive starts. 

Nolan Siegel starts last, 25th for the first of two races in his native California. Siegel has finished outside the top ten in 11 consecutive starts. His best career finish on a street course was 19th at Detroit last year. He has finished 20th in each of his two Long Beach starts.

Fox's coverage of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach begins at 5:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 5:45 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 90 laps.

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.

First Impressions: Long Beach 2025

1. For someone who had a rookie year to forget, in three seasons with Andretti Global, Kyle Kirkwood has shown immense talent, and for a driver who was facing much pressure entering 2023, Kirkwood might have one of the most comfortable seats in IndyCar. A victory in the Grand Prix of Long Beach for the second time in three years helps with job security.

This was more than just a win from pole position. With the alternate tire compound not expected to last long and this being a 90-lap race with large pit windows, drivers were going to be stopping early. Majority of the grid started on the alternate tire, Kirkwood included. When others came early, Kirkwood was put in a tough spot. He could not risk staying out too long. After seven laps, Kirkwood was one of the last cars to stop and remove the alternate tire. It did not backfire. Kirkwood maintained the advantage, but it set up Álex Palou to be on his heels for the entire race.

For essentially 82 laps, Kirkwood had the best driver in the series breathing down his neck. Each pit cycle, the pressure would be on Kirkwood and his team. There was no wiggle room for a long stop or a slow in-lap. Kirkwood had to be pinpoint perfect, and he was. Once Kirkwood emerged from the pit lane ahead of Palou with 25 laps remaining, it was game over.

Kirkwood set sail and earned his third career victory.

There are a number of drivers who would be put in that spot and blink with Palou in the rearview mirrors. This was an outstanding performance who probably does not get the appreciation he deserves. We have seen drivers struggle with Palou behind them, especially when Palou can make up time late in stints. We saw Colton Herta throw away a Long Beach race in the same circumstances. Herta had Palou and Josef Newgarden pressuring him and Herta lost out in a pit cycle. Then Herta went over the limit trying to leap-frog back ahead, and Herta hit the barrier to end his race.

If you put Herta in Kirkwood's position today, I don't think Herta wins this race, and everyone believes Herta is destined to be in Formula One. Kirkwood hasn't been in this position often, but for the limited experience, he hasn't blinked when many would put money on him faltering.

There is a long season ahead of us, but last season Kirkwood rarely put a wheel wrong. He wasn't quite in the top five speed on a regular basis. If the speed is there, Kirkwood is dangerous.

2. It isn't three-for-three for Álex Palou, but a 1-1-2 to start the season is going to be difficult to overcome for anybody. Until Palou starts tripping over himself, it will be on the rest of the field to beat him. It will require someone over the final 14 races beating Palou at least 11 or 12 times to think about the championship going elsewhere.

Palou isn't going to make mistakes. He isn't going to make a massive error when running in a podium spot. He also isn't going to have a weekend where he cannot run better than 13th. Every weekend he will be on the fringe of the top five. Most of those weekends, he will just be on the inside. It will require someone remarkable to beat Palou, especially after this start to the Catalan's season.

3. In terms of strategy, starting on either compound worked. The top two started on the alternate tire and ran fewer than eight laps in their opening stints. Six cars started this race on the primary tire. Four of those drivers finished in the top ten. Five of those drivers finished in the top 11. Starting on the primary tire and running the alternate tire mid-race was not a bad choice.

Case in point, Christian Lundgaard, who went from 12th to third. Lundgaard did 28 laps to open the race on the primary tire. Lundgaard was speaking about this being a two-stop race beforehand. I don't think that was ever in play with the alternate compound, but Lundgaard did not have a dire situation mid-race. He did 12 laps on his second stint on the alternate compound. What worked in Lundgaard's favor was everyone who stopped early made their second stops within five laps of Lundgaard's first stop. He wasn't off strategy for long.

Once he did those 12 laps on the alternates, and made it so he could split the final 50 laps over two stints. Lundgaard put himself into a prime position for a top five result. It turned into a podium finish, and third-place required a late pass on Felix Rosenqvist.

Through three races, other than Palou, I don't think anyone has turned more heads than Lundgaard. Victory is coming.

4. Felix Rosenqvist was about three laps shy of a podium result. Fourth is not a disappointment, but for a driver who struggles to finish better than where he starts when he starts in the top five, Rosenqvist looked set to have a net-gain from his starting spot. Instead, it was net-zero, but fourth is still great.

Rosenqvist was running in the top five the entire race and he was on the same strategy as the leaders. He didn't have a race where the car faded after great promise in qualifying. Rosenqvist had a great day. Lundgaard had a little more at the end.

5. For another race where it didn't look like Team Penske would have much, Will Power pulled out a top five result. Will Power wasn't even the best Team Penske driver until the final stint. He and neither of the other two Penske drivers were close to victory. Fifth was as good as it was going to get.

It is two consecutive impressive results considering where Power started, but Penske has some work to do.

