Musings From the Weekend: There is Still a Month but Boy Has It Gone Quiet

Alexander Rossi dominated at Long Beach. Formula One had its 1000th race. Both global motorcycle series had weather cancel a session, however, rain only cancelled a MotoGP practice from Austin while snow cancelled all of Saturday for World Superbike for Assen and caused the Superpole race on Sunday to be dropped in favor of a doubleheader on Sunday. Marc Márquez's winning streak in the United States ended at 12 consecutive starts, the last ten all coming in MotoGP, after he fell in Austin. A local won in Supercross' first trip to the Centennial State in over two decades. Formula E had its seventh different winner from a seventh different team through the first seven races of the 2018-19 season and they will not let you forget it as it stakes its claim for most unpredictable/most competitive motorsports series in the world. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

There is Still a Month But Boy Has It Gone Quiet
Long Beach is a marker in the IndyCar season. It is mid-April. Most of the country is thawed out. Some are still getting snowstorms. Days are longer. Daylight Savings Time has settled in. There are days where you can break out the shorts you haven't seen since early October. Those things aside, something is getting closer. Long Beach is a precursor to the following month. One iconic event leads to another and from here we can start to look to Indianapolis.

It is more than the race itself. It is the start of the 11th hour. This is when the final deals are announced. Someone has put together a program, all the "i's" have been dotted and the "t's" have been crossed and the check cleared. A driver is closer to the dream becoming reality. But this year was different and we didn't have an Indianapolis 500 entry announced on Friday or Saturday or even Sunday morning from Long Beach. We didn't have new sets of hats and polo shirts to stare out. We didn't have ear-to-ear grins with sighs of relief sneaking through beaming smiles. Come to think of it, we haven't had many announcements regarding the month of May since the season started and that is interesting.

The good news is we are a month away from the first practice days at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and we have 33 entries on paper but we have not had an Indianapolis 500 entry announced since James Davison confirmed his Dale Coyne-Jonathan Byrd's-Brian Belardi-Brad Hollinger entry on March 8th. The day prior to that Patricio O'Ward confirmed his plans with Carlin.

In early March, we were talking about 36, 37 and some people were going as far to project 38 or 39 entries. We have not been doing much counting since the IndyCar season started but with a month to go before first practice time is running out for entries to be finalized.

Of the 33 confirmed entries, it is as even as it can be, 17 Hondas and 16 Chevrolets. Looking down the entries and at the teams that have not announced a program, only three stick out for expansion: Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, Harding Steinbrenner Racing and Juncos Racing.

Juncos Racing hasn't even announced an entry yet but with as much as this team has put into its IndyCar program, despite not being a full-time team, you have to think it will be there and it seems likely that Kyle Kaiser will be the driver.

Dreyer & Reinbold ran two cars last year and we have not heard anything about that second entry coming back. We haven't heard anything about J.R. Hildebrand but the pair worked well last year and it would make sense if the two parties gave it another go in 2019.

Harding Steinbrenner Racing was set to be a two-car team this year until the bottom fell out and left Patricio O'Ward on the sidelines. Though Harding Steinbrenner Racing is a small team and is still tight on cash but as much as it is an independent operation, HSR is the offshoot of Andretti Autosport and it would not be a surprise if the likes of Carlos Muñoz found himself in a second HSR car partnering with Colton Herta.

Outside of those three teams, expansion is possible but it is unlikely.

Honda ran 19 cars last year but I am not sure it will have that many entries this year. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports has run a third car the last few years but it seems the team is focused on two cars and it is still partnered with the Meyer Shank Racing entry for Jack Harvey. I don't think Meyer Shank Racing is going field an additional entry. The team is still figuring out its way in IndyCar. It seems to be a stretch that Meyer Shank Racing would field a second entry with say Katherine Legge as its driver. Chip Ganassi Racing would have announced its additional entry by now if it were running one. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is full. Dale Coyne Racing is full.

On the Chevrolet side, A.J. Foyt Racing has not announced an additional entry of its own but it will be helping with the Clauson-Marshall Racing entry for Pippa Mann. Ed Carpenter Racing, Team Penske and Carlin have all announced additional entries. DragonSpeed is taking on a lot just running one car. McLaren is focused on its one entry for Fernando Alonso.

If there is a chance of an entry materializing from a team other than the three speculated above it is Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and working out a deal with Oriol Servià. The team has recent history with Servià. Not long ago Servià was rumored to be working with Éric Bachelart, who was trying to resurrect the Conquest Racing name from the ashes and I think if there is one place that could happen is its SPM. Besides familiarity between Servià and the team the Catalan driver would bring veteran expertise that could come in handy after SPM's qualifying issues last year.

And of course there are more drivers on the outside than seats remaining. Besides the aforementioned Kaiser, Hildebrand, Muñoz and Servià there are Jay Howard, Stefan Wilson, Gabby Chaves, Aaron Telitz and Matthew Brabham are just a few names on the outside and most of them will not even get behind a wheel next month.

Add to the lack of entry discussion is the lack of driver discussion. We really have had heard anything from drivers working on programs, at least nothing more than a few drivers saying they feel good about getting a ride. During yesterday's race broadcast, Robin Miller said J.R. Hildebrand and Oriol Servià have rides and that was it. No speculation on anyone else, no news on a driver scrapping to put funding together, not even some bananas speculation about a driver out of the series for more than nine years trying to mount a comeback. We are at a point where you can't get started on an entry now. Matthew Brabham's name came up this weekend out of the blue from an Australian story. When you are hearing names for the first time in April it usually doesn't happen and it is more a driver hoping a sponsor will jump onboard or there is a team with money that is hiring and that is almost never the case at this time of year.

We are going to get a few more entries. We are going to have bumping but we are getting tight on time. While IndyCar does not have a race in the next three weekends I expect plenty of excitement away from the racetrack as the Indianapolis 500 entry list is finalized. Who will get a deal done? Who will not? What is the quality of those entries? Who is signing up to be sweating bullets during bumping?

We still have a month. It is quiet but is going to get noisy and the month will be gone in a flash.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about Alexander Rossi but did you know...

Lewis Hamilton won the Chinese Grand Prix, his 75th Formula One victory.

Álex Rins won MotoGP's Grand Prix of the Americas, his first career IndyCar victory. It is Suzuki's first grand prix victory in the United States since Ernest Denger and Hugh Anderson won in the 50cc and 125cc classes respective in 1965 at Daytona. Thomas Lüthi won the Moto2 race, his first victory since returning to Moto2 after spending 2018 in MotoGP. Aròn Canet won the Moto3 race, his first victory since Silverstone 2017.

The #5 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque and João Barbosa won the IMSA race from Long Beach. The #912 Porsche of Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor won in GTLM.

Spencer Pumpelly won the GT4 America race from Long Beach.

Martin Truex, Jr. won the NASCAR Cup race from Richmond. Cole Custer won the Grand National Series race.

Álvaro Bautista swept the two World Superbike races from Assen. Federico Caricasulo won the World Supersport race, the fourth different winner in the first four races.

Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard split the Supercars races from Phillip Island.

Mitch Evans won the Rome ePrix, Jaguar's first Formula E victory.

Colorado's Eli Tomac won the Supercross race from Denver, his fifth victory of the season.

The #21 DragonSpeed Oreca-Gibson of Ben Hanley, Henrik Hedman and James Allen won the European Le Mans Series race from Circuit Paul Ricard. The #17 Ultimate Norma-Nissan of Matthieu Lahaye, Jean-Baptiste Lahaye and François Heriau won in LMP3. The #51 Luzich Racing Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Nicklas Nielsen and Fabien Laverne won in GTE.

The #54 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche of Klaus Bachler, Andrea Rizzoli and Zaid Ashkanani won the Blancpain Endurance Series race from Monza.

The #8 ARTA Honda NSX of Tomoki Nojiri and Takuya Izawa won the rain-shortened Super GT season opener from Okayama. The #96 K-Tunes Racing Lexus RC F of Sena Sakaguchi and Morio Nitta won in GT300.

Coming Up This Weekend
The Super Formula season opens at Suzuka and that is pretty much it because it is Easter weekend.

First Impressions: Long Beach 2019

1. This was another whooping Alexander Rossi laid on the IndyCar field at Long Beach and it feels like five races of pent up frustration relieved in his home state. From the untimely caution at Portland to the first lap damage at Sonoma to a disappointing fifth at St. Petersburg, another untimely yellow at Austin and going to his least favorite track of Barber, Rossi's results have not added up to some of the performances he has put on. In none of those races did he stand on the podium and he likely should have been on three of them. Rossi wasn't messing around from the first stint, opening up a gap of over eight seconds to Scott Dixon. If there is one driver you expect to hang in with a leader in the first stint it is Dixon but he had nothing for Rossi. The dominance continued into the second stint and Rossi was in the mid-68 second lap range while most the other drivers were in the low-69 second range.

