Defending Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach champion Alexander Rossi nipped Graham Rahal for the fastest time in the final practice session before qualifying by 0.13 seconds. Rahal had jumped to the top of the chart with just a few minutes to go. Team Penske drivers showed more speed today with Simon Pagenaud fifth, Josef Newgarden sixth, and Will Power tenth.
The time sheet:
All times Eastern
Practice 3- Noon-12:40
Qualifying- 3:10-4:25
Practice is on NBC Gold
Qualifying is on NBCSN
Look for Quick Thoughts here after qualifying and a full report on Wildfireradiosports.com
Scott Dixon lead the second practice for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach this afternoon, edging Ryan Hunter-Reay by 0.05 seconds. Honda’s continued to lead the way although the Penske Chevrolets showed more speed than they did in the morning session.
Jarrett Andretti will become the latest member of one of racing’s most famous families to race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The son of John Andretti will drive an Andretti Autosport Indy Lights car in the Freedom 100 on Carb Day, May 24.
Andretti, 26, has won championships in karts, USAC midgets. an Indiana Sprint Car series. He joins Andretti Indy Lights drivers Oliver Askew, Robert Megnnis, and Ryan Norman in the Andretti Indy Lights Field. Jarrett currently competes for Andretti Autosport in the Pirelli GT4 America program. He has also competed in the Pirelli World Challenge TCR class.
It is always great to have another Indy Lights car in the field, and adding another Andretti is big for the series. No plans for additional Indy Lights races were mentioned at this time, but Michael mentioned this could be first step to more participation in the series. It seems like a logical presumption for someone with his last name.
Hondas had the top seven times in this morning’s first practice, led by Ryan Hunter-Reay.
LoveToday’s IndyCar schedule forftye Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Eastern Time
1-1:45 pm Practice NBC Gold
5-5:45 pm Practice NBC Gold
Sebastien Bourdais will do the Long Beach double, also driving for Chip Ganassi Racing’ s Ford GTLM in the IMSA race. Bourdais drives the endurance races for the program. He replaced Joey Hand who is ill. I would like to see more drivers do things like this.
Kyle Kaiser will be at Long Beach, but not in Indycar. He will drive the Juncos DPi in the IMSA race. I have doubts we will see more Indycar entries from Juncos this year.
Michael Andretti has an “Indianapolis driver announcement at 3:30 pm Eastern today. My guess is it’s about an additional Indy Lights car for the Freedom 100.
Above: Can Alexander Rossi repeat? A tall order given the event’s history the last six years.
There is no better place for a street race than Long Beach, and no better street course event. It has the feel of the Indianapolis 500. Its rich history includes Formula 1 as well as the NTT Indycar Series and the other Indycar iterations. The city completely embraces the race, one of the key elements for a successful sustainable street race.
There are some noticeable changes for the 2019 event. Acura is the new title sponsor, replacing longtime sponsor Toyota. Jack Harvey’s number 60 will carry Acura decals in place of the Honda markings. No, this is NOT the third OEM
The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach has seen six different teams and six different drivers win since 2013. If the trend continues we could see another win from one of the smaller teams in the 45th edition of America’s longest running street race. So far this season no one has really stood out. Josef Newgarden has been the most consistent, winning at St. Pete and finishing second at COTA and fourth at Barber. Here are some things to look for this weekend.
Will Power has been frustrated the last two races. He won the pole at COTA and was leading late but was sidelined by a drive shaft problem. At Barber he failed to make the Fast Six, spun early in the race, and fought back to finish 11th. He sits an uncharacteristically low 9th in the standings. Power has won twice here. I see him back in the Fast Six and possibly on the pole again.
Newgarden qualified 17th last weekend but recovered to finish fourth and increase his championship lead. He should return to the front of the grid as he seeks his first victory at Long Beach.
Simon Pagenaud appears ready to move up in the standings. He has two top tens this season and seems to have become comfortable with the new car. This could be the weekend he returns to contention.
Alexander Rossi has been good, but not great so far this season. He has made the Fast Six every race this season and has two top five finishes but his race pace just seems a little off. Returning to the venue he dominated last year could be where he can begin challenging for the points lead.
Andretti Autosport teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay is also a past winner at Long Beach. He has made a nice recovery from his engine issue at St. Pete. with a podium at COTA and an eighth at Barber. Hunter-Reay could also figure in the winning equation this weekend
A pole, a front row lockout, and a win was the best the Rahal team could do last weekend. The only blemish was Graham Rahal’s throttle issue which knocked him out of the race. Takuma Sato has won two of the last five races going back to Portland last September. Sato also has won here. Look for another strong showing from both drivers.