6. Scott McLaughlin was the best running Penske driver for most of this race. It helped that he started sixth. It looked like McLaughlin was in prime position when he stopped on lap six to shed the alternate tires. After his pit stop, he was side-by-side with Colton Herta exiting the pit lane despite there being four spots between the drivers prior to the stop.

Unfortunately, that battle out of the pit lane and on the out-lap, which included Josef Newgarden who stopped at the end of lap two, cost all three drivers. They lost time battling with each other and it allowed Kirkwood, Palou and Rosenqvist to make their pit stops and remain ahead. Once they were through with the alternate tire, there was no great opportunity for the likes of McLaughlin, Herta and Newgarden those three to jump any further ahead. They were kind of stuck in a spot where at best they would be finishing in the top five.

7. This one must smart for Colton Herta because he and Kirkwood looked nearly identical throughout practice and qualifying. It looked like Herta was going to have the upperhand when the first round of pit stops began. Herta stopped on lap six. It felt like he was putting the pressure on Kirkwood to respond. Instead, Herta found himself battling McLaughlin and Newgarden. It must have been a slow pit stop that put Herta into the clutches of the Penske drivers, but it took Herta out of any battle for the lead.

Herta was ahead of McLaughlin after the stop, but McLaughlin made a pass on the out-lap in turn eight, and Herta was a sitting duck to Newgarden into turn nine. Herta never had a chance to overcome that. It is points lost and these days are too common for Herta.

8. Scott Dixon did nothing impressive and finished eighth, his 300th top ten finish. Dixon started on the primary tire, one of four consecutive finishers who started on the primary tire. He didn't quite have what Lundgaard had. Dixon was caught in traffic. He never got quite clear and he ended up eighth. It happens.

9. The top ten had two stunning surprises. The first was Sting Ray Robb in ninth. Robb did 52 laps on the primary tire. On his penultimate stint, Robb did 12 laps on the alternate, and it set up a 26-lap final stint on primary tires.

That is all strategy. Robb didn't lose time on the alternate tire. Running long to start on the primary tire was smart because he didn't get stuck in traffic like most of the alternate starters did. Robb got clean air by going long and being at the front. With how the pit stops cycle, Robb never got caught behind anybody. When it was time for his final stop, he made it and remained in the top ten. Robb started 19th today. This was a ten-spot gain from the start!

It is his second career top ten finish and Juncos Hollinger Racing deserves praise for the strategy.

10. Kyffin Simpson did nearly the same thing. Simpson did 29 laps on his first stint, nine laps on the alternates and then ended with two stints on the primary tire.

That is all Simpson did. He got clear air at the front and it got him track position that many lost battling amongst themselves. It is the first career top ten finish for Kyffin Simpson. Good for him.

11. Santino Ferrucci is the fifth primary tire starter to finish in the top 11. Ferrucci did it from last-place on the grid.

I don't know if too many drivers got caught up in the alternate tire not lasting long enough and many decided to get that stint out of the way, especially after seeing how the first two races played out, but this race was not one clear strategy. 

Starting on either compound worked. For the six drivers that started on the primary tires, they started 12th, 14th, 17th, 19th, 24th and 27th. I don't know if everyone was too spoked in the top ten to think using the alternate compound mid-race could work, but it obviously did because all six of those drivers gained positions, specifically nine spots, six spots, ten spots, seven spots, 16 spots and six spots.

12. Everyone that finished 12th through 15th started in the top ten. Five of the six finishers from 12th through 17th started in the top ten. What cost them top ten finishes was battling amongst themselves. They got jammed up after they removed the alternate compound within the first eight laps.Once they were bunched together, it allowed the likes of Lundgaard, Dixon, Robb, Simpson and Ferrucci to inch ahead on each stint despite needing to use the alternate tires mid-race.

The order of those finishers were Marcus Ericsson, Patricio O'Ward, Marcus Armstrong and Alexander Rossi. Then you had Louis Foster, who started on the alternate tire in 20th, and then there was David Malukas who finished 17th after starting tenth.

Including Foster, this feels like a race where they all beat themselves. You can say they did what the race winner did, but I think we have seen enough that if you are starting eighth or ninth, you cannot run the same strategy as the pole-sitter or whoever the front-runners are. You must try something different. There is more to gain in those seven or eight spots ahead than in the 20 or so positions behind.

For Ericsson, a teammate won. For O'Ward, a teammate got on the podium. For Armstrong, a teammate was in the top five. For Rossi, he looked like he laid an egg. It is easy to say it was definitely wrong, but they were all starting with more to gain than lose, and they still lost today.

13. I want to pick out Louis Foster for a moment because while he did get his best finish in his three-race career, 16th was the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing finisher. All three RLLR cars started on the alternate tire.

What are they doing? Why is there no split strategy in a three-car team? I can understand a two-car team and neither feel that confident doing the alternative because it seems like a low payout, but with three cars, one must do something different.