Rossi was not challenged the rest of the way and he pulled away. He won this race by 20.2359 seconds. He led I think all but five laps. It was just an outstanding performance.

Last year, Rossi cough up a lot of points and while Austin was a big miss, he has been stout. It is still early. This is a de facto quarter point of the season but Rossi has shown this pace on a regular basis in the last two seasons. If he keeps it up and does not have any more hiccups he will be in the championship conversation when the series returns to California in September.

2. Josef Newgarden played everyone again and he got a second place finish out of it. This is what he did in St. Petersburg except it got him a victory there. Newgarden ran a little longer on that opening stint and the likes of Will Power and Scott Dixon got caught in traffic. Newgarden flipped the gap and he made up a few positions. If he keeps doing this he is going to make it tough on Rossi and everyone driver in the field to win the championship.

3. I am not going to be concerned about Scott Dixon. Yes, he lost a podium finish after a slow pit stop because the fuel probe would not engage on his final stop. He lost ground in the championship and he couldn't keep up with Rossi on the opening stint but while we worry about Rossi coughing up points this is likely going to be the one thing to go against Dixon all season and he still finished third. He finished exactly where he was when he had the problem. The man is Teflon. We pencil Dixon into a top five result before every race. He is going to maximize his opportunities and all he could manage was third today. The victories will come and he is going to make up ground.

4. Graham Rahal was solid today and this is a big rebound from the disappointment at Barber. He misses out on the podium after a blocking call on the final lap but fourth is nothing to be disappointed about. It is only two races but the last two races point that Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has found something. There are a lot of races to go but Rahal has had good runs in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and that is the next race. With Allen McDonald now apart of the organization, the man behind Indianapolis 500 pole positions for the likes of Alex Tagliani, James Hinchcliffe and Ed Carpenter, Rahal has to be entering the month of May with more confidence then he has had in any of year.

5. If there is one driver that should have gone to a three-stop strategy it was Ryan Hunter-Reay. He was quick and he missed out on the Fast Six by a little bit after being in the top three for most of the weekend. If Hunter-Reay had gone to the three-stop strategy I think he could have done better than fifth. I don't think he would have beat Rossi but I think he could have pulled out a podium finish. He ran the fastest lap in this one and I think it would have been interesting to see him run flat out for 85 laps. It is still a positive result for Hunter-Reay considering the misfortune he has had at Long Beach.

6. Simon Pagenaud had another solid day and that has to be frustrating because all he has are solid days but never are those days phenomenal. We know Pagenaud can finish sixth place but when is the Frenchman from 2016 going to return and he qualify on the front row and led close to half the race? We know he has it but it is unfathomable Pagenaud has not broken through in over two years. You would still take him as your driver but it is understandable if you are starting to lose your patience. You just got to be strong. The day is coming for Pagenaud.

7. Seventh place is not bad but Will Power had another stubbed toe. Power didn't lose an engine or a turbo or a gearbox but he was running in contention for a podium and then had an overboost issue bite him while in third position exiting turn 11. He was a sitting duck into turn one and was always going to lose a position to Dixon but it went worse when Power blew the corner and an additional four cars went by. The good news for Power is he is the best driver in the history of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and that is the next race, he is the defending Indianapolis 500 winner and he is still with Team Penske. There is plenty of time for him to turn around his season.

8. I think Takuma Sato should take an eighth place finish. It is a good result after his victory and as I said before, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is heading into the month of May on a high. I am excited for Sato because with an Allen McDonald prepared car he should be quick. Outside of his year at Andretti Autosport, this might be the best car he has had at Indianapolis and he will step behind that wheel on a great run of form. 

9. James Hinchcliffe made up a lot of ground on the first pit cycle and he got a top ten result out of it but ninth was the most he could get out of it. Hinchcliffe was good this weekend before getting caught out when Tony Kanaan caused a red flag in qualifying but I don't think he was going to be challenge for the top five even if he had advanced from the first round of qualifying on Saturday. 

10. This feels like a missed opportunity for Felix Rosenqvist. He probably should have started in the top six had it not been for his accident in the second round of qualifying. I feel like he played it safe and that is understandable but I wish Ganassi rolled the dice and had Rosenqvist on a three-stop strategy. I think he had the ability to do it and pull out a better result than tenth. If anything, maybe the best way to boost a young driver's confidence is to say he is going to drive flat out today. I think he would have loved it and I think he would have pushed for a top five result.

11. Sébastien Bourdais could only manage 11th and I think Bourdais should have tried a three-stop strategy. Dale Coyne loves going offbeat and he didn't today. I think he should have gone for it. He is veteran. He knows what he is doing. The team was working the two-stop strategy into his favor last week at Barber. I think he would have been able to do the same with three stops today.

12. Quickly through the rest of the field: Patricio O'Ward lost a lot of spots on the first stint when he was conserving fuel, which was odd. I still think 12th place is good for O'Ward and he has been the best Carlin driver this season despite no pre-season testing. Marco Andretti was good but dropped out of the top ten after the first stop and couldn't get back in that fight. Max Chilton had a good day and finished 14th. Zach Veach had to make a pit stop for fuel with two laps to go and dropped to 17th.

13. We need to take about A.J. Foyt Racing on its own again. This team reminds me of when Dale Coyne Racing hired Carlos Huertas and Francesco Dracone. The team is better than that. Matheus Leist finished 15th but this is the best he can do. Foyt rushed the kid. He wasn't ready for IndyCar and he is underdeveloped. 

We are watching the final days of Tony Kanaan. He went deep into the tires in qualifying and when word came out Kanaan was battling a hurt knee and back I started to think this is how the ironman streak ends. Kind of like Brett Favre. It doesn't end on top. It ends because an old gunslinger doesn't have the strength to walk into the street. It ends in less than spectacular fashion.

Foyt has been at the rear of the field for a long time but it has had some bright spots, especially with Takuma Sato. The team isn't that far off. In the third practice session Kanaan and Leist were the bottom two cars but they were both within 1.1 seconds of the fastest time. If they find a half-second both cars are fighting to make the second round of qualifying. 

I want this team to be competitive and the team has a history of making too many changes but 2020 has to be step into the future for the team and that likely means letting go one of the most popular drivers of the 21st century. 

14. Ed Carpenter Racing is lost. Ed Jones and Spencer Pigot were 17th and 18th respectively. The team has not had a top ten finish all season. It has been regressing each race since Josef Newgarden left for Team Penske. The team is dying for an oval. I think that will at least be a pick me up but there are only five ovals. The team needs a shakeup because we know it can be a championship contender.

15. Colton Herta clobbered the turn nine wall while fighting for a top ten result and it was his first mistake in an IndyCar. It was bound to happen and these are back-to-back terrible results after his fuel pressure issue at Barber but he will have three weeks to regroup. Marcus Ericsson and Jack Harvey had a coming together in the fountain section and Harvey ended up in the flowers, a first that I can recall. We really haven't seen a spotless weekend from Ericsson yet but that hasn't entirely been his fault. It seems like his first round qualifying group always gets a red flag and it keeps him from completing a hot lap. He has made his mistakes but he has shown competitive pace. I think he just needs one uneventful weekend. Harvey has been good and this was a set back but I think he and Meyer Shank Racing will be fine. Santino Ferrucci blew turn one and stalled during the first pit cycle. That killed any of hope of a top ten finish. 

16. This was a fun race. It wasn't the most active race but it was fun. It was Long Beach and the dye was cast when 95% of the field chose the two-stop strategy. If five or seven drivers tried the three-stop strategy it is a different race. You would have had drivers coming late but we didn't get that. I really wish at least one front-runner tried the three-stop strategy and I think that is the biggest takeaway from this race. It is Long Beach. We know what it is capable of providing and there is no reason to be upset after this one. 

17. We get three weeks off. I do not mind the time off. We need a little break. The teams will not mind it. It will not be a silent three-week period. There is testing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on April 24th. After that we heading into the month of May and there are two races scheduled. There is plenty to looking forward to and there is plenty of racing. You just need to be patient. Good things come to those that wait. Patience.

