Long Beach Preview
If you are a fan of the NTT IndyCar Series, you already know that the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is almost as much of a rite of spring as Opening Day of Baseball. It is as close to being a fixture in the April calendar as it can be, while it is juggled around Easter. When I was in high school, there was a song titled “It Never Rains in Southern California”. Watching all of the races at Long Beach over the years, I’m thinking that may be true. It is always sunny and picturesque there – at least for a TV viewer. Hopefully, we will get there one of these years.
If the series is at Long Beach, you know that the Month of May cannot be too far off. Sometimes the schedule works out that other races are squeezed in between Long Beach and the Month of May. This year, we glide right into the Month of May just as Long Beach is over.
Aside from the Indianapolis 500, the historic Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is the oldest continually operating event on the IndyCar calendar. Of course, that’s not counting the event that was wiped out by COVID. If you’ll recall, the following year in 2021, Long Beach was the season finale as a COVID precaution. I actually kind of liked Long Beach as the last race of the season, but I’m not sure it needs to be moved out of April too much. Date equity is very important.
This year, there will be some heavy hearts within the event organization. Longtime Grand Prix Association of Long Beach President & CEO Jim Michaelian passed away on March 21 at the age of 83. He had been wit the event since the beginning in the mid-70s, and was named president and CEO in December of 2001. Not only did he bring a strong executive presence to the event, he was an accomplished sports car racer as well. According to those that knew him, he will leave a huge void in this event.
Last year’s race brought some relief to fans and drivers that had grown weary of Alex Palou’s early season domination. Long Beach was the third race on the IndyCar schedule in 2025. Palou had already won the first two races at St. Petersburg and Thermal. Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood won at Long Beach, but with Palou finishing second – the standings didn’t tighten up much at all. After Palou went on to win the next three races, including the Indianapolis 500, the championship had been pretty well decided before the calendar flipped to June.
This year is closer. Palou actually trails Kirkwood by two points and we have had three different winners in four races – Palou twice and Kirkwood and Josef Newgarden one each. Although Palou is trailing Kirkwood, why do I feel it is just a matter of time before Palou goes on another run? Had it not been for an overly ambitious move by Rinus VeeKay at Phoenix, we would probably find ourselves in the midst of another Palou beatdown season.
It has been a while since the series was last on-track. Since then, I have been hearing a common theme that Long Beach is not a track where Chip Ganassi racing excels. It was only two years ago that Ganassi’s Scott Dixon took the checkered flag at Long Beach, so that might be a bit of wishful thinking from those that want to see anyone but Palou at the top of the podium on Sunday. But to be fair, that was the first Ganassi win at Long Beach since 2015, when Dixon was the winner then also.
Long Beach has been the domain of Andretti Global in recent years. Since 2018, Andretti drivers have won five of the last seven races there. Alexander Rossi won in 2018 & 2019. There was no race in 2020. Then Colton Herta won in his hometown in 2021; with Kirkwood taking wins in 2023 and 2025. So not only have they been dominant at Long Beach – they have spread the wealth among their different drivers.
With this being a west coast race, times all weekend will be later tan usual. Friday’s Practice One kicks things off at 6:00 pm EDT on FS1. Practice Two gets going at 1:30 pm EDT on Saturday on FS2. Qualifying gets underway at 6:30 pm EDT on FS1. Sunday’s “morning” warmup will take place at 1:00 pm EDT on FS1, while Sunday afternoon’s race coverage begins at 5:30 pm EDT on Big FOX.
One note about qualifying…with the popularity of the single-car qualifying for the Firestone Fast Six at Arlington earlier this season, they have decided to implement that at all of the remaining temporary street circuits going forward. The release specifically said for the remaining races of 2026, but unless some unintended consequences surface – I don’t see why they wouldn’t do this from here on out.
Who is going to win on Sunday? Partly out of wishful thinking for an interesting championship battle, and partly from listening to the experts and studying recent history – I will go out on a limb and say that Alex Palou will not win on Sunday. I don’t think he will have any disastrous outing, but I think he may not have the speed to beat the Andretti cars. But I also don’t think that Kyle Kirkwood will win his third race in four years at Long Beach. So far this season, he has had finishes of fourth, second, first and fifth. He will not sustain that pace and will finish outside the Top-Five for the first time this season, if not the Top-Ten. Will Power may have a hand in the final outcome, but I think Sunday’s winner will be Power’s teammate Marcus Ericsson. He has been quietly putting together a strong season and will use a win at Long Beach to give him a ton of momentum heading into May. We’ll see.
George Phillips
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