Graham Rahal started 16th. What does he have to lose starting on the primary tire? Same with Devlin DeFrancesco. Everyone that started on the primary tire today made up at least six spots. On average, those drivers made up nine spots. Rahal lost six spots from his grid position! DeFrancesco was starting 23rd. He ended up 24th. On paper, he was due to do no worse than 17th and likely be on the cusp of a top ten finish. The same goes for Rahal.

You know a team is lost when it cannot even properly split the strategies, especially when the team has nothing to lose.

14. Robert Shwartzman was the sixth driver to start on the primary tire. Shwartzman went from 24th to 18th. He led some laps through one of the late pit cycles, but he didn't have the pace to put him in a position for something greater. Still a good day for him because it feels like Prema has been on the backfoot every weekend. That wasn't the case at Long Beach. It should feel good to beat Callum Ilott, who was 21st. Ilott didn't do a damn thing today. There are minor victories to take from this weekend, but still much work to do.

15. Dale Coyne Racing looked like Dale Coyne Racing today. Rinus VeeKay was 19th, which was six spots better than his grid spot, but still not stellar. Jacob Abel has had a rough start to his IndyCar career. Abel was off the lead lap for the third time in three races. Not a great day.

16. I am going to cover the hodgepodge of remaining drivers all at once.

Nolan Siegel was fighting some illness on race day and he dropped from 11th to 20th. If Siegel was sick, a good result was always going to be a stretch, but he needs a good day soon.

Christian Rasmussen was anonymous in 23rd. Ed Carpenter Racing is another example of a team that did not split strategy. Alexander Rossi was starting eighth. I understand Rossi starting on the alternate tires a little bit. Rasmussen was in 18th. Split the strategies! You cannot expect Rasmussen to gain many spots when he is doing the same thing as 14 of the 17 cars ahead of him.

No one rates Sting Ray Robb highly. We have seen what he has done in two full seasons. This result might have been 95% strategy, but Conor Daly cannot finish 25th with no apparent issues. It is not a good look for someone who may receive too much praise.

17. Josef Newgarden had loose seat belts cost him a top ten finish. On lap 61, he had a long stop to get it fixed while taking service for the final time. It cost him a few spots, but when the belts were still not good enough, Newgarden had to come in the following lap to get it properly fixed. Newgarden went from a tenth-place finish to 27th and one-lap down.

It is early, but that feels like the final nail in his coffin when it comes to the championship. That might be an exaggeration, but Newgarden hasn't won on a road or street course in approaching three years. Last season, he had eight finishes outside the top fifteen and nine finishes outside the top ten. Newgarden has finished outside the top ten of the last two races.

Look at the competition. No one can afford to make a mistake. Newgarden has blown one race, was non-competitive in the other, and I do not think banking on the six oval races will be enough to win the championship. Any comeback must start at Barber Motorsports Park in three weeks, not in a month-and-a-half at the Indianapolis 500. A third consecutive Indianapolis 500 victory would be historic, but it isn't going to save this season if the next two results are garbage.

Also, how the heck in the last four races have two Penske drivers had seat belt issues? The Will Power issue at Nashville felt like an oversight. The belief is Newgarden's latch was accidentally hit on track and that caused it to come loose. Still, we haven't seen any other teams have this issue. It is an odd coincidence, but sometimes coincidences are odd.

18. Through three races, we have seen tire strategy be the key factor. We talk about wanting tires that wear and force different strategies. Firestone has provided that through the first three races. I don't know if we saw the alternate tires run long enough to know if they were truly junk. I don't think they would have done 20-25 laps, but no one even tried to push that compound 15 laps.

19. Three races and we haven't had a caution lap since lap six of the season. When these drivers look like dopes, we chastise them beyond a reasonable level. Two consecutive caution-free races deserve proper recognition, especially when the drivers have gone 249 consecutive laps without blemish.

20. One more extended break. It is a holiday then an off-week for... reasons before we are back on track with Barber Motorsports Park. That opens the month of May. Prepare accordingly.

Morning Warm-Up: Long Beach 2025

Kyle Kirkwood scored his third career pole position, and his second pole position at Long Beach, with a lap of 66.1921 seconds in the final round of qualifying for the 50th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Kirkwood was 0.2311 seconds faster than Colton Herta, who made it an all-Andretti Global front row. Kirkwood won the 2022 Long Beach race from pole position. He was fourth after starting on pole position at Nashville last year. Kirkwood is looking to open a season with three consecutive top ten finishes for the second consecutive year. He was fifth and eighth in the first two races. It has been 21 races since his most recent victory, the 2023 Nashville street race. Kirkwood is one of three drivers in this race looking to become the 11th driver with multiple Long Beach victories.

One of the other two is Colton Herta. With Herta starting second, Andretti Global has swept the front row for the first time since last year at Toronto. In that race, Herta started on pole position and Kirkwood was second. Herta went on to win the race while Kirkwood went on to finish second. The top two starters have not got on to finish 1-2 at Long Beach since 2018 when Alexander Rossi won for Andretti Global with Will Power finishing second. Herta has finished in the top five in three of his last four Long Beach starts.