Morning Warm-Up: Long Beach 2019

Alexander Rossi is on pole position again at Long Beach

For the second consecutive year, Alexander Rossi has won the pole position for the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Rossi did it with a lap of 66.4811 seconds in the final round of qualifying. Rossi is the third driver in the last decade to win consecutive pole position at Long Beach. Will Power won three consecutive pole positions from 2009 to 2011 and Hélio Castroneves won three consecutive pole positions from 2015 to 2017. Three drivers have won consecutive Long Beach races from pole position. Mario Andretti did it in 1984 and 1985, Al Unser, Jr. did it in 1989 and 1990 and Sébastien Bourdais did it in 2006 and 2007. Rossi won this race last year after leading 71 of 85 laps. Long Beach could become the first track in Rossi's career where he has multiple victories. Rossi enters this weekend with ten consecutive top ten finishes. His previous best consecutive streak of top ten finishes was five.

Scott Dixon joins Rossi on the front row after the New Zealander missed out on pole position by 0.2668 seconds. Dixon has three runner-up finishes in the last four races and he has five podium finishes since his most recent victory at Toronto. The most podium finishes Dixon has had between victories is six and it has happened twice in his career. He had six runner-up finishes between his victories at Richmond in 2003 and Watkins Glen in 2005 and he had six runner-up finishes between his victories at Nashville in 2006 and Watkins Glen in 2007. The last two times there have been 23 entries for Long Beach, Chip Ganassi Racing has won the race, with Dario Franchitti in 2009 and Dixon in 2015.

After none of the three Penske cars advanced to the final round of qualifying at Barber, Team Penske swept row two and took the final three positions of the top five. Will Power and Josef Newgarden will start on row two. Will Power enters Long Beach ninth in the championship. It is the fifth consecutive season Power has not been in the top five of the championship after the first three races of a season. In four of the previous five seasons Power was either first or second in the championship after three races. This is Newgarden's sixth consecutive top ten start at Long Beach and he enters with four consecutive top ten finishes in this race, however, his third place result in 2017 is his only top five finish at Long Beach. Newgarden could become the sixth different Team Penske driver to win at Long Beach. Team Penske is tied with Chip Ganassi Racing for most different drivers to win for a team at Long Beach with each having five different winners.

Simon Pagenaud rounds out the top five and his 2007 Atlantics Championship title rival Graham Rahal joins him on row three. Pagenaud has not a led lap in the first three races of the season. He has not failed to lead a lap in the first four races of a season since 2013, when he did not lead a lap in the first six races. He won the seventh race at Belle Isle, his first career IndyCar victory. Rahal enters having finished 23rd in three of the last five races. He has finished outside the top twenty in four of the last 14 races. In the 55 races prior, he had only two finishes outside the top twenty. Last year, Rahal ran into the back of Pagenaud into turn one at the start and it ended Pagenaud's race and a stretch of 22 consecutive finishes, all lead lap finishes, for the Frenchman. This is Rahal's third consecutive year starting on row three at Long Beach.

Ryan Hunter-Reay will start seventh. If he takes the green flag, this will be Hunter-Reay's 239th career start, putting him ahead of Jimmy Vasser and into 15th all-time. Hunter-Reay will have the tenth most starts all-time for American drivers behind Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, Jr., Al Unser, Michael Andretti, Johnny Rutherford, Gordon Johncock and Bobby Unser. Hunter-Reay enters this race having made 195 consecutive starts. It is the fifth longest streak in IndyCar history but it is the fourth longest active streak. Hunter-Reay's only victory from seventh starting position was at Iowa in 2012. His best result from seventh starting position at a road or street course was third at Watkins Glen in 2017. Barber winner Takuma Sato joins Hunter-Reay on row four. Since winning at Long Beach in 2013, Sato has finished 22nd, 18th, fifth, 18th and 21st with two retirements, two lead lap finishes and he has not led a lap. This year was only the second time Sato has made it out of the first round of qualifying since his 2013 victory.

Two rookies and two former Indy Lights teammates will start on row five with Patricio O'Ward ahead of Colton Herta. O'Ward becomes the first Mexican driver to contest the Grand Prix of Long Beach since Mario Domínguez and David Martínez in 2008. Domínguez was the third place finisher in that race. Adrain Fernández has the best finish for a Mexican driver at Long Beach as Fernández was the runner-up finisher in 2003. Two of the four Mexican drivers to win an IndyCar race scored their first victory on a street course. Fernández's first career victory was at Toronto in 1996 and Domínguez scored his first victory at Surfers Paradise in 2002. This will be Herta's Long Beach debut. His father Bryan made seven starts at Long Beach and he had five top ten finishes, including a pair of third place finishes in 1998 and 1999.

Marco Andretti advanced to the second round of qualifying for the first time this season but he will start in 11th position. This will be the 11th time Andretti has started 11th in his career. His best finish from 11th was fourth at Sonoma in 2013 and at Toronto in 2017. He has six top ten finishes from 11th starting position. Felix Rosenqvist was set to advance to the final round of qualifying but brought out a red flag on his second hot lap and instead of advancing Rosenqvist will make his Long Beach debut from 12th position. Rosenqvist could become the first driver to score a first career victory in a fourth career start since Sébastien Bourdais did it at Lausitz in 2003. The last road or street course race won from 11th on the grid was the 2015 Toronto race with Josef Newgarden taking the victory. The last road or street course race won from 12th on the grid was the 2012 Long Beach race when Will Power had to start 12th after serving a ten-grid spot penalty for an engine change. The last road or street course race won from 12th by a driver not forced to serve a grid penalty was Ryan Hunter-Reay at Surfers Paradise in 2003.

It will be an all-Dale Coyne Racing row seven with Santino Ferrucci starting one position ahead of his senior teammate Sébastien Bourdais. Only twice in Ferrucci's six career starts has he finished better than his starting position. He went from 20th to 11th last year at Sonoma and at St. Petersburg last month he went from 23rd to ninth. Bourdais enters with top five finishes in the last two races and he has not had top five finishes in at least three consecutive races since 2007 when he won at Edmonton, finished fifth at San Jose and won at Road America and Zolder. After four podium finishes in his first five Long Beach starts, Bourdais has only three top ten finishes in his last eight trips to Long Beach.

James Hinchcliffe starts 15th for the third time in six races. In those prior two starts from 15th he finished 15th at Sonoma and 16th at Austin. He did finish third from 16th on the grid at Long Beach in 2013. The two laps Hinchcliffe led at Barber were his first laps led in nine races when he led 45 laps on his way to victory at Iowa. Hinchcliffe has only led laps in 10 of his 52 starts since the start of the 2016 season. Only seven times in Hinchcliffe's career has he had led double figures on a road/street course. Max Chilton will join Hinchcliffe on row eight. Chilton has not had a top ten finish in 21 consecutive races. His three finishes at Long Beach are 14th, 14th and 17th and he has finished a lap down the last two years.

Ed Jones will have his worst career starting position at Long Beach, as he will roll off from 17th on the grid. In Jones' first two Long Beach starts he started 13th. Jones has finished in the top ten in each of his two Long Beach starts, a sixth in 2017 with Dale Coyne Racing and third place last year with Chip Ganassi Racing. Long Beach is Jones' best track with an average finish of 4.5. Jack Harvey will make his second Long Beach from 18th position. Last year, Harvey's best result of the season came at Long Beach with a 12th place finish. Harvey's car has Acura branding on the car, the first time an IndyCar has carried the Acura name since Parker Johnstone ran six races in 1994 with Comptech Racing. Johnstone's best finish that year was 17th at Cleveland and Laguna Seca.

Marcus Ericsson was caught out by another red flag in his qualifying group and he will start 19th, as Ericsson continues to look for his first trip to the second round of qualifying in his IndyCar career. Ericsson has not finished in the top ten in the fourth race of a season since 2011 in the GP2 Series when he finished third in the sprint race from Circuit de Catalunya. Matheus Leist rounds out the top twenty. Leist finished 14th at Long Beach last year and 14th is Leist's best finish on a street course in his IndyCar career. He would also finish 14th in the second Belle Isle race last season. Since 2008, the best finish for the 19th and 20th starters at Long Beach both came in 2012 with Tony Kanaan going from 19th to fourth and J.R. Hildebrand going from 20th to fifth.

Tony Kanaan was sixth in group one in the first round of qualifying when he went into the tire barrier in turn six and brought out the red flag. The deletion of Kanaan's fastest two laps dropped him to 11th in his group and he will start 21st. Prior to this qualifying result, Kanaan had only started outside the top fifteen at Long Beach on one other occasion. Last season, Kanaan had three top ten finishes in the five street course races, including an eighth place finish at Long Beach. Kanaan enters Long Beach 18th in the championship. It is his worst championship position after three races since he was 19th after the first three races in 2002. Joining Kanaan on row 11 will be Zach Veach. This is Veach's worst starting position since he started 25th in last year's Indianapolis 500. Veach has finished outside of the top ten in the last five races. Last year, Veach entered Long Beach having not finished in the top ten in his previous four starts and he went on to finish fourth in that race.

