Pitch-perfect Palou comes through once again for Long Beach IndyCar win

Four-time and defending NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou scored his third win of the 2026 season with a clinical drive to victory in the 51st Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, after vaulting polesitter Felix Rosenqvist in the pit stops.

The man he replaced at Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda in 2021, Felix Rosenqvist, led the majority of laps in a largely follow-the-leader two-stop race, but during the race’s sole caution period, the No. 10 Ganassi crew got Palou out ahead of their counterparts on the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing-Honda. On the Firestone primaries for that final stint, Palou stretched his advantage to almost six seconds before easing off.

A superb pit stop by the Ganassi No. 9 crew vaulted Scott Dixon ahead of three cars and he held on from there to claim third place, fighting off a late challenge from defending Long Beach winner Kyle Kirkwood in the lead Andretti Global-Honda.

Front-row starter Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren lost second to Palou on lap 2, was never a serious threat thereafter, and lost out on pitlane, too, although he was lead Chevrolet driver after David Malukas suffered a dreadful second stop and fell from fourth to eighth.

The man he replaced in the No. 12 Team Penske-Chevrolet, Will Power, had a poor result after incurring a drive-through penalty for contact with another team’s crew member.

Rosenqvist, O’Ward, Palou and Kirkwood started the race on the alternate compound tires, with Malukas, Dixon, Power, and Scott McLaughlin (Penske) heading the primary-tired drivers.

They remained in that order for the opening lap, but into Turn 1 on lap 2, Palou dived down the inside of O’Ward to move into second. Over the opening laps, with everyone at the front likely aiming for a two-stop race, the pace was such that Malukas had no problem holding onto Kirkwood despite his tire compound supposedly giving the Penske driver a pace deficit. Up front, Palou looked more than content to sit just over one second adrift of Rosenqvist.

With eight laps completed, Rinus VeeKay was the first driver to commit to a three-stop strategy, getting off the soft “reds” and onto the primaries. At the end of the 11th lap, Josef Newgarden running in 12th also pitted but switched from primaries to alternates. On his first lap out, he set the fastest lap of the race so far, a 1m09.5s, which he lowered to a 1m09.4s next time by, then a 1m09.0s, eventually getting down to a 1m08.8s.

Lapping one second slower, up front, Rosenqvist ran 1.9s ahead of Palou after 20 of the race’s 90 laps, while O’Ward was a further two seconds adrift but 1.8s clear of Kirkwood who was complaining graining to his front-left alternate. At 25 laps, Rosenqvist said his rears were starting to give up, but the two-stoppers were aiming for at least lap 30, and Palou turned 1m09.8s and reduced the gap to the Meyer Shank Racing car to under one second.

O’Ward pulled his McLaren into pit lane at the end of lap 30, and Graham Rahal also pitted that lap. All the front runners except Power pitted on lap 31, all taking on softs. Power turned his best lap of the race – a 1m09.6s – and pitted on lap 32. He emerged still behind Dixon, but ahead of three-stopper VeeKay. Meanwhile, Newgarden had of course taken the lead, holding a 13s margin over Rosenqvist and Palou. However, Kirkwood and Malukas had both jumped O’Ward in the pit exchange.

At this point, Marcus Ericsson found his car had gone into limp mode, possibly because of an issue with his hybrid system, and he fell to 22nd. He would eventually pull in and retire.

Lap 37 saw Newgarden pit with a 16s lead, and emerge in 14th, just behind Marcus Armstrong’s MSR machine.

Once back in the lead, Rosenqvist pulled his margin over Palou to two seconds, who was leading Kirkwood by a similar margin. The two-time Long Beach winner at this time led an equidistant chain comprising Malukas, O’Ward, Dixon and Power. At half-distance, this situation continued.

Christian Lundgaard pitted from 11th with a deflated tire on lap 49, while Newgarden who had developed a flat spot was passed for 13th by Louis Foster on lap 58.

That same lap, a large piece of debris on the racing line at Turn 4, the exit of the fountain turn, brought out the caution. Everyone pitted, and this time the No. 10 crew got Palou out ahead of Rosenqvist and into the lead. An even bigger loser in the pit stop shuffle was Malukas, who emerged eighth, while Dixon’s crew jumped him up to third ahead of Kirkwood and O’Ward, who only just snuck out ahead of Power.

McLaughlin was now seventh and lead Penske driver. At the lap 62 restart, he drew alongside Power into the braking zone for Turn 1, but couldn’t make it stick. His compatriot Dixon was looking feisty, too, as he had the only car in the top five on alternate tires, and was filling the mirrors of Rosenqvist. But the next change in the top six was the result of a drive-through penalty for Power, who had made contact with a crew member on Caio Colletts’ AJ Foyt Racing car, as he left his pitbox with O’Ward on his outside. With the pack still bunched, that dropped him to the back of the field.

As is his way when out front, Palou stretched his lead so that with 10 laps to go, his advantage was just under six seconds. Dixon became less of a threat to Rosenqvist’s runner-up finish over this period, and started falling into the clutches of Kirkwood as his reds fell off. Only judicious use of the push-to-pass button kept the six-time champ clear of the Andretti car to the checkered flag.

O’Ward came home six seconds adrift in fifth, doing just enough to hold off McLaughlin and Malukas. This pair were some 14 seconds ahead of Rahal, Alexander Rossi (up from 18th on the grid) and Kyffin Simpson (Ganassi).

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