Álex Palou is aiming for three consecutive victories to open the 2025 season, and Palou's pursuit will begin from third on the grid. The Catalan driver was 0.4333 second off Kirkwood. Palou has won three consecutive races before. In 2023, he won at Detroit, Road America and Mid-Ohio. There have been 57 occasions in IndyCar history where a driver has won at least three consecutive races. Palou could become the 15th driver to win at least three consecutive races on multiple occasions. He has finished fourth, third, fifth and third in his four Long Beach appearances. 

Felix Rosenqvist takes the outside of row two. Rosenqvist was 0.4437 seconds slower than Kirkwood's pole time. This is the fourth time in six Long Beach appearances Rosenqvist has qualified inside the top five. The Swede was fifth at Thermal. Rosenqvist has not had consecutive top five finishes since the final two races of his rookie season in 2019.

Marcus Ericsson makes it a clean sweep of the top five starting positions for Honda, and Ericsson will be making his 100th career start this weekend from fifth on the grid. The Swede was 0.5140 seconds off his Andretti teammate Kirkwood. Ericsson enters this weekend on a 35-race winless streak. He has finished in the top five in his last two Long Beach races.

Scott McLaughlin was the lone Chevrolet representative in the final round of qualifying, and he will start sixth. After finishing 27th at Thermal Club, McLaughlin looks to avoid consecutive finishes outside the top ten for the first time since May 2023. That year, he was 16th in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and 14th in the Indianapolis 500.

Marcus Armstrong was 0.026 seconds from making the final round of qualifying, and Armstrong takes seventh on the grid. This is the second consecutive race he is starting seventh, and it is the third consecutive race Armstrong is starting in the top ten. Only once previously has he started in the top ten in three consecutive races. The New Zealander has an average finish of 11.6 in ten career street course starts.

Alexander Rossi finds himself eighth on the grid for his 150th start. Rossi has finished in the top ten of the first two races of the season. Rossi has not open a year with three consecutive top ten finishes since 2019. It is one of only two times he has opened with three consecutive top ten results. He has five top ten finishes in his last six Long Beach starts.

Patricio O'Ward takes ninth on the grid. O'Ward has started in the top five only once in his last 11 races. That one top five start was his pole position at Thermal three weeks ago. The Mexican driver has finished outside the top ten in four of his five Long Beach starts. O'Ward's average finish at the circuit is 15.4. He has finished off the lead lap in three of those five races.

David Malukas starts tenth, his best career starting spot at Long Beach. In his first two Long Beach visits, Malukas started 18th and 25th. He will hope his best starting spot will lead to his best finishing position. Malukas was 21st and 20th in his first two Long Beach appearances. 

Nolan Siegel returns to the location of his IndyCar debut, and Siegel leads an all-Arrow McLaren row six. This matches his best career starting position. He was 11th in the second Iowa race last year and 11th at St. Petersburg last month. Siegel was 20th in last year's Long Beach race driving for Dale Coyne Racing.

Christian Lundgaard brought out a red flag on his final lap of the second round, and this dropped Lundgaard from a spot in the top six to 12th on the grid. Lundgaard has opened 2025 with two consecutive top ten finishes, the first time Lundgaard has multiple top ten finishes to start a season. The only time Lundgaard has scored three consecutive top ten results was in 2023 and that third results was his first career victory at Toronto.

Will Power missed out on the second round of qualifying by a little over a tenth of a second, and Power will start 13th. Power will be making a record 19th Long Beach start in the IndyCar-era of the race. Michael Andretti and Power were tied on 18 Long Beach starts entering this weekend. In the all-time history of the Grand Prix of Long Beach, Mario Andretti has made 20 starts, one in Formula 5000, seven in Formula One and 12 in IndyCar.

Scott Dixon was 0.0473 seconds off advancing from group two, and row seven turns into one of the most experienced combinations you could ask for. Dixon starts 14th. Dixon enters this weekend on 299 top ten finishes in his IndyCar career. Dixon has 41 more top ten finishes than the next closest driver, Mario Andretti. Dixon has finished in the top ten of 74.009% of his starts.

For the second time in his career, Josef Newgarden is starting outside the top ten at Long Beach. Newgarden will roll off from 15th. Newgarden has nine consecutive top ten finishes at Long Beach, which includes a victory in 2022. However, Newgarden has never had consecutive top five finishes here and he was fourth in last year's race.

Graham Rahal gets his best starting position of the season, but his race will start from 16th position. Rahal was 0.0503 seconds off advancing to the second round. The Ohioan has not finished in the top ten in the last two Long Beach races, nor in his last five starts.