Spencer Pigot will round out the grid from 23rd position, his worst qualifying result on a road or street circuit. His worst career starting position is 29th, which occurred in each of his first two Indianapolis 500 starts in 2016 and 2017. This will be Pigot's 43rd career start. No driver has had a first career victory come in the 43rd career start of a career. The worst an Long Beach winner has started in the IndyCar era is 17th; Paul Tracy did it in 2000 and Mike Conway did it in 2014. John Watson won the final Long Beach Formula One race from 22nd in 1983 and his McLaren teammate Niki Lauda finished runner-up from 23rd on the grid. The only driver to start outside the top twenty and finish on the podium at Long Beach in the IndyCar era was Justin Wilson, who finished third from 24th starting position in 2013.

NBCSN's coverage of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach begins at 4:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 4:42 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.

Track Walk: Long Beach 2019

Alexander Rossi looks to get back to the top step of the podium at Long Beach

The fourth round of the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series season is the 45th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Entering this weekend the top seven drivers in the championship represent seven different teams. Josef Newgarden continues to lead in the championship with 125 points and his drive from 16th to fourth at Barber kept up his streak of three consecutive top five finishes. Newgarden is the only driver with top five finishes in every race this season. The only other driver with top ten finishes in all three races is Alexander Rossi. Newgarden has four consecutive top ten finishes at Long Beach but his only top five finish was third in 2017. He has only led four laps in the track, three of which came last year.

Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 4:00 p.m. ET on Sunday April 14th with green flag scheduled for 4:42 p.m. ET.
Channel: NBCSN
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Kelli Stavast, Marty Snider and Robin Miller will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule 
Friday:
First Practice: 1:00 p.m. ET (45 minutes)*
Second Practice: 5:00 p.m. ET (45 minutes)*
Saturday:
Third Practice: 12:00 p.m. ET (45 minutes)*
Qualifying: 2:45 p.m. ET (Live coverage on NBCSN)
Sunday:
Warm-Up: 12:00 p.m. ET (30 minutes)*
Race: 4:42 p.m. ET (85 laps)

* - All practice and qualifying sessions are available live with the NBC Sports Gold IndyCar pass.

Can Honda Do What Toyota Couldn't?
The first 44 editions of the Grand Prix of Long Beach saw Toyota as the title sponsor. The Japanese manufacture was synonymous with this race and the Toyota branding around the circuit blended in with the palm trees and skyline surrounding the track. It all changes this year with Acura taking over as title sponsor for the famous race.

While Toyota had such a long history sponsoring this race and Toyota had a brief period in IndyCar and one that was fairly successful, a Toyota-powered car never won the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. While there will be no Acura-badged engines on the grid this year, although Jack Harvey's car will carry Acura branding, Acura is a subsidiary of Honda and there will be 14 Honda-powered cars lining up this Sunday.

Honda enters having won the last two races, including sweeping the podium in the Honda sponsored event at Barber last week. Honda has won the last two years at Long Beach and each year it has had two cars on the podium. In last year's race, Honda had five of the top six finishers.

Before Josef Newgarden won at St. Petersburg last month, Honda had won nine of the previous ten street course races and had 20 of 30 podium finishers in those ten races. While Newgarden won at St. Petersburg and Will Power finished third, Scott Dixon finished second, Felix Rosenqvist finished fourth and led 31 laps and Honda had seven of the top ten finishers. Not only did Honda sweep the podium at Barber but it had four of the top five, eight of the top ten and the non-Penske Chevrolet teams finished 16th through 22nd with the only two Hondas those seven Chevrolet entries beat being Graham Rahal, who retired because of an electrical issue, and Colton Herta, who retired due to a fuel pressure issue. Of the ten Chevrolet entries at Barber, only five finished on the lead lap while 12 of 14 Honda teams completed all 90 laps.

In the last two Long Beach races, Honda has led 161 of 170 laps. In each of the last two races, Honda has had seven of the top ten starters.

Toyota did not set the bar high for Honda to clear. In seven years Toyota competed in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach it only managed two podium finishers. Cristiano da Matta was the runner-up finisher in 2001 driving for Newman-Haas Racing and the year before Jimmy Vasser was the third place finisher driving for Chip Ganassi Racing. In that time frame, Toyota didn't even win pole position for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach with Vasser starting second in 2000 and da Matta starting second in 2002.

Honda enters this year's race with 17 Long Beach victories. Alexander Rossi's victory last year broke a time with Cosworth for most Long Beach victories for an engine manufacture.

Will Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Back Up Barber Success?
With all the talk about Honda, attention turns to the team that brought Honda its most recent IndyCar triumph. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing shut out the front row in qualifying with Takuma Sato taking pole position and Graham Rahal starting second. Sato went on to lead 74 laps on his way to his fourth IndyCar victory and his first from pole position.

Rahal retired after an electrical failure but he entered that race fastest in the warm-up prior to the race and during the first stint Rahal remained in the shadow of his teammate. Both RLLR cars were consistently running in the 71-second bracket while the rest of the field struggled with tire degradation and could not match the pace. If his car had not let him down it would have been interesting to see if Rahal could have added pressure to Sato down the stretch.

RLLR has won a race in five consecutive seasons and Sato's victory in the third race of the season is the earliest RLLR has won a race since Bobby Rahal won the second race of the 1992 season at Phoenix, the second race in the team's history. Rahal won the championship that season.

The team has been hovering on the periphery of championship contention since 2015. Graham Rahal was alive for the title entering the final race of 2015 at Sonoma only to finish fourth in the championship after Sébastien Bourdais spun him in turn seven. Rahal won twice that season and had six podium finishes. The problem for the team is it has not put together those type of seasons on a consistent basis. Rahal would finish fifth in the championship in 2016 but his championship position has declined in each of the last two seasons and prior to those two seasons RLLR had not had a top five championship finisher since Buddy Rice in 2004.

Sato has never won consecutive races but he did famously finish second at São Paulo in 2013 the race after his first career victory at Long Beach. Rahal swept the Belle Isle races in 2017 but the only other time RLLR has won consecutive races was with Kenny Bräck at Motegi and Milwaukee in 2001. The team had double top ten finishes at Austin and likely would have had double top ten finishes again at Barber had Rahal's car not suffered the electrical issue. The team had both cars finish in the top ten in six of 17 races last year but in none of those races did both drivers finish in the top five and the team has not had double top five finishers since the 2005 Indianapolis 500 when Vitor Meira finished second and Danica Patrick finished fourth.

After picking up the team's first Barber victory, Sato and Rahal will aim for RLLR's first Long Beach victory. Graham Rahal was the runner-up finisher in the 2013 race, matching his father's best finish in this race, which came in 1988 and in three consecutive races from 1991 to 1993 races, the latter two races coming with the RLLR team, and Jimmy Vasser, who finished second to Michael Andretti after starting on pole position in 2002.

Last year, Rahal finished fifth at Long Beach and the RLLR team had four top five finishes in the five street course races.

Who Can Make It Four-For-Four?
Through the first three races there have been three different winners from three different teams and none of those teams are Chip Ganassi Racing and Andretti Autosport. Add to the situation that six different teams have won the last six Long Beach races and seven different drivers have won the last seven trips to Shoreline Drive and it appears IndyCar could be set for another new face on the top step of the podium.

Scott Dixon has two runner-up finishes from the first three races and those results have him second all-time in runner-up finishers on 42 with the Barber result elevating him ahead of Hélio Castroneves in that category. Dixon only trails Mario Andretti's record of 56 runner-up finishes. The New Zealander won this race in 2015 when Ganassi had Chevrolet engines. Dixon enters second in the championship on 98 points, 27 markers behind Josef Newgarden.

Alexander Rossi won last year's Long Beach race from pole position and he enters fourth in the championship on 84 points. He has fifth place finishes at St. Petersburg and Barber. Rossi has never won at the same track twice but at the five tracks he has won at, the only track where he has multiple podium finishes in Pocono. Rossi's 12 podium finishes have come at 11 different tracks.

At this point the last two seasons Sébastien Bourdais had already won a race but this year Bourdais has not been as fortunate. The good news for the Frenchman is since his engine failure at St. Petersburg he has rebounded with a fifth place finish in Austin and a third place finish at Barber. Bourdais is a three-time Long Beach winner and he was runner-up finisher two years ago to James Hinchcliffe. However, since 2011, Bourdais has only led five laps at Long Beach, four of which came last year.

