Although every driver dreams of winning the Indianapolis 500, their next goal is to claim victory on the streets of Long Beach, CA, the site of the second-most prestigious event on the INDYCAR calendar. Kyle Kirkwood started on pole and won his second Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in three years, driving the PreFab No. 27 car for Andretti Global.
Alex Palou, winner of the season’s first two NTT INDYCAR races, in the DHL No. 10 car for Chip Ganassi Racing, tried to catch Kirkwood but the Spaniard could not match the Floridian’s outright speed. Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard took the third step on the podium.
“We controlled the race, even from practice,” said Kirkwood, who achieved a 2.6859-second victory over runner-up Palou. “Really good qualifying, amazing race and strategy. It was just execution all across the board that won us that race because if Palou was in front, he would have beat us, for sure. This was a track position race without any yellows.”
Kirkwood led 46 of 90 laps on the iconic 11-turn, 1.968-mile temporary street circuit on its 50th anniversary. In spite of running just inches from the concrete walls, the race ran caution free, which last happened in 2016 at Long Beach.
“Long Beach is where we turn it around,” continued Kirkwood, who now ranks second in the championship standings, trailing Palou by 34 points. “Palou (finished) second so we need to have more of these results, having had a drought last year with no wins.”
Palou pitted on Lap 64, one lap before Kirkwood, for his third and final stop. But despite Palou having the advantage over Kirkwood, who exited the pits just ahead, on cold tires, he was not able to challenge the Floridian for the lead. Race strategy came down to preferring the harder, primary tire over the less durable, softer alternate tire, which, by rule, requires at least two laps run in the race with each tire type.
“I’m not disappointed,” said Palou, who started fifth and has yet to win on the streets of Long Beach, which has an attendance of over 200,000 for three days. “You never feel amazing when you finish second, but honestly, the No. 27 car and Kyle, they were amazing all weekend. I thought I was going to have a chance, but then my tires were not 100%. Just had a big oversteer out of (Turn) five and couldn’t really go on the power to get a good exit. Kyle was safe from there. We did the best we could. Hopefully next year we can just improve one step.”
Lundgaard led 26 laps to finish third after the Danish driver’s qualifying crash caused significant damage, requiring a switch to his backup car for the race.
“This one is dedicated to the crew who worked late last night,” explained Lundgaard. “I told them I had to get a podium for the team and that I’d buy them some beers when we get home (Indianapolis). But a trophy is much better.
“I hit the bump in Turn 9 and then the wall,” revealed Lundgaard, about his incident in the second round of qualifying. “The end plate (front wing) was so strong that it dented the chassis, causing the crew to switch to the backup car. I told the team we should try to go aggressive. We went off strategy compared to what we expected most of the field to do (started on primaries). We had the most tires of everybody, two sets of alternates and three sets of new primaries. All options were open for us today. We made up a lot of pace on those pit cycles and took advantage of running in clear air.”
Only six of the 27 drivers started on the primary, black sidewall tires. The others planned an early pit stop, around lap five to seven, to switch to primaries from the softer street course tire, which was very similar to what Firestone provided at the St. Petersburg season opener.
Felix Rosenqvist finished fourth, driving for Meyer Shank Racing. Fifth went to Will Power, the highest-finishing Penske driver, who started 13th on the grid. Teammate Scott McLaughlin finished 6th.
Josef Newgarden, who failed to advance in his qualifying group “due to traffic,” started 15th and finished 27th, after pitting early on Lap 3 to switch from the softer, green alternate tire to the primary blacks. During his third pit stop, on Lap 60, the Nashville native was pointing vigorously downward inside his aeroscreen, which seemed to go unnoticed by his pit crew.
It turns out that Newgarden’s five-point seat belt came undone, likely accidently hit while driving through the infamous Turn 11 hairpin with arms crossed in counter lock. Newgarden did one lap and pitted again, needing about 40 seconds on pit road, just to get from pit-in to pit-out. That dropped him a lap down in the running order to finish last, in 27th, instead of as high as fifth.
The highest-finishing Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver, Louis Foster, started 20th and crossed the line in 14th. His veteran teammate, Graham Rahal, finished 22nd, having started 16th. The team’s third driver, Devlin DeFrancesco of Toronto, started 23rd and finished 24th.
“It was a tough day for us,” stated DeFrancesco, who ran as high as 13th until pitting on Lap 7, when he fell to 27th. “We lost a little time on the first stop. We seem to be struggling for grip from the alternates, unable to turn the tires on. We were missing a few tenths, pace-wise generally, so we will analyze the reason for that. I’m looking forward to getting back to Barber (Birmingham, AL) for the next race, where we had good pace in the test.”
Asked why they thought the race had no cautions, Lundgaard suggested it was due to the hybrid weight making it harder to get close. The hybrid also allows the driver to restart their own car if there is a stall. But Palou said “don’t worry. It’s going to happen. There could be five cautions at Barber or on the IMS road course.”
To date, Honda has three wins to Chevy’s zip, winning in its own backyard with sponsorship by Acura at the Grand Prix of Long Beach.
The inaugural Long Beach race, in 1975, was won by Brian Redman and featured the F5000 cars as a demonstration to attract Formula 1. From 1976 through 1983, F1 competed on the circuit. But due to the extremely high F1 promotion cost, the switch was made to Indy cars in 1984, starting the tradition that continues today. The first Indy race was won by Mario Andretti. Al Unser Jr., Grand Marshall of the 50th anniversary edition, earned the most victories, with six, spanning from 1988 to 1995.