Kyffin Simpson takes 17th on the grid. Simpson has started all three races this season inside the top twenty after starting only four races in the top twenty over the entire 2024 season. Since finishing 12th on his IndyCar debut at St. Petersburg last year, Simpson has not finished better than 18th in a street race.

Christian Rasmussen ended up 18th in qualifying, his best starting position of the season. Rasmussen scored his first top fifteen on a street course when he was 15th at St. Petersburg in March. Last season, Rasmussen's average street course finish was 25th.

Sting Ray Robb will have the best starting position of his IndyCar career in 19th. Robb's previous best start was 20th in the second Iowa race last year. Robb has never finished in the top fifteen in a street race. His best street race finish was 16th on his IndyCar debut at St. Petersburg in 2023.

Louis Foster rounds out the top twenty. Foster is the top starting rookie for the third consecutive race. He has been the fastest rookie in every session held this weekend. The Briton has been the worst rookie finisher and the second-best rookie finisher through the first two races. 

Conor Daly starts directly behind his Juncos Hollinger Racing teammate Robb in 21st. Daly has not finished in the top ten in his last 22 street course starts. Daly's most recent top ten in a street race was sixth at Belle Isle in 2016. He has never finished in the top ten at Long Beach.

Callum Ilott takes 22nd on the grid, matching his starting spot from the Thermal race a few weeks ago. This will be the sixth consecutive race Ilott is starting outside the top ten. In three Long Beach races, Ilott's average finish is 23rd and he has never finished on the lead lap in this race.

Devlin DeFrancesco finds himself 23rd on the grid, the lowest Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing qualifier. DeFrancesco has finished outside the top fifteen in ten consecutive starts. He has started outside the top fifteen in seven of those races.

Robert Shwartzman is directly behind his Prema teammate Ilott in 24th. Shwartzman enters Sunday with 52 laps completed over the two practice sessions and qualifying. Despite a lack of practice at Thermal Club a few weeks ago, Shwartzman was still the best rookie finisher, though in 22nd position.

Rinus VeeKay was the slowest qualifier in the first qualifying group, and he will start 25th. This is VeeKay's worst starting spot at Long Beach. The Dutchman has finished outside the top twenty in two of his four Long Beach appearances.

Jacob Abel starts 27th. Abel is making his IndyCar debut at Long Beach, but he has raced here before. In 2021, Abel competed in the Stadium Super Truck round at the circuit. He was 13th in the first race but unable to start the second race.

Santino Ferrucci brushed the wall on his final qualifying lap, and it means Ferrucci will start 27th. This is his worst starting position since he started 27th in the second Iowa race in 2023. Ferrucci has finished 14th in the first two races this season. In three Long Beach races, Ferrucci has finished 21st, 11th and 21st.

Fox's coverage of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach begins at 4:30 p.. ET with green flag scheduled for 4:52 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 90 laps.

Track Walk: Long Beach 2025

The third round of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season keeps IndyCar in California and Southern California to be more specific. From an inaugural event to a 50th anniversary, IndyCar heads to Long Beach, which is celebrating its golden jubilee. Fifty years after its first event, Long Beach hosts IndyCar for the 41st time. Five different drivers have won in the last five visits to Shoreline Drive. In 2025, there has only been one winner, and he has yet to win in his first four trips to IndyCar's most historic street race. However, history is on his side.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 4:30 p.m. ET on Sunday April 13 with green flag scheduled for 4:52 p.m. ET.
Channel: Fox
Announcers: Will Buxton, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee and Jack Harvey will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

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

Saturday:

Second Practice: 11:30 a.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:30 p.m. ET 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 12:02 p.m. ET (25 minutes)
Race: 4:52 p.m. ET (90 laps)

FS1 will have coverage of all practice session while FS2 will have coverage of qualifying. Fox will have race coverage.

Honda's Home

Recently, Long Beach has been Honda's home. 

The Japanese manufacturer has won the last two years and it has won six of the last seven Long Beach races. Honda also heads Long Beach having won four consecutive street races. The most recent saw Álex Palou take the victory in St. Petersburg. Now Palou is looking for his third consecutive victory to open the 2025 season, and it would be his first in the famed event. 

Though he has yet to win, Palou has finished in the top five in all four of his Long Beach starts. Twice he has finished on the podium. Three years ago, he led 22 laps before dropping to third behind Josef Newgarden and Romain Grosjean. If there is any good news for Palou, it is his last eight victories have come on eight different circuits. He has also won the last two races run in California. 

Chip Ganassi Racing has won the last four races run in California as Scott Dixon won at Long Beach last year and he won the 2023 season finale at Laguna Seca. Dixon heads to Long Beach attempting to achieve consecutive victories in the event for the eighth time in Long Beach history. Last year, Dixon won multiple street course races, the only driver to do so. He has four consecutive podium finishes in street races.

Andretti Global has been a street course front-runner for the last two seasons, and Andretti has a fantastic history at Long Beach. Two years ago, it won with Kyle Kirkwood and the team has won four of the last six Long Beach races. Colton Herta won at Long Beach in 2021, and Herta won at Toronto last year. Herta has top five finishes in three of the last four Long Beach races. 