James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay are both past Long Beach winners and they are sixth and seventh in the championship. Hinchcliffe is on 71 points and a point behind Bourdais. Hunter-Reay is tied with Will Power on 66 points but Hunter-Reay holds the tiebreaker with an eighth place finish. Hinchcliffe has three consecutive top ten finishes at Long Beach but Hunter-Reay has finished outside the top ten in six consecutive trips to Long Beach. Hunter-Reay has only four top ten finishes in 13 Long Beach starts and his 2010 victory is his only top five result.

Marco Andretti rounds out the top ten in the championship on 61 points and Andretti has five top ten finishes in ten Long Beach starts but he has never finished in the top five at Long Beach and the six laps he has led on this track all came in his first Long Beach start in 2009.

Felix Rosenqvist is a point behind Andretti and while he salvaged a top ten result at Barber, Rosenqvist gets a chance to add to his street circuit conquests this weekend at Long Beach. He led 31 laps and finished fourth in his IndyCar debut at St. Petersburg last month. Long Beach was not on the Indy Lights schedule in 2016 when Rosenqvist ran part of the season but he won at St. Petersburg and swept the Toronto races, making his batting average .750 on street circuits that year. The Swede is renowned for his street course success with victories in the Pau Grand Prix, at the Norisring and he won the Macau Grand Prix twice and had a runner-up finish to boot.

Marcus Ericsson is coming off the first top ten finish in his IndyCar career and Ericsson has put together two encouraging races from poor starting positions the last two times out. While he only got the result in the one race, Ericsson had promising pace at St. Petersburg before the qualifying session from hell where very few drivers had any chance to get a flying lap in and the number of red flags trapped the Swede and he started 18th. In this race, he suffered a radiator puncture, ending his debut early. He worked his way into the top ten at Austin only to have a penalty for an unsafe pit release shuffle him to the rear of the field.

IMSA
Long Beach is the third round of the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship and after a pair of endurance races totaling 36 hours in Florida, the series now has its shortest race of the year, a 100-minute race on Shoreline Drive. This race will feature only the professional classes of DPi and GTLM meaning this race will feature 21 cars.

Cadillac is two-for-two this season and the Daytona-winning #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande and the Sebring-winning #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr tied on 67 points. Before last year's race where the #5 Action Express Racing Cadillac took the victory, Wayne Taylor Racing had won three consecutive years at Long Beach.

Acura is third in the championship with the #7 Team Penske Acura of Ricky Taylor, who was a part of all three of Wayne Taylor Racing's Long Beach victories, and Hélio Castroneves, who won at Long Beach in Indy Lights in 1997 and he won the 2001 Grand Prix of Long Beach. The #7 Acura has 58 points after a third and a fourth at Daytona and Sebring respectively.

The #5 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque and João Barbosa looks to defend its Long Beach victory and those two are tied with the #54 CORE Autosport Nissan of Colin Braun and Jon Bennett in the championship on 54 points.

The #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac of Misha Goikhberg and Tristan Vautier are sixth on 50 points, three points ahead of the #6 Acura of Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya and the #55 Mazda of Jonathan Bomarito and Harry Tincknell. Will Owen will have Kyle Kaiser join him in the #50 Juncos Racing Cadillac. Simon Trummer and Stephen Simpson are tied with Owen on 44 points and they will split the #84 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac. Oliver Jarvis and Tristan Nunez rounds out the championship on 40 points in the #77 Mazda.

Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy took the GTLM championship lead with 61 points after the #911 Porsche won at Sebring. Daytona winner Connor De Phillippi is two points back in the #25 BMW Team RLL entry and Tom Blomqvist is back for this second race of the season. Joey Hand and Dirk Müller sit on 56 points in the #66 Ford GT, tied with the #912 Porsche of Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor but Hand will miss this weekend's race due to the flu. Sébastien Bourdais will pull double duty and replace the American in the #66 Ford GT this weekend.

Corvette has not won in GTLM since last year at Long Beach and the team is still looking for its 100th IMSA victory. Jan Magnussen and Antonio García are fifth in the championship on 55 points. Magnussen has won twice at Long Beach, including with García in 2014. Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook is two points behind the Corvette in the #67 Ford GT. The #24 BMW of John Edwards and Jesse Krohn are on 50 points. Last year's Long Beach winners Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner round out the GTLM championship on 46 points in the #4 Corvette.

The Bubba Burger Grand Prix of Long Beach will take place at 5:00 p.m. ET on Saturday April 13th.

GT4 America
Another 21 sports cars will be on track in Long Beach in the inaugural GT4 America race at the event. Long Beach is the second of eight sprint rounds on the 2019 GT4 America schedule.

The season opening round was at St. Petersburg last month and Ian James and Jade Buford split the two races but Buford will not be at Long Beach. James leads the championship and he will return in the #50 Panoz entry. Gar Robinson is second in the championship on 33 points, two behind James and Robinson will be in the #74 Camaro with his teammate Shane Lewis fifth in the championship on 15 points in the #72 Camaro. Spencer Pumpelly is five points behind James and Pumpelly is back in the #66 TRG Porsche.

Rounding out the Pro entries are Michael Cooper, who scored 12 points at St. Petersburg in the #10 Blackdog Speed Shop McLaren, Nicolai Elghanayan, who did not score any points in the #71 Marco Polo Motorsports KTM and Matthew Brabham, who makes his debut this season in the #20 CRP Racing Porsche.

Preston Calvert leads the Am class sprint championship with 40 points in the #51 Panoz. Calvert split the St. Petersburg races with Alan Brynjolfsson, who is seven points behind Calvert in the championship in the #7 Park Place Motorsports Porsche. Marko Radisic is third on 30 points and he will be in the #22 BMW for Precision Driving Tech.

Tony Gaples has 22 points and he will be back in the #10 Blackdog Speed Shop McLaren. Mark Klenin rounds out the top five on 20 points in the #62 KPR McLaren. Jarett Andretti started on pole position in the first race from St. Petersburg but retired from that race. He rallied in race two with a third place finish and the driver of the #18 Andretti Autosport McLaren heads to Long Beach with 15 points.

The GT4 America race is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET on Sunday April 14th.

Fast Facts
This will be the sixth IndyCar race to take place on April 14th and the first since Michael Andretti won at Long Beach in 2002.

This will be the fifth time the Grand Prix of Long Beach will take place on April 14th. Mario Andretti won on April 14, 1985, Al Unser, Jr. took the victory in 1991, Jimmy Vasser in 1996 and the aforementioned Michael Andretti in 2002.

This year's race is the earliest the fourth round of a season taking place in one calendar year has been since 1996 when Long Beach was the fourth race on April 14th. The fourth round of the 1996-97 IRL season took place on March 23, 1997 at Phoenix but the first two races of that season where August 18, 1996 at Loudon and September 15, 1996 at Las Vegas.

Six of the 11 IndyCar seasons since reunification have had four different winners in the first four races of the season.

Team Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing and Newman-Haas Racing are all tied for most Long Beach victories at six apiece.

Five drivers have scored their first victory at Long Beach (Michael Andretti, Paul Tracy, Juan Pablo Montoya, Mike Conway and Takuma Sato).

Not only has seven different drivers won the last seven Long Beach races but those seven drivers all represent seven different nationalities.

There have not been consecutive American winners at Long Beach since Al Unser, Jr. in 1994-95 and Jimmy Vasser in 1996.

Alexander Rossi could join Mario Andretti (1984-85), Al Unser Jr. (1988-91 and 1994-95), Alex Zanardi (1997-98), Paul Tracy (2003-04) and Sébastien Bourdais (2005-07) to win the Grand Prix of Long Beach in consecutive seasons.

The average starting position for a Long Beach winner is 4.228 with a median of three.

Rossi's victory from pole position last year was the first time the pole-sitter won at Long Beach since Bourdais in 2007. It was the first time a front row starter won at Long Beach since Dario Franchitti in 2009.

Eight of the last 11 Long Beach races have been won from the second row.

The average number of lead changes in a Long Beach race is 4.97 with a median of five.

The last three Long Beach races have had six lead changes.

Only three times has the Long Beach race not had a lead change (1984, 1987 and 2001).

The average number of cautions in a Long Beach race is 2.857 with a median of three. The average number of caution laps is 11.628 with a median of 12.

Only three times has the Long Beach not had a caution (1985, 1987 and 2016).

Possible Milestones:
Ryan Hunter-Reay is one start away from passing Jimmy Vasser for 15th all-time.

