Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach: No. 10 pit crew helps Palou defeat Rosenqvist

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Chip Ganassi Racing driver Alex Palou won the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach with the help of his No. 10 pit crew, as the four-time NTT IndyCar Series champion held off Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, who finished second after leading 51 of 90 laps in Southern California.

After the only caution of the day for debris, 57 laps into the race, Palou led the pack off the pit lane due to the speed of the No. 10 pit crew. He gained a spot ahead of Rosenqvist and got the clean air he needed to set sail for victory at Long Beach. Until that point, Rosenqvist seemed to be the clear favorite for the win, but a total team effort from the Ganassi group made the difference in the end to earn Palou the top step of the podium.

During the post-race press conference, Palou praised the “incredible job” from his team for putting him in the position to earn his 22nd career IndyCar victory.

“Yeah, incredible work by the team today.” Palou said, “I think we were fighting there with the 60 (Rosenqvist), trying to match him on the soft tires. I think we could have fighted a little bit, but he was a bit stronger than us today. We were just trying to figure it out, if we were going able to go one lap longer on fuel. This full-course yellow put everything on that pit stop. The guys did an incredible job once again.”

Green in Long Beach

Polesitter Felix Rosenqvist kept his lead heading into the first corner with Pato O’Ward on his tail as the Mexican driver looked to take over the lead from the outside.

Ed Carpenter Racing drivers Alexander Rossi and Christian Rasmussen went side-by-side in the hairpin. Rasmussen maintained his 16th-place.

Soon afterward, Alex Palou took second place from O’Ward on Lap 2.

Then, Rossi tried to make a move on the inside of Rasmussen as the Danish driver locked up, allowing Rossi to complete the pass on his teammate. Rinus VeeKay was the first driver to ditch the softer red-walled Firestone tires for primaries on Lap 9. Josef Newgarden tried to take 11th place from Christian Lundgaard; however, the Team Penske driver abandoned the battle to pit on Lap 12.

Rosenqvist maintained his lead with Palou on his tail. O’Ward pitted from third on Lap 31 for a newer set of red tires. Graham Rahal, Rossi, Louis Foster and Caio Collet followed O’Ward into the pits. Rosenqvist and Palou pitted at the same time. The No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing pit crew won the pit lane battle against the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing pit crew for the race lead. Rosenqvist and Palou came out of the pits with red-walled tires.

Marcus Ericsson had a hybrid power issue on Lap 36, while his teammate Kyle Kirkwood had a hybrid failure earlier in the day during the warm-up session. The Andretti Global driver fell from 15th to 22nd. Then, Ericsson ultimately retired on Lap 38 due to a full-hybrid failure and finished 25th.

Newgarden pitted on Lap 37 and Marcus Armstrong passed him as he re-entered the track. After that, Newgarden took back 13th place on Lap 42 as he moved to the inside of Armstrong. During the overtake, Newgarden locked up his left-front tire, leaving a bald spot.

Race-deciding pit stop under caution

The First and only full-course caution of the race came out on Lap 57 to clear a large piece of carbon fiber debris from the track. All drivers came into the pits on Lap 59. With the preferred pit box, Alex Palou beat Felix Rosenqvist as they exited the pits.

After the stop, Will Power was hit with a penalty after hitting one of Caio Collet’s crew members. Power went from sixth to a 19th-place finish following the penalty.

The green flag waved with 30 laps to go. Palou was able to get away from Rosenqvist and escape up the road. The driver of the No. 10 OpenAI Honda led the rest of the way from the final restart and crossed the finish line with a 3.96-second margin of victory over Rosenqvist.

The driver of the No. 60 SiriusXM/Acura Honda finished the race in the runner-up position after leading a race-high 51 laps, with Scott Dixon taking the final spot on the podium in third.

“I don’t think we had a bad pit stop, I just think Alex just had a 10/10 stop and we unfortunately lost out a little bit to him in the pits under the yellow,” Rosenqvist said. “But end of the day we’ll take this result — I’m incredibly happy to have been able to get our Acura-liveried Honda on the podium at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.”

The NTT IndyCar Series returns to action in the Month of May for the Sonsio Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. This will air on Saturday, May 9, at 4:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

Results: 2026 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach at Long Beach Street Circuit

GRID Ranking

The 2026 GRID Ranking is the 10th year of the world’s premier motorsports ranking system, which was initially released on Sunday, April 5.

The official ranking includes drivers participating in seven racing series (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E, WRC, Supercars, MotoGP). Each driver earns GRID Ratings, which help determine their seeding in the GRID Ranking.

GRID Ranking Week 3 IndyCar drivers:

DRIVER	OLD RATING	PREVIOUS RANKING	MOST RECENT FINISH	NEW RATING	NEW RANKING
Alex Palou	18.25	5th	1st	19.80	3rd
Kyle Kirkwood	19.25	4th	4th	17.80	5th
Christian Lundgaard	13.50	12th	20th	10.80	22nd
Pato O’Ward	N/A	N/A	5th	8.80	30th
David Malukas	8.75	31st	7th	8.20	33rd