While Kirkwood won two years ago, he was seventh last year. Marcus Ericsson has finished in the top five of the last two Long Beach races. This is after Ericsson did not finish better than 20th in his first three Long Beach starts. 

Meyer Shank Racing has shown signs of promise over the last two seasons with Felix Rosenqvist leading the way. Rosenqvist started on pole position last year at Long Beach, but he dropped to ninth at the finish. Rosenqvist has three top ten finishes in five Long Beach starts, and he has never finished worse than 13th. Marcus Armstrong has finished eighth and 12th in his first two visits to Long Beach.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has never won the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Neither did Bobby Rahal in his illustrious driving career. RLLR has failed to produce a top ten finisher in the last two years at Long Beach. Last year, the team's best finisher in this race was 17th. Graham Rahal was runner-up in the 2013 Long Beach race. Rahal has finished 11th and 12th to open the 2025 season. The other two RLLR drivers, Devlin DeFrancesco and Louis Foster, have yet to finish better than 20th. 

Dale Coyne Racing has not had a top fifteen finisher in the last three Long Beach races. DCR has not had a top ten finisher in this race since 2017 when Sébastien Bourdais was second and Ed Jones was sixth. Rinus VeeKay's average finish in four Long Beach starts is 19.5. Jacob Abel's average finish in his first two starts is 24th.

Lundgaard Love

Álex Palou might have won the first two races, and Patricio O'Ward might have dominated the Thermal Club race prior to Palou having the tire advantage in the final stint, but the driver that has probably stood out the most over the opening two races is O'Ward's newest teammate. 

Christian Lundgaard has opened the season with finishes of eighth and third. Lundgaard led laps in the season opener at St. Petersburg, and he started on the front row at Thermal Club. This combination of results has Lundgaard placed fourth in the championship on 60 points, only one point behind Scott Dixon in third and only three points off his Arrow McLaren teammate O'Ward.

For the first time in his IndyCar career, Lundgaard has opened a season with a pair of top ten finishes. In each of his first three seasons, the Dane had at least one finish outside the top fifteen in the first two races. Last year, he opened the year with finishes of 18th and 23rd. His podium finish at Thermal Club is his earliest top five finish in a season let alone his earliest podium result. It had taken Lundgaard at least four races to get his first top five finish in his first three seasons. 

Street courses have been sort of hit-or-miss for Lundgaard in IndyCar. He was eighth at St. Petersburg, but last season, his best street course result was seventh at Toronto, his only top ten result in a street race. His first career, and so far, only victory was at Toronto in 2023, but that remains Lundgaard's only top five finish in a street course race. As a rookie in 2022, his best street course was eighth. In 15 street course starts, Lundgaard's average finish is 11.667. His average starting position is slightly worse at 11.8 though he has started in the top five on three occasions, including fifth in the St. Petersburg season opener, and a pole position when he won at Toronto in 2023.

Lundgaard has already been giving McLaren more production for a second driver than the team has seen in recent seasons. His third at Thermal Club gave McLaren its first double-podium day since the 2023 Grand Prix of Indianapolis. It is only the second double-podium day for McLaren since it returned to IndyCar in 2019. The next most recent double-podium finish for this organization was the 2015 Grand Prix of Louisiana when Schmidt Peterson Motorsports went first and third with James Hinchcliffe and James Jakes respectively. Saturday will be the ten-year anniversary of that NOLA Motorsports Park race. 

This organization won at Long Beach as Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in 2017 with James Hinchcliffe. In the six Long Beach races since, this team has only one top five finish. O'Ward was fifth in 2022. 

Lundgaard will enter this weekend looking for his first top ten finish at Long Beach. He has finished 18th, 14th and 23rd in his first three Long Beach starts. He started seventh in last year's race after not starting better than 17th in his first two appearances. 

Two-Race Hole

Nobody likes a slow start, but not everyone can start on a heater. History shows IndyCar is not the place for slow starts. Nine consecutive champions were top ten finishers in the opening race. Three of those drivers won the first race. Six of them were top five finishers. 

Some drivers got off the mat at the Thermal Club. 

Will Power responded after an opening lap accident at St. Petersburg. Though Power started 21st at Thermal, he went forward and finished sixth. 

Colton Herta was looking poised for a victory at St. Petersburg. One bad pit stop cost him dearly and he finished 16th. At Thermal, Herta spent most of the race in the top five and he finished fourth. 

Marcus Armstrong brushed the barrier in the season opener and what could have been a top ten finish turned into a 24th-place result. In the second race of the season, Armstrong rebounded to finish seventh. 

One top ten finish does not mean much when the championship leader has won the first two races. Only one driver is within 40 points of Álex Palou. Only eight drivers are within 60 points of Palou. Herta is just inside that second group. The likes of Power, Armstrong and even Scott McLaughlin and Marcus Ericsson are on the outside. 

