After six attempts, IndyCar\u2019s most dominant active driver finally got a win around the streets of Long Beach. <\/p>\n
The Spaniard had never finished worse than fifth in Southern California, but the top step of the podium at IndyCar\u2019s most prestigious street race eluded him until today. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith the opportunity I had winning the 500 last year, the Long Beach GP this year, it just feels like I\u2019m living on this amazing cloud of happiness,\u201d Palou said.<\/p>\n
Since the start of last season, Palou (No. 10) has won 11 races. That\u2019s half the schedule. He\u2019s now won at all but five tracks on the 2026 schedule, with his yet-unconquered venues consisting of four ovals and Arlington, where Palou finished the inaugural race second. He\u2019s podiumed everywhere but Gateway, the oval near St. Louis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Alex Palou, man,\u201d commentator Will Buxton said at the end of the first stint. \u201cWe know the script. We know what he does.\u201d<\/p>\n
New IndyCar rules mandate using softer tires twice on street circuits, a rule change which should hurt Palou. He\u2019s, usuallyregularly by far the fastest driver on hards. Some in the paddock entertained the idea of a three-stop strategy this weekend. Few attempted it. Many expected to.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody was waiting for the top four to struggle\u2026 and then nobody degraded,\u201d third-place Scott Dixon (No. 9) said after the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cWarm-up, we had no idea. We all felt [the alternate tires] were going to go to pieces,\u201d polesitter and second-place finisher Felix Rosenqvist (No. 60) said.<\/p>\n
Much of the early race coverage focused on Josef Newgarden\u2019s (No. 2) effort to make three stops work. It almost looked like he\u2019d manage it as he was almost immediately half a second faster than the rest of the field, and that rapidly became a full second.<\/p>\n
As Rosenqvist, then leading, drifted above the 1:10 mark, Newgarden got faster still, dropping 1:08.8 second laps.<\/p>\n
The softs weren\u2019t degrading that much though, even if drivers weren\u2019t happy with them. Newgarden\u2019s second-and-a-half faster pace was remarkable to watch, but it sent him into traffic towards the end of the two-stoppers\u2019 first stint.<\/p>\n
McLaren\u2019s Pato O\u2019Ward (No. 5) was the first of the top five to box, on lap 30. The next lap, the rest followed. <\/p>\n
Rosenqvist, who led from pole, stayed narrowly ahead of reigning champ Palou. <\/p>\n
He did not, however, retain the lead on the road. Newgarden, on his alternate strategy, had an 11 second advantage.<\/p>\n
Those new tires for the primary strategy did not bring better pace than what Newgarden continued to show. The two-time champion was still a second faster than the rest of the field. <\/p>\n
While his three-stop attempt was electric, it hadn\u2019t yet paid off. <\/p>\n
Newgarden, who started 14th, left the pits 14th. With a lighter, less-fueled car and fresh tires, Newgarden had to continue his relentless push. This time with cars in front of him.<\/p>\n
Shortly after getting back on track, Newgarden lunged to the inside of Marcus Armstrong (No. 66), the leader\u2019s teammate, at turn one. He got through cleanly, but not unscathed, severely locking his left front and causing visible vibrations on the No. 2 car. <\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t force the Nashville native to pit early and turn their strategy into a four-stop, but his pace dropped off precipitously in the rest of the stint, dropping back to 14th.<\/p>\n
Then, on lap 57, the first caution at Long Beach since 2024. Every car pitted \u2014 it was perfect timing for the two-stoppers anyway. Fuel loads only lasted around 30 laps \u2014\u00a0it\u2019d been 27 since most stopped and there were 33 laps until the checkered flag. <\/p>\n
This time, Rosenqvist could not come out on top. Palou left with the lead, fitted with the harder, black-walled tires, which he was nearly a full second faster on than the rest of the field in practice. Without the yellow, Palou intimated, Rosenqvist likely would\u2019ve run away with the race win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it would have been really, really tough,\u201d Palou said. \u201cMy confidence was high, but I think my chances were low.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even without green flag laps, the second round of pit stops jumbled the field significantly, most dramatically with Dixon moving up to third and David Malukas (No. 12) dropping from fourth down to eighth. <\/p>\n
As the lead car on soft tires, Dixon hassled Rosenqvist for second, but never found a way through. Kyle Kirkwood (No. 27) and O\u2019Ward rounded out the top five.<\/p>\n
Quick hits:<\/p>\n
Early in the weekend, it looked like Will Power (No. 26) had a shot at taking his first win since leaving Team Penske. He\u2019s had success around Long Beach historically \u2014 the site of his first IndyCar win (discounting his time in the Champ Car series) \u2014 and Andretti is regularly the best team around street circuits. <\/p>\n
Qualifying seventh was disappointing, but his race didn\u2019t go off the rails until he was penalized for running over the feet of one of Caio Collet\u2019s engineers. Power could only get back in front of Sting Ray Robb (No. 77) and Armstrong.<\/p>\n
Dennis Hauger (No. 19) and Mick Schumacher (No. 47) had solid drives in their first visits to Long Beach. Hauger narrowly missed out on his second career top 10 finish, settling in 11th after a 19th-place start. Schumacher rose from 21st to 17th, his best finish so far in his brief IndyCar career. <\/p>\n
Nolan Siegel (No. 6) started 25th \u2014 last \u2014 and finished 12th. The young American driver has struggled early in his career, with calls for McLaren to replace him relatively commonplace online. This is the kind of recovery drive he needed.<\/p>\n
Upgrades to the Ed Carpenter Racing car look good for Alexander Rossi (No. 20). After the California native was inducted into the race\u2019s Hall of Fame Thursday, qualifying 18th was a disappointment for the former F1 driver. He made up for that in the race, though, moving up to ninth, without benefiting massively from the pit cycle. <\/p>\n
IndyCar will return May 9 at the Sonsio Grand Prix around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After six attempts, IndyCar\u2019s most dominant active driver finally got a win around the streets of Long Beach.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[116399,116405,116404,117464,117476,104939,65321,116402,116406,131,133,132,117463,116829,116403,116830,116400],"class_list":{"0":"post-276406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-alex-palou","9":"tag-alexander-rossi","10":"tag-david-malukas","11":"tag-dennis-hauger","12":"tag-felix-rosenqvist","13":"tag-grand-prix","14":"tag-indycar","15":"tag-josef-newgarden","16":"tag-kyle-kirkwood","17":"tag-long-beach","18":"tag-long-beach-headlines","19":"tag-long-beach-news","20":"tag-marcus-armstrong","21":"tag-mick-schumacher","22":"tag-pato-oward","23":"tag-sting-ray-robb","24":"tag-will-power"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276406","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=276406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}