Alex Palou converted P2 on the grid into victory in the 2026 GP of Long Beach. Palou beat polesitter Felix Rosenqvist after a mid-race caution wreaked havoc on the teams’ strategies.
Early Action
Rosenqvist led from the start and controlled the opening stint. Palou muscled past Pato O’Ward on lap two into Turn 1 to take P2. Behind them, Kyle Kirkwood and David Malukas rounded out an early Top 5, with Scott Dixon, Will Power, Scott McLaughlin, Nolan Siegel Simpson, and Graham Rahal rounding out the Top 10. Josef Newgarden rolled the dice early, pitting on Lap 12 to get off Primary (Hard) tires and onto Alternates (Softs). He rejoined in clean air with a rapid 5.8‑second stop that set up a three‑stop gamble.
First Pit Stops
The first “regularly scheduled” stops began around Lap 31. O’Ward, Rahal, Alexander Rossi, and Louis Foster were among the early callers. A few laps later, race leaders Rosenqvist, Palou, Malukas, Kirkwood, and Dixon all stopped at the end of the same lap. Rosenqvist remained ahead of Palou, with both on softs. Power briefly inherited the lead before pitting a lap later, handing track position and P1 to Newgarden. Further back, Marcus Ericsson suffered hybrid issues that the team initially reset remotely, but ultimately retired the car around lap 44 after losing significant time in the pits.
Caution Shake-up
Newgarden used a flat‑out approach, effectively running qualifying laps between stops. That included a bold move on Armstrong into Turn 1 for P13, but it also left him with a badly flat‑spotted front-left tire. With heavy vibrations thereafter, he and the team chose to ride it out. He stopped again on Lap 37 for fresh softs and needed a caution to help make the aggressive strategy work. That break seemed to arrive when debris triggered a yellow around Lap 52, sending most of the field to pit road and setting up the decisive moment of the race.
Pit Stop Magic
Under that caution, Palou’s CGR crew jumped Rosenqvist in the pits, which saw the Spaniard out in front. Newgarden’s strategy unraveled as he dropped back to P22 during the shuffle. The restart with 29 laps to go reset the order: Palou, Rosenqvist, Dixon, Kirkwood, O’Ward, Power, McLaughlin, Malukas, Rahal, and Rossi. From there, Palou edged away in trademark fashion. He stretched the gap to just under six seconds with nine laps remaining. Palou managed the pace to win by about 4.5 seconds by the final lap.
Key Takeaways
Here are the talking points we saw in the 2026 GP of Long Beach. Rosenqvist had a strong showing from his pole position, but even with a good stop, could he have held off Palou – we will never know. Dixon held off late pressure from Kirkwood to keep his podium P3 spot, showing that CGR has more than one superstar on the roster. O’Ward, after showing good speed on Saturday, fell away from the rostrum spots and finished in P5, a further 6 seconds behind Kirkwood. McLaughlin, Malukas, Rahal, Rossi, and Simpson rounded out the Top 10 as the checkered flag fell. After Newgarden’s gamble, he was only able to claim P14 at the end of the day.
Feature Image Credit: Chris Owens | Penske Entertainment