McLaughlin's spins and hybrid issues at Thermal have the New Zealander 61 points behind Palou. Ericsson's spin in Thermal sunk any hope of a promising finish and the Swede is 65 points back. Both drivers opened the season with top ten finishes. McLaughlin led the most laps in the opener. 

The Indy Racing League starting awarding 50 points for a race victory in the 1998 season. In the previous 27 seasons, the fewest points an eventual champion had through the first two races was Greg Ray in 1998, who had 23 points through the first two events. Ray was also ranked 23rd in the championship after those races. Only two other champions had fewer than 50 points after the first two events. Kenny Bräck had 33 points through the first two races of 1998. Scott Dixon had 34 points from the first two races of 2015. Bräck and Dixon were 14th and 15th respectively in the championship.

Twenty-one of these 27 champions were ranked in the championship top five after the first two races. The average championship position for these 27 champions through the first two races is 4.259 with an average of 69.7037 points. The last six champions have had at least 60 points from the first two races. Currently, only the top four (Palou, O'Ward, Dixon and Lundgaard) have at least 60 points through the first two races. Only three other drivers have at least 50 points (Felix Rosenqvist, Kyle Kirkwood and Josef Newgarden).

The bad news for everyone is Palou has 102 points from the first two races. It is the fourth time a driver has opened a season with at least 100 points from the first two races. Only once has a driver not converted hitting the century mark in two races into a championship. Sam Hornish, Jr. and Scott Dixon were successful in 2001 and 2020 respectfully. Will Power was not in 2010.

Five Extra Laps

This year's Long Beach race has been extended to 90 laps, five laps longer than the previous seven editions. This will be the longest Long Beach race since 2003, which was 90 laps. 

With five additional laps, this should turn the race into a three-stop race for everybody. 

In last year's race, the top nine finishers and 13 of the top fourteen finishers only made two pit stops. 

Scott Dixon won last year's race after stopping under caution on lap 17 and then under green flag conditions on lap 51, stretching the fuel over the final 35 laps and holding off charges from Josef Newgarden and Colton Herta. 

In 2023, the top eighteen finishers all did it on a two-stop strategy. Every driver that made three stops or more did not finish on the lead lap. Eventually winner Kyle Kirkwood stopped under the lap 22 caution with only one car staying out. Kirkwood then stopped on lap 54. In 2022, the top 12 finishers all only made two stops. Newgarden stopped on lap 30 and then lap 57. Newgarden's final stop came two laps after Álex Palou's final stop, and Palou had been leading prior to that pit cycle. Newgarden leap-frogged to the lead during that pit cycle.

Colton Herta started 14th in the 2021 race. Herta stopped on lap 18, which was two laps prior to a caution. After two cautions in quick succession, Herta took the lead on lap 34 when Hélio Castroneves and Graham Rahal each made pit stops. Herta had passed Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden to position himself to inherit the lead. The final stop for Herta was lap 54.

Alexander Rossi won consecutive Long Beach races, and Rossi did it on near-identical strategies. In 2018, he stopped on lap 25 and lap 56. In 2019, Rossi went a lap longer on his first stint, stopping on lap 26 and his final stop was still on lap 56. In both races, the first three laps were run under caution. 

The 2017 race saw a mix of strategy, but James Hinchcliffe was on a two-stopper. Hinchcliffe stopped on lap 28 and lap 57. However, Hinchcliffe took the lead leap-frogging Alexander Rossi in the second pit cycle. Rossi also stopped on lap 28 but stopped on lap 56. Rossi would drop out with a mechanical issue on lap 63. Hinchcliffe was the only finisher in the 2017 race to complete the race in two stops. Sébastien Bourdais ended up finishing second after stopping under caution on lap two, under green flag conditions on lap 30 and on lap 58. Josef Newgarden was third on a three-stop strategy with stops on lap 16, lap 33 and lap 61. Scott Dixon finished fourth despite stopping on lap 16 like Newgarden, but going to lap 41 for his second stop and his final stop was on lap 62.

The last 12 Long Beach race winners have made only two pit stops. From 2013 to 2016, Long Beach was only an 80-lap race. Mike Conway in 2011 was the last driver to win Long Beach on a three-stop strategy, an 85-lap event, but the next six finishers were all on a two-stop strategy. Only one other finisher in the top 12 made a third stop, and that was Tony Kanaan in eighth. 

IMSA

For IMSA, Long Beach marks the third round of the season and the first non-endurance race. This will be a 100-minute race and it will only feature the GTP and the GTD classes. Despite cutting the number of classes in half, 27 cars are entered for the first of two street course weekends, as a few one-off entries join the grid. 

Leading the 11-car GTP class is the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry as it swept the two endrance races from Daytona and Sebring. Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy will carry on full-time and the Anglo-Brazilian duo has 760 points. That is 91 points more than its sister car, the #6 Porsche. Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell were third and second in the first two races. 

