The NTT IndyCar Series took to the streets of Long Beach, California on Sunday afternoon, with 90 laps run on one of the most prestigious sites in American motorsports.
Many of the front-runners kept their same positions throughout the first two thirds of the event, with Felix Rosenqvist holding a relatively stable lead over Alex Palou.
The race’s single caution period, which was brought out for a wayward piece of carbon fiber on track, ended a 214-lap green flag streak at Long Beach that stretched back to 2024.
READ MORE: IndyCar Long Beach – Full Race Results
The yellows waved just before the final scheduled pit stop, allowing all drivers to come take fresh tires at the same time on lap 59.
Palou used his advantageous pit position at the end of pit lane, helped by quick work from his Chip Ganassi Racing crew, to leap past Rosenqvist into the lead.
The fantastically consistent Spaniard then did what he does best, and pulled a gap on the rest of the field with ease.
Palou scored his third victory of the season by a margin of 3.9663 seconds, vaulting himself back into the points lead in the process.
He now heads into the Month of May with momentum on his side once again, and will look to repeat his dual victories at the Indianapolis road course and Indianapolis 500 that he completed last season.
Rosenqvist crossed the line in second place, barely missing on out earning his second career victory.
The Swede was disappointed to not capitalize on his best opportunity for a win in the past couple years, but still acknowledged momentum is currently on his and his Meyer Shank Racing team’s side.
Scott Dixon crossed the line third after gaining three spots on the final pit stop, while Kyle Kirkwood and Pato O’Ward rounded out the top five.
Two stops or three?
Pit strategy was the talking point of the afternoon, with two distinct approaches taken by different teams.
Those that felt the soft alternate tires would fall off quickly chose to dump their first set within the first dozen laps despite that meaning an extra trip down pit lane at a cost of 40 seconds of lost time.
Josef Newgarden was the highest-placed driver to attempt the three stop strategy, making up heaps of time on fresh tires as he attempted to overcome the time lost on pit lane.
By time the strategies cycled through the matched back up again, the Team Penske driver ended up practically where he started. A flat-spotted tire halted any further progress, and Newgarden ended the race in 14th, just where he started the event.
Other drivers who attempted the three stop strategy were marginally successful, as Rinus VeeKay and Christian Rasmussen jumped a few positions on the final pit stop because they required less fuel to make it to the end.
VeeKay and Rasmussen finished 13th and 15th respectively, which was nearly the same positions they took the green flag from.
Down on luck
Marcus Ericsson spent the first third of the race running uneventfully in the midfield, but then suddenly developed electrical issues on his Andretti Global Honda.
He slowed for a couple corners and reset some systems in his car, coaxing it back to full speed, but lingering hybrid issues dashed any hopes of making back the positions he lost.
After starting in 15th, Ericsson was forced to retire the car just before the halfway point with issues that seemed to be similar to his team-mate Kirkwood’s hybrid issues in practice earlier in the weekend.
Christian Lundgaard also saw his race unravel as a flat tire forced him to come to pit lane outside the typical fuel window.
He gave up his fight to stay in the top 10 and dropped all the way down to 21st before crossing the line in 20th at the end of the race.
Will Power looked set to log a solid top 10 result, but he took a penalty for inadvertently hitting an AJ Foyt Racing crew member during the busy final pit stop sequence.
He fell from sixth all the way down to 19th on account of the extra trip down pit lane.
Louis Foster looked as if he might earn the best result of his young career, but his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda disagreed with the final set of tires his crew fit.
He fell from 11th all the way down to 16th in the final 28 laps and could do nothing to stop the stream of cars coming past.
Drivers and teams will now set up shop in Indianapolis, with Indianapolis 500 testing, a race on the Indianapolis road course, and the Indy 500 itself all on the schedule over the next month.
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