Winners and Losers: Grand Prix of Long Beach
- Morgan Holiday
- 26 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Álex Palou took his first career win at Long Beach, one of the few tracks where winning had thus far eluded him. While the on-track action may have been lacking, where IndyCar goes, drama follows, and this weekend was not short on stories of both great success and great misfortune.
Let’s take a look at some of the winners and losers from IndyCar’s weekend in Long Beach, California.
Winner - Chip Ganassi Racing
Palou is back on top, both as a race winner and as the new championship leader. After his great weekend, where he qualified third and beat out Felix Rosenqvist to win the race, he stole the lead of the title race back from his Andretti Global rival Kyle Kirkwood.
It was a good weekend for his veteran teammate Scott Dixon as well. Dixon made his first appearance in the Fast 6 in 2026 this weekend and qualified sixth, before coming home in an eventual third to take his first podium of the year. This podium marks yet another year of finishing on the podium for the New Zealander, who hasn’t spent a year off the podium in his 24 IndyCar seasons.
It was a solid weekend for the third CGR driver as well. Kyffin Simpson, now in his third full season of IndyCar, scored his second top 10 finish of the year this weekend at Long Beach. With his much more experienced and star-studded teammates, Simpson’s job is to get solid results and not make any big mistakes.
And that was exactly what he did, making it through to the Fast 12 in qualifying to secure a ninth place start before only dropping one place on Sunday on his way to a top 10 finish, also securing an overall great weekend for CGR.
Winner - Felix Rosenqvist
Rosenqvist will be kicking himself for coming in second after losing a hard-fought battle to Palou, but that’s not to say he isn’t one of the clear winners as we look back at this weekend.
The Meyer Shank Racing driver was quick all weekend, topping Group 1 of qualifying before finishing in third in the Fast 12 to get into the hunt for pole. With single-car qualifying on the books for the final part of qualifying, Rosenqvist was third to set his lap after David Malukas and Palou.
His time in qualifying was good enough to beat his two rivals who had already gone, and fast enough that none of the three drivers who went after him could best it, granting him his first pole position since 2024 (also at Long Beach).
On Sunday, Rosenqvist led from the start and held off Palou for over half of the race. It was during the only caution of the day that he lost the battle to Palou on pit road, when Palou took the lead and held it for the rest of the race.
If you’re an IndyCar driver in 2026, the one driver you most want to beat is Palou, but it may also be easier knowing that the one driver to beat you was the one driver who beats everyone. Rosenqvist took his first podium since Road America last year, which bumps him up to ninth in the standings.
Winner - Graham Rahal
In the entire 2025 IndyCar season, Graham Rahal had three top 10 finishes. This year, just five races into the 2026 season, he’s already matched that tally.
A ninth place at Phoenix Raceway, a third place in Alabama and this weekend eighth place in Long Beach cemented the best start to a year that Rahal has had in five years. In qualifying at Long Beach he missed out on the Fast 6 but still made the Fast 12 to secure a top 10 starting place.
In the race he held on and contended with the frontrunners in a long and grueling race with just one caution, bringing his car home in eighth to secure a top 10 finish. For Rahal and his team, this weekend isn’t just one good result, it’s representative of what is shaping up to be a great year.
Loser - Guys named Marcus
Unfortunately, it was a tough weekend if your name was Marcus. There are two Marcuses on the grid, Armstrong driving for Meyer Shank Racing, and Ericsson driving for Andretti Global.
In qualifying, Armstrong was the superior Marcus, just missing out on the Fast 12 to qualify 13th for the race. Ericsson was two places below him in 15th at the end of Saturday.
And Armstrong won out in the race as well, albeit not by much. Ericsson had contact with Alex Rossi at the start of the race but was still in the running before Lap 37, when an engine issue forced him into the pits to retire.
While Ericsson retired and placed 25th, Armstrong finished the race in 24th, one lap down and the last of the runners. He had been running in the middle of the pack for most of the race, but contact with Christian Lundgaard forced him to make an extra pitstop, which ultimately ruined his race. It’s safe to say it was not a fun weekend to be a guy named Marcus in Long Beach.
Loser - Arrow McLaren
Arrow McLaren has yet to really put everything together this season. Certain drivers have had good performances in qualifying OR the race, but there hasn’t been a weekend where all three McLaren drivers have managed a good result on both Saturday and Sunday.
This weekend, Saturday was Pato O’Ward’s time to shine. The Mexican driver made it into the Fast 6 and made his single-lap run for pole last of the six drivers to go. He wasn’t quite fast enough for pole position but did secure second, and started the race just behind Rosenqvist.
But in the race, Palou made quick work of O’Ward, and that wasn’t the only spot he lost. O’Ward ended the race in fifth place, a position he’s finished in 3/5 races this year now. To be fair to O’Ward, he’s been in the top five in all but one race so far this season. But he hasn’t finished higher than fourth, and you can’t make the championship run he’s been hoping to make like that.
While O’Ward had a satisfactory, if still disappointing, weekend, his teammates were nowhere to be found. Christian Lundgaard (unlike O’Ward, already a two-time podium finisher this season), qualified 11th and finished 20th. Nolan Siegel qualified last, and was the only driver of the three to actually gain positions in the race. And, to be fair, he gained a lot, coming through the field to an eventual 12th place finish. It was ultimately a good result, the best of the year, for Siegel, but by McLaren standards and combined with the performances of his teammates, it didn’t make for a great weekend for the papaya team.
Loser - Push to Pass
IndyCar issued a statement after the race which detailed that the Push to Pass feature (the button that gives cars a boost of power to utilize at certain times throughout the race) was, through a software glitch, accidentally made available to drivers on the Lap 61 restart.
While Push to Pass is not allowed during restarts per the regulations, 12 drivers were deemed to have pushed the button and used the power advantage during the race. IndyCar has not penalised any of these drivers, as the software issue was on IndyCar’s side. It was also ruled that the only overtake made by cars using Push to Pass at the restart (Marcus Armstrong passing Santino Ferrucci) was still made fairly as both cars utilised the Push to Pass system.
Understandably, this issue caused plenty of debate amongst teams, drivers and fans. Many have harkened back to the penalty issued to Team Penske in 2024 that was based in a similar issue with Push to Pass being utilised (albeit, that time due to a software issue on Penske’s side, not IndyCar’s).
While IndyCar has made it clear that no driver gained an advantage due to this incident, it was an interesting malfunction that won’t serve anything except further drama.