Meyer Shank Racing is third and fourth in the championship, and those cars are tied on 587 points. The #60 Acura of Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun have finished second and tenth. The #93 Acura of Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly have finished eighth and third. 

Cadillac has the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing entry and the #31 Whelen Racing entry in the next spots in the championship with only one point between them. Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor sit in 547 points, just ahead of Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber. The BMW entries are tied on 540 points. The #24 BMW of Dries Vanthoor and Philipp Eng has started on pole position in the first two races, but it has yet to finish better than fourth. Sheldon van der Linde and Marco Wittmann were fifth at Sebring. 

JDC-Miller Motorsports has 528 points with Gianmaria Bruni and Tijmen van der Helm in the #85 Porsche. Louis Delétraz and Jordan Taylor have finished 11th in each of the first two races and the #40 Cadillac on 447 points. 

Off a victory at Sebring, Winward Racing leads the GTD championship as Philip Ellis and Russell Ward has 690 points, 41 points ahead of the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin. Tom Gamble and Casper Stevenson have finished third in each of the first two races. A pair of top five finishes to open the season has the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche third in the championship on 633 points with Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer

Daytona winners AWA dropped to fourth in the championship on 590 points after finishing tenth at Sebring. Matt Bell and Orey Fidani are back in the #13 Corvette. Turner Motorsport rounds out the top five with Patrick Gallagher and Robby Foley on 549 points in the #96 BMW, one point more than the #12 VasserSullivan Lexus of Jack Hawksworth and Parker Thompson

This weekend marks the debut for Robert Wickens in the #36 DXDT Racing Corvette with Tommy Milner as his co-driver. VasserSullivan has entered an additional Lexus with Aaron Telitz and Frankie Montecalvo in the #89 Lexus. AO Racing has entered the #177 Porsche, which will see Laurens Vanthoor lead the way alongside Jonny Edgar. Vanthoor won overall in the first two races of the season with the #7 Porsche Penske entry.

General Motors has won overall at Long Beach in eight of the last nine visits. Porsche won in 2023 with Jaminet and Tandy. Renger van der Zande has won two of the last three years. Lexus won last year in GTD with Ben Barnicoat and Thompson, ending a three-year winning streak for Paul Miller Racing, which now competes in GTD Pro. Lexus also won at Long Beach in 2023 in GTD Pro with Barnicoat and Hawksworth. 

IMSA's Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will take place on Saturday April 12 5:00 p.m. ET.

Fast Facts

This will be the eighth IndyCar race to take place on April 13 and the first since Mike Conway won at Long Beach in 2014. 

This will be the fifth Long Beach race to take place on April 13. 

Six of the first seven races to run on April 13 were held in California. The other two were at Hanford in 1969 (Mario Andretti won) and Ontario in 1980 (Johnny Rutherford won). 

The one non-California races was the Indy Racing League race at Motegi in 2003 (Scott Sharp won). 

This year's race falls on the 39th anniversary of Michael Andretti's first career victory.

This year's 90-lap race falls 22 years to the day of the last 90-lap race at Long Beach.

Alexander Rossi is the only repeat winner in the last ten Long Beach races.

Will Power, Alexander Rossi or Scott Dixon could become the fifth driver to win at least three Long Beach races.

Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing are tied for the most Long Beach victories with seven. Newman/Haas Racing and Andretti Global are tied with six victories.

Only twice in the 16 seasons since reunification has the Long Beach winner gone on to win the championship: Dario Franchitti 2009 and Scott Dixon 2015.

The Long Beach winner won the championship in eight of the 12 seasons preceding reunification. 

The Long Beach winner has won the championship in 13 of its 40 seasons on the IndyCar schedule.

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 4.35 with a median of 2.5. 

Four of the last six Long Beach races have been won from the front row. Sixteen of the last 20 Long Beach races have been won from one of the first two rows. Seventeen of the last 23 Long Beach races have been won from one of the first two rows.

The average number of lead changes in a Long Beach race is 5.15 with a median of six. 

The last ten 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 2.8 with a median of three. The average number of caution laps is 11.2 with a median of 12. 

Eight of the last 13 Long Beach races have had three cautions or more. Twenty-two of the last 29 Long Beach races have had three cautions or more.

In the IndyCar-era, four Long Beach races have been caution-free (1985, 1987, 1989 and 2016).

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

Predictions

Chevrolet gets it first victory of 2025, and Team Penske makes up for the missed opportunity at St. Petersburg. It will be Josef Newgarden taking the victory with Will Power in second but Álex Palou will finish third. Scott Dixon will not have the longest final stint of the race. Colton Herta will make up at least six spots for his starting position. There will be multiple cautions but there will be at least one pit green flag pit cycle. Louis Foster is the top finishing rookie. Robert Shwartzman will run at least 90 laps before he even gets to the race. The pole-sitter will not lead the most laps. Sleeper: Marcus Armstrong.