This class continues to impress me. Colton Herta had an ignition problem at Barber which prevented another possible top ten finish. Marcus Ericsson finally earned a result without issues last weekend as well.
Felix Rosenqvist was very strong at St. Pete and should be strong again this weekend. He seems to have a knack for street courses, probably due to his time in Formula E. I could see him on the podium Sunday.
This will be the first street race for Pato O’Ward this season. Don’t dismiss his chances because of that. O’Ward has an uncanny talent for being fast around any circuit. I wpould not be surprised to see him in the Fast Six and have a solid finish.
His footsteps are getting louder already. Dixon is actually ahead of where he was at this point in the season last year. He led two laps at Barber. In 2018 he didn’t lead a lap until Detroit. He has already had one of the likely two races out of the top ten. Another former Long Beach winner, Dixon will probably finish on the podium this time. He should gain some ground on Newgarden.
GESS has moved to Pato O’Ward’s car for Long Beach. The company is supporting the younger drivers in the series by switching their sponsorship from Colton Herta. Herta, meanwhile, will carry King Taco colors for the race. King Taco usually finds its way onto a car for the race every year. I wonder if Herta’s win at COTA influenced their decision this year.
Pole- Power
Race- Dixon
Top Rookie- Rosenqvist
Back Saturday evening with Qualifying Quick Thoughts. Full qualifying coverage will be on Wildfire Sports Sunday morning.
I love watching a track come alive on race morning. It’s fun seeing the energy build among the fans and teams.
Age and experience beat youth everytime.
Takuma Sato was unstoppable this weekend. He has won two of the last five races going back to Portland in 2018.
There were terrific battles throughout the day.
Josef Newgarden is doing the things needed to be champion. He fought hard from his 17th starting position to finish fourth. Herta’s issues allowed him to increase his point lead to 27 over Scott Dixon. I wouldn’t count Dixon out just yet.
Both Swedish rookies finished in the top 10. Marcus Ericsson was 7th and Felix Rosenqvist was 10th. It was a good recovery for Rosenqvist who had some off track excurions earlier in the weekend.
Even though Power has won twice here, he seems to have some sort of problem during the race. It’s odd to see a driver who has had a lot of success at a track run into so much difficulty the last few years.
Jack Harvey had another good run but it looked like pit strategy kept him from a third straight top 10, Still MSR is doing well this young season.
The crowd was still a good size, but seemed a little down from the last two years.
Dragonspeed and driver Ben Hanley have shown a gain in speed since St. Pete. After today they have just three races remaining in their short first season. It looks like they are on a good path to a decent pace.
They were not the last car running today.
Look for my full race report tomorrow on Wildfire Sports. Thanks for following along this weekend.
Photo: Sato’s crew celebrates after the checkered flag.
Above: Takuma Sato begins celebrating the pole before he gets out of the car.
Good morning from Barber Motorsports Park The 10th Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama begins at 4pm Eastern today on NBCSN.
Indycar has a 30 minute warm-up session at 12:10 Eastern. It is available for viewing on NBC Gold.
This should be an interesting race. No one has won here starting further back than 9th. The pole winner has won seven times.
Once the ( shameless blog plug) Pit Window opens we could see constant traffic down pit road.
In spite of all the off road excursions during practice, this could be a caution free race.
It should be cloudy and dry during the race, which eliminates one tire concern. There is still a question as to whether the reds or the blacks are quickest. Tire degradations will be a big factor today.
Back with updates as needed and Quick Thoughts after the race. Look for a full recap on Wildfire Sports later tonigh.
That was a refreshing qualifying session on many levels. It was green all the way. No Penske cars in the Fast Six for the first time since 2014. Five teams represented in the Fast Six. One team locked out the front row, and it wasn’t one of the Big Three.
Chevys are scattered through the field in groups of twos and threes.
Tomorrow’s race became very interesting as soon as the checkered flag waved on qualifying.
The crowd today looked more like a typical Barber Saturday. The lack of rain likely helped with that.
Does any driver exhibit the pure joy of success better than Takuma Sato? I mean besides Will Power at Indianapolis last May.
Graham Rahal had his best race in a long time at COTA two weeks ago. Can he improve on that tomorrow?
Conor Daly won the Lamborghini Super Trofeo race today
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 