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.