Graham Rahal is one top five finish away from 50 top five finishes.

Takuma Sato is one top ten finish away from 50 top ten finishes.

Ryan Hunter-Reay needs to lead 45 laps to reach the 1,500 laps led milestone.

Simon Pagenaud needs to lead 64 laps to reach the 1,000 laps led milestone.

Alexander Rossi needs to lead 61 laps to reach the 600 laps led milestone.

Graham Rahal needs to lead 20 laps to reach the 400 laps led milestone.

Predictions
I am sticking with Alexander Rossi until he gets a victory and he defends his Long Beach victory but a Penske and a Ganassi car will join him on the podium. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has one car finish in the top ten and another finish outside the top ten. At least one driver will make the Fast Six for the first time this season. A.J. Foyt Racing continues its slide. Simon Pagenaud will not be the worst finishing Team Penske driver. Sleeper: Felix Rosenqvist.

Musings From the Weekend: Looking at 1000

Takuma Sato led Honda's dominant performance in the Honda-sponsored race at Barber Motorsports Park. In other news from Barber Motorsports Park, a sweeper flipped. At Bristol, Toyota swept the races. After taking a week off, Team Penske's world domination is still on. A Spaniard defended home soil from the Brits. Supercross made its maiden trip to Nashville and nobody other than Cooper Webb wants to win that championship. I completely forgot the World Touring Car Cup season was starting. Next weekend is going to be jam-packed full of races with second of back-to-back weekends for some series, a handful of season openers and an historic milestone event in Formula One. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

Looking at 1000
Formula One is hitting a massive milestone this weekend. It is not just any other Chinese Grand Prix but this Sunday from Shanghai will be the 1,000th grand prix in the Formula One World Championship.

Of course, there has been more than 1,000 grand prix races. There is an entire era of grand prix race pre-dating the first Formula One race in 1950, there are the races of Tazio Nuvolari, Bernd Rosemeyer and Rudolf Caracciola before World War I, the early days of the 20th century and many non-championship races that were still considered a grand prix though no championship points were awarded.

Anyway you cut it, Formula One is in its 70th season and it is about to reach a fourth-digit. It is a tremendous occasion and it is natural to look back. It is a chance to see where Formula One has come, not just from race one to 1000 but also in race 900 to race 1000.

The century-mark milestones are coming at a faster rate, the differences between each might not be as grand as from the 100th race, the 1961 German Grand Prix where Stirling Moss scored his final grand prix victory, to the 200th race, the 1971 Monaco Grand Prix where Jackie Stewart took a grand slam victory.

The 900th grand prix was only five years ago in Bahrain, the first night race at the circuit. Lewis Hamilton took the victory for Mercedes-Benz. Hamilton is still at Mercedes-Benz but his teammate Nico Rosberg won a championship and has since retired. Sebastian Vettel has gone from Red Bull to Ferrari, Daniel Ricciardo has gone from Red Bull to Renault. Caterham and Marussia are no longer on the grid. Lotus is now Renault, Sauber is now Alfa Romeo and Force India is now Racing Point. The grid now has an American team in Haas F1.

The differences from race 800 to race 900 might be better but it is amazing that each was a night race, something that had not happened for the first 57 years of Formula One. The 800th race was the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix, a historic event beyond the barriers it broke for Formula One, taking the series solidly into the new money of the 21st century but the controversial results after Renault team orders saw Nelson Piquet, Jr. intentionally spin into the barrier and setting up for Fernando Alonso to take the victory. In the mean time, a botch Felipe Massa pit stop allowed Lewis Hamilton to extend his championship lead and set up one of the most climatic championship finishes in Formula One history.

Beyond the time of the race and the manipulation, it was the naturally aspirated V8-era with 19,000-RPM limiters, pre-Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems, Bridgestone tires and only the top eight received points with the winner scoring ten.

No driver has repeated in winning a century mark grand prix. Someone could join Moss, Stewart, Ronnie Peterson, Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet, Jacques Villeneuve, Giancarlo Fisichella, Alonso and Hamilton or Hamilton could do the unprecedented once again. The only manufacture to win multiple century mark grand prix is Lotus. Ferrari has never won one. Ironically, this will be the sixth time a century mark grand prix has occurred in the third round of a season.

Formula One isn't the only series to hit the century mark. After years of relatively smaller calendars it is not a surprise it has taken Formula One this long to reach such a number. NASCAR's 1000th race in the Cup series occurred on February 28, 1971, prior to the start of the modern-era at Ontario and A.J. Foyt won the race. It would take another 16 years to reach the 1500th race. It was at Martinsville on April 26, 1987 and Dale Earnhardt took the victory. The 2000th race was on March 23, 2003 at Bristol and Kurt Busch won it. The 2500th race was a little over two years ago at Atlanta, March 5, 2017 to be specific and Brad Keselowski won that day. After this weekend's race at Bristol, the NASCAR Cup Series has contested 2,557 races.

Brad Keselowski also holds the honor of winning the 1000th race in NASCAR's second national touring division. That came on September 6, 2013 at Richmond and he only led the final 11 laps after Brian Scott led the first 239 laps from pole position.

IndyCar has also reached and surpassed the 1000th race milestone but IndyCar's history is a little more complicated. Stretching back over a century and spanning multiple sanctioning bodies, the record book is a bit contested with discrepancies over number of races during some season and that can easily swing what the 1000th race is by a handful of years. The two notable conflicts are 1920 and 1946. Some say the 1920 season was five races and others say it was 11 races with some races retroactively being added to count toward the championship. The 1946 season is a greater swing of the pendulum. The post-war season was either six races or it was 77 races, as that season the American Automobile Association counted sprint car races to the national championship in worries that there would not be enough entries.

The best guide to follow is IndyCar's record book and it says 1920 was 11 races and 1946 was six races. Using those numbers the 1000th race was June 19, 1988 at Portland and Danny Sullivan took the victory. The 1500th race was at Milwaukee on May 31, 2009 and Scott Dixon won the race. The Barber race on Sunday was IndyCar's 1667th race.

Ironically, the Supercars series reached the 1000th race milestone at Melbourne while running in conjunction with the Australian Grand Prix. Scott McLaughlin won that race and the series is now on its 1004th races.

In Grand Prix Motorcycle racing, between all the classes from MotoGP to 50cc, 500cc to 250cc, Moto2 to Moto3, and all the other classes, there have been 3,102 races. The 1000th race was May 11, 1975 at the Hockenheimring, a 50cc race and Ángel Nieto was the winner. The 2000th race was the second 500cc race of the 1997 season and winner was Mick Doohan at Suzuka on April 20th. The 3,000th race was the MotoGP race on May 7, 2017 at Jerez and Dani Pedrosa took the honor of winning that race.

On paper, the 2019 Chinese Grand Prix is another race, though being Formula One's 1000th race. It will be a giant ceremony and a reflection on 70 seasons of Formula One and when it comes 1000th races this is the time to do it. Nostalgia is good when done at the appropriate times and this is the best time to look back. You have to look back at where you have been and what has changed. You cannot do it all the time but this is the time to do it.

While Formula One is in a time of transition and is trying to figure out new regulations it is going to be around for a long time. There have been many great races and there will be many more to come. Race 1000 is not the end and soon it will be another marker to look back on to see where Formula One was and be used to compare how far the series has gone.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about Takuma Sato but did you know...

Kyle Busch won the NASCAR Cup race at Bristol. Christopher Bell won the Grand National Series race.

Scott McLaughlin and Shane Van Gisbergen split the Supercars races from Symmons Plains.

Álvaro Bautista swept the three World Superbike races from Aragón, his third sweep in three weekends and Jonathan Rea finished second in all three races again. Randy Krummenacher won the World Supersport race, his second victory of the season.

Eli Tomac won the Supercross race from Nashville.

Esteban Guerrieri, Gabriele Tarquini and Thed Björk split the World Touring Car Cup races from Marrakesh.

Coming Up This Weekend
The 1000th Formula One grand prix will be in China.
IndyCar has its first back-to-back of the season and will head to Long Beach.
IMSA will also be in Long Beach.
GT4 America makes it three notable series in Long Beach.
MotoGP is back in Marc Márquez's favorite or at least his second favorite country the United States and very few people in the United States will have a chance of watching it.
Supercars has the second of a back-to-back at Phillip Island.
World Superbike has the second of a back-to-back at Assen.
Formula E is in Rome.
Supercross returns to Denver.
NASCAR has its first night race at Richmond.
The European Le Mans Series opens 2019 at Circuit Paul Ricard.
The Blancpain Endurance Series opens 2019 at Monza.
Super GT opens 2019 at Okayama.

