LONG BEACH \u2014 Andretti Global has its foot on the gas.<\/p>\n
Andretti teammates Will Power and Kyle Kirkwood posted two of the three fastest lap times during the first IndyCar NTT Series practice on Friday for the 51st annual Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very nice practice run,\u201d said Power, a two-time winner in Long Beach. \u201cI think the one line we took in qualifying will be very interesting (on Saturday), but we\u2019ve always done pretty well here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Power motored around the 1.968-mile circuit in 1 minute, 7.605 seconds, nearly two-tenths of a second faster than Scott McLauglin (1:07.791) and almost four-tenths faster than Kirkwood (1:07.986).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still have some things to improve but we\u2019ll have to see how it all plays out,\u201d said Power, who last won in Long Beach in 2012.<\/p>\n
McLaughlin, who finished sixth in last year\u2019s race, had set the second-best time of the day when the back brakes locked up on his No. 3 Dallara Chevy and he slammed into the tire barrier in Turn 8.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking back on it, I was pretty much sliding the whole time and I just lost it there,\u201d McLaughlin said. \u201cCar was running good. I guess I was just trying to figure out if the tow truck still works.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirkwood, the reigning champion in Long Beach and winner of two of the last three overall, was only eighth-fastest during the open session before turning a quicker lap in the Group 1 practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know our strategy has to be different than it was last year,\u201d Kirkwood said. \u201cOur goal still is to start from the front and lead the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reigning series champion Alex Palou was fastest during the open session in 1:08.448, but was fourth fastest overall (1:08.003) despite taking four-tenths off during the Group 2 practice.<\/p>\n
Armstrong, whose best finish in three previous Long Beach starts was eighth in 2023, was fifth during practice in 1:08.121.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not hitting the breaks now,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cWe\u2019re making a few changes so we can do a whole lot quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Felix Rosenqvist, who took the poll in Long Beach in 2024, was second fastest behind Palou during the open session in 1:08.529 but was seventh overall (1:08.230).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect to be a problem (on Sunday),\u201d Rosenqvist said. \u201cWe know we\u2019re fast and things are rolling well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rookie Mick Schumacher had mechanical issues 10 minutes into the open session, losing power before his No. 47 Dallara Honda shut off. The Rahal Letterman team chose to not restart and Schumacher completed only two laps.<\/p>\n
Christian Lungaard, who placed third last year in Long Beach, was not happy after his 1:08.246 had him eighth after the first practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was actually a little disappointed with the way we were just from the get-go,\u201d Lungaard said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t really seem to find that balance so now we\u2019re in a little bit of a pickle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott Dixon, making his 25th start in Long Beach, was 10th in 1:08.368, and recent Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame inductee Alexander Rossi was 11th in 1:08.470.<\/p>\n
Josef Newgarden, Long Beach winner in 2022, got a little loose through the Turn 11 hairpin during the open session and was 15th on the day before a red flag for debris ended the session.<\/p>\n
The second practice session for the IndyCar NTT Series is scheduled for Saturday at 10:30 a.m., followed by qualifying and Firestone Fast Six at 3:30 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONG BEACH \u2014 Andretti Global has its foot on the gas. Andretti teammates Will Power and Kyle Kirkwood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,28942,133,132,14396,127],"class_list":["post-273649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-grand-prix","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-motorsports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}