First Impressions: Barber 2019

1. This was a beat down from Takuma Sato and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and hats off to both. Tire degradation increased dramatically at Barber this year compared to previous years and it threw everyone off. A lot of teams were lost and could not get a handle of it but Sato and RLLR did and they were the best today. No one came close. It was clear from the end of the first stint that this race was going to be his. Most drivers were on a three-stop strategy and a few decided to try a two-stop strategy but Sato had the gap from the get-go. No one was able to keep up and the pace wasn't there to make the two-stop strategy work. Bravo to Sato, bravo to RLLR and we will have to wait to see if this is a one-time thing or if RLLR could be a contender in more races to come.

Side note on Sato, it is kind of fun to see him have this success so late in his career. For the longest time I have said we know who Sato is and after years of tearing up equipment he was never going to turn his pace into championship contending speed. It is early and I am not going to say Sato is going to be in the championship fight but I like that he can be in the top five and running at the front in four or five races a year. He is a nice guy, he has always been humble in IndyCar and this is his tenth season in IndyCar! He made IndyCar a home after the Formula One stint ended. It has been great to have him around.

2. Scott Dixon had nothing for Sato and second was all he could pull off. We don't see many races where Dixon is beat by this margin and it not be someone like Will Power, Josef Newgarden or Alexander Rossi. It is still a great points day and if we have learned anything from Dixon is he doesn't win early but gathers the points and then adds a few victories over the summer on his way to another championship push.

3. Sébastien Bourdais worked the two-stop strategy the best; unfortunately, the pace was not there to make the two-stops strategy work. Bourdais could not flip the gap to Sato before Sato made his second stop. Once Sato came out ahead of Bourdais it cast the dye and Bourdais was not going to win this race. Dale Coyne Racing deservers credit for the attempt and this result is a lot better than I thought a two-stop strategy would reap. The caution played into Bourdais' favor but I think he was would have at worst finished in the top five had the race stayed green.

4. Josef Newgarden had a big rebound after qualifying 16th. Newgarden went to the three-stop strategy early and it allowed him to gain a lot of ground but the problem was when others came in for their first stops, Newgarden was 10 laps into his stint and started to drop back. He was going to finish better than his start and likely in the top ten but the caution put him in a spot where he wasn't going to have others on fresher tires late in the race and it allowed him to jump into the top five. Newgarden retains the championship lead and it is early but it seems like every champion has a race like this, a poor starting position but it ended in a fourth place finish. This may be a race we look back on come September.

5. Alexander Rossi was moving at the start and went from eighth to fifth but that is the wall he hit and a top five is a great result but the damage was already done. The gap was too great to overcome. Rossi was good on the tires but he wasn't going to be able claw back the deficit with how quickly the tires went away. I think Rossi is a bit disappointed with the results. He should have at least been on the podium at Austin and he had nothing for the Penske and Ganassi cars at St. Petersburg but Long Beach is next week and I think we could see the tide start to turn more in Rossi's favor.

6.  James Hinchcliffe was fourth pretty much the entire race and he lost a few spots after the only restart. While that is a little disappointing and underwhelming, he needed the result. The results haven't been there since last summer and he needs to pile up top ten and top five finishes like he did at the start of last season before he can be a race winner. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports talked about becoming the fourth top tier team over the offseason and it has yet to finish in the top five this season. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has won two of the last five races. SPM has to figure out regularly finishing in the top ten and this is a step in the right direction.

7. Marcus Ericsson was the first driver to go to the three-stop strategy and he worked it so he was ahead of the Penske drivers. Kind of like Austin, Ericsson put himself into a position for a top ten result and he got it today. This was a challenging circuit for Ericsson but he got the most out of it. A lot of rookies were fighting from the start of practice Friday and I think Ericsson should be proud of this result.

8. Ryan Hunter-Reay had a solid day and finished eighth. He did nothing spectacular but outside of Sato, Bourdais, Newgarden and Ericsson, no one was spectacular. Hunter-Reay didn't burn his tires out more than others but he didn't have the capability to mount a challenge. The caution may have gone against him, as he would have likely finished sixth but he still gets a top ten out of this one.

9. Simon Pagenaud finished ninth and while he continues his impressive finishes, it has to be getting frustrating that it never seems to click from Friday onward. It has been a while since Pagenaud was fastest from practice into qualifying and the race. He is always in the top ten. I know he had to come back from 14th on the grid today but most of the time he is sixth or eighth and he finishes fifth or seventh. You would think a Penske car would just stumble into a victory and that hasn't happened to Pagenaud for a little over a year.

10. Felix Rosenqvist got a tenth place finish out of this weekend and that is a big gain. I think Rosenqvist really was caught out on how much Barber has worn down over the years and the tire degradation at Austin and Barber was something he was not expecting. These two weekends were eye opening and Rosenqvist made a big improvement from Austin to this race. There are many more learning experiences ahead of him but I think this was an important weekend for him.

11. Pagenaud wasn't the only Penske car lost this weekend and Will Power had his hands full in every session. I feel like Power qualified seventh on pure talent. Power is too good as a qualifier to start worse than seventh. It has been nearly two seasons since he has started outside the top ten. Unfortunately, the tires did not agree with Power and he had a spin in turn 15 and cost him a few spots early. He was in the top ten late but lost tenth on the penultimate lap. It seemed like that was the best Power could have done and that is unusual for him.

12. Quickly through the rest of the field: Zach Veach made a big gain from 23rd to 12th. He made some moves late. Jack Harvey was on the two-stop strategy but had a pit lane speeding penalty. Fortunately for him, the lone caution went in his favor and he was eighth. Unfortunately for Harvey, he came in for a splash of fuel and he finished 13th. Marco Andretti and Santino Ferrucci rounded out the top fifteen. Andretti made up some ground early but he didn't really have top ten pace. Patricio O'Ward had a bad race and finished 16th but I think he will turn it around. Spencer Pigot got the two-stop strategy wrong and this was a missed opportunity after starting sixth.

13. A.J. Foyt Racing is a mess. Tony Kanaan was 18th, the first car one-lap down and he was not much better than that this entire weekend. I hate to say it but this is the end of career playing out in front of us. It is going to be hard to justify Foyt bringing Kanaan back. On top of that, Leist was not ready for IndyCar last year and we are only three races into his sophomore year but I do not see any gains coming.

I do not understand how a team has had solid funding for this long with ABC Supply Co. and has never turned into a consistently competitive team. I almost feel like IndyCar should take over this organization because all the pieces are there for this to be competing for top five finishes and top ten finishes and there are some really good drivers on the sidelines, some of which Foyt fired and possibly prematurely.

14. Ed Jones gunned the start and rightfully got a drive-through penalty. Ben Hanley did well. Hanley is still acclimating to single-seater racing. I am not sure he is the long-term option for DragonSpeed and if Elton Julian has the funding I think there are a few drivers out there that would be better for the organization in this developing phases but Hanley is holding his own. Max Chilton is still lost.

15. There were two retirements today and I feel bummed for Graham Rahal because he was running in Sato's shadow. If he does not have the throttle issue he may have been the only car who could have kept up with Sato and it would have been a much more interesting race. This is a missed opportunity for Rahal but if RLLR has this pace at the other road and street courses I think the results will come for Rahal. Colton Herta had fuel pick up issues from the start and two weeks after his glorious day in the sun the 19-year-old fell back to earth.

16. Tire degradation was the talk of the weekend and this was a weekend where it didn't matter what compound it was because the primary and alternate tire were both junk before you knew it. If one of the compounds held up I think this race would have been better and the two-stop strategy would have had a better chance of working. Barber is set to be repaved immediately after this race. I think the track record is in jeopardy next year. I know some people are concerned that the repave will mean no degradation next year and lead to little passing. There is part of me that would be fine if the track was not repaved and Firestone brought a different tire next year but I also think the track could be repaved, IndyCar can test ad nauseam over autumn and Firestone can bring two tire compounds that degrade but also has the pace that allows either a two or three-stop strategy to have an equal chance or working out.

17. One final thing: I love Barber. I love this track. I love that has been on the schedule for ten years. I am excited every year IndyCar goes to this race, the attendance is great and I hope to get down there once. All signs point to it remaining on the IndyCar schedule for quite some time.

18. No days off and Long Beach is up next. We are approaching the quarter-post of the season and we have had three race winners from three different teams in the first three races and neither Chip Ganassi Racing nor Andretti Autosport has won this year. This has already been a fun year and there is so many more races ahead of us.

Morning Warm-Up: Barber 2019

In a frenetic qualifying session, Takuma Sato took pole position at Barber

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing swept the front row for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama with Takuma Sato taking the pole position over Graham Rahal. Sato won pole position with a lap at 68.5934 second with Rahal 0.1037 seconds off his teammate. It is Sato's first pole position since Pocono 2017 and it is the eighth pole position of his career. It is the first time Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has swept a front row since Chicagoland 2005 when Danica Patrick took pole position and Buddy Rice started second. Prior to this weekend, Sato had not made it to the Fast Six round at Barber since the inaugural race in 2010. Barber is one of four tracks where Sato has made at least nine starts at and not led a lap. The other three are Toronto, Texas and Mid-Ohio. Sato's best finish from pole position was fourth at Belle Isle in 2017. His average finish when starting from pole position is 14.14.

This is Rahal's best starting position at Barber. His previous best was sixth in 2016. Last year was the first season Graham Rahal had two top five finishes in the first three races of the season and it left him third in the championship. It was the first time Rahal has been in the top five of the championship after the first three races. Rahal enters Barber fifth in the championship. This is the sixth time Rahal has started second in his career and, like Sato on pole position, Rahal's best finish from second on the grid was fourth at Milwaukee in 2009.

Scott Dixon will start third, matching his career best starting position at Barber. This is the third time Dixon has started third in this race. The previous two times he went on to finish second. Chip Ganassi Racing has never won at Barber Motorsports Park. The only tracks where Ganassi took ten times or more to score a first victory at are Vancouver, which took ten attempts, and Phoenix, which took 11 attempts. Ganassi has won at 39 different circuits in IndyCar. Dixon has won from third position six times in his career; including three of the last four times he has started third. James Hinchcliffe joins Dixon on row two. This is the eighth time in nine Barber appearances Hinchcliffe has qualified in the top ten and five of those have been Fast Six appearances. Hinchcliffe has finished outside the top ten in six of the last seven races, the worst seven-race stretch of his career.

Honda swept the top five spots on the grid for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama with Sébastien Bourdais starting fifth. Bourdais is coming off a fifth place finish at Austin. He has not had a top five finish in the third race of the season since he won at Houston in Champ Car in 2007. His only other top five finish in the third race of a season was a victory at Monterrey in 2006. Last year, Bourdais finished fifth in this race and he led nine laps. Spencer Pigot made it to the Fast Six for the first time in his IndyCar career and he will start sixth, matching his career best starting position. Pigot started sixth in last year's Indianapolis 500. Pigot had started 17th in each of his first two Barber starts. This will be Pigot's 42nd career start. He could become the second driver to score a first career victory in the 42nd start of the career. The other driver to do it is Bobby Unser at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on July 4, 1966.

Will Power failed to make it to the final round of qualifying for the second time in his career at Barber Motorsports Park and Power will start seventh for the first time since last year's season finale at Sonoma. The only other time Power did not make the Fast Six at Barber he started ninth and won the race. Power has not had three consecutive pole positions since Mid-Ohio, Sonoma and Baltimore in 2012. This is the first time Team Penske has not had a car make the Fast Six session since Long Beach in 2014. Like Team Penske, no Andretti Autosport entry made it to the Fast Six and Alexander Rossi was the top of the four Andretti cars, joining Power on row four. This qualifying results matching Rossi's best Barber starting position, which came last year. Rossi has not had a podium finish in his last four starts. This is the longest stretch without a podium finish in his career since he went 21 races from the 2016 Indianapolis 500 and Toronto 2017. Five of Rossi's 12 career podium finishes have come when starting outside the top five. He has twice finished on the podium from eighth on the grid, as he finished second at Toronto from eighth in 2017 and third last year at Texas from eighth.

American rookies swept row five with Colton Herta starting ninth, after advancing to the second round of qualifying for the third consecutive race, and Santino Ferrucci starting tenth, a career best starting position for the Nutmegger. Herta could become the first driver to pick up his first two victories in consecutive races since A.J. Allmendinger picked up his first three victories in three consecutive races at Portland, Cleveland and Toronto in 2006. Ferrucci has finished 20th or worse in four of his first six starts. He has finished on the lead lap in his last three starts after not finishing on the lead lap in his first three starts.

Ryan Hunter-Reay had his streak of top ten starts snapped at 13 races and the American will start 11th. Hunter-Reay has not finished in the top five in the third race of the season since he won at Barber in 2014. His only other top five finish in the third race of a season was his victory at Milwaukee in 2004. Jack Harvey made it to the second round of qualifying for the second time in three races and he will start 12th. This is Harvey's first time racing at Barber since 2015 in Indy Lights. He was the runner-up finisher in both those races. He also finished third and fifth in 2014 at the track in Indy Lights.

Marco Andretti will start 13th after missing round two by 0.0345 seconds. Andretti enters Barber seventh in the championship. Only twice has Andretti been better than seventh in the championship after three races. In 2013, Andretti was fourth in the championship after three races and, in 2014, he was sixth in the championship after three races. Simon Pagenaud joins Andretti on row seven, the first time he has started outside the top ten at Barber since 2013. Pagenaud has only won multiple times at two tracks and both are natural-terrain road courses, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and Sonoma. Barber could become the third different track with multiple victories for Pagenaud; however, the Frenchman has never won a race when starting outside the top ten in his IndyCar career.

Matheus Leist starts 15th. This is the first time Leist has started in the top fifteen in consecutive races in his IndyCar career. Leist has finished outside the top fifteen in ten of his 19 career starts but Barber is the location of his best career finish on a natural-terrain road course, a 12th place finish. Josef Newgarden could become the 23rd driver in IndyCar history with three consecutive victories at a racetrack but he will have to do it from 16th on the grid, his worst starting position at Barber since he started 22nd in 2013. The last driver to accomplish three consecutive victories at a track was Will Power at São Paulo in 2010-12. The last American driver to accomplish it was Al Unser, Jr. at Vancouver from 1993-95. Newgarden enters this race with podium finishes in his last two starts. The only other time he had consecutive podium finishes came in 2017 when he had back-to-back podium finishes at Long Beach and Barber and he had four consecutive podium finishes at Iowa, Mid-Ohio, Pocono and Gateway, three victories and a runner-up finish.

Felix Rosenqvist will make his Barber IndyCar debut from 17th on the grid. Rosenqvist made two starts at Barber in Indy Lights in 2016. He was involved in an accident in the first race on lap four and he finished 14th, three laps down after starting seventh. He started sixth and finished eighth in the second race. Patricio O'Ward makes it an all-rookie row nine, as O'Ward will start 18th, the worst starting position of his IndyCar career. O'Ward could become the first driver to start a career with three consecutive top ten finishes since Tony Renna in 2002 when he finished tenth at Nashville, fourth at Michigan and seventh at Kentucky.

Tony Kanaan starts 19th. Kanaan has now started outside the top ten in 11 consecutive races and he had started outside the top twenty in three of the previous four races. While he has not finished in the top ten, Kanaan has finished in the top fifteen in five consecutive races. Marcus Ericsson rounds out the top twenty and he is still looking for his first top ten finish in IndyCar. Since Schmidt Peterson Motorsports returned to full-time IndyCar competition in 2011, each of the three drivers to make their debuts with the team have scored a top ten finish in one of the first two races. Tristan Vautier finished tenth in his second career start at Barber in 2013, Mikhail Aleshin finished sixth at Long Beach in 2014 and last year, Robert Wickens was the runner-up finisher in the second race at Phoenix.

Former Carlin Indy Lights teammates Ed Jones and Max Chilton will start on row 11. Barber was tied for third best in average starting position for Ed Jones at 11.5 before this session, as Jones had started 11th and 12th in his first two appearances at the track. Barber is is tied for Jones' third worst in average finish at 18.0. Chilton has not finished in the top ten in the last 20 races and he his three finishes at Barber are 21st, 13th and 22nd. He has finished off the lead lap in 14 of those races. He had started no worse than 13th in his first three trips at Barber.

Zach Veach is on the last row of the grid in 23rd, his worst starting position at Barber. This is the first track Veach has visited for three times in his IndyCar career. He improved his finishing position from 19th to 13th last year. Ben Hanley rounds out the field in 24th, 12 positions off where he started on debut last month at St. Petersburg. Hanley ran the FIA World Endurance Championship's 1000 Miles of Sebring in the interim from St. Petersburg to Barber. Unfortunately, he retired from that event after 143 of 253 laps.

NBCSN's coverage of the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama begins at 4:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 4:15 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 90 laps.