Alex Palou overcame Felix Rosenqvist with a perfectly timed final pit stop after a late caution to win the 2026 IndyCar Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
The No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda pit crew delivered a lightning fast stop which saw Palou edge out pole sitter Rosenqvist who had dominated 51 of 90 laps, sealing his first victory at Long Beach.
This marked Palou’s third triumph in the first five races of the season, adding a prestigious notch to his career tally of 22 wins as he eyes a potential fifth series title and a record-tying fourth consecutive championship.
When the green flag dropped for the 90-lap showdown, Rosenqvist rocketed off the line to lead Lap 1 ahead of Pato O’Ward and Palou, before the latter methodically carved his way past the Arrow McLaren Chevrolet at the tight Turn 1 hairpin to claim second.
The early running order remained largely unchanged, with Rosenqvist stretching his advantage to three seconds over Palou by the first round of stops, while O’Ward and Kyle Kirkwood lurked in third and fourth, respectively.
O’Ward was the first to pit on Lap 31, as Rosenqvist and Palou followed suit on the next lap for a switch to their mandatory second set of softer Firestone alternate tires, vaulting Josef Newgarden to the race lead by Lap 33.
Newgarden proceeded to stretch the gap to 16.5s by Lap 37 before stopping for a fresh set of alternates, which relinquished the lead back to Rosenqvist, as Palou, Kirkwood, David Malukas and O’Ward filled the top five.
Further back, Marcus Ericsson struggled to battle through a hybrid issue on his No. 28 Andretti Global Honda that seemed to be similar to his team-mate Kirkwood earlier in the weekend, but the car ultimately let go on Lap 44 forcing him to retire from the race.
By Lap 50, Rosenqvist was leading by 2.5s over Palou and was poised for a commanding victory, but a full-course caution turned the race on its head on lap 58 when Sting Ray Robb spun his No. 77 Chevrolet at Turn 11, bunching the field and triggering a decisive pit cycle.
Rosenqvist pitted first under yellow from the lead, but a slight delay in changing the right-rear tire of the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda—clocked at 8.1 seconds—proved costly, as the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda pit crew executed a lightning-fast 6.9-second stop for Palou.
The Spaniard pulled out of the pit lane ahead of Rosenqvist, inheriting the lead as the field cycled through with Dixon and Kirkwood slotting into podium contention behind them.
The restart came on Lap 62 with Palou at the helm, while Rosenqvist launched a high-stakes pursuit to hound the leader.
Will Power was slapped with a drive through penalty for inadvertently hitting an AJ Foyt Racing crew member during the busy final pit stop sequence, dropping the No. 10 Andretti Global Honda from sixth all the way down to 19th.
As the laps wound down, Alex Palou methodically extended his lead to over four seconds but eased off in the closing stages to preserve his Honda power unit and tires, ultimately taking his first IndyCar Long Beach victory by 3.9663 seconds.
Felix Rosenqvist secured a gritty second to mark his first podium of the season, while Scott Dixon secured third, 5.4463 seconds back, after a consistent run that yielded solid points for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Kyle Kirkwood faded to fourth, surrendering the championship lead to Palou, while Pato O’Ward rounded out the top five.
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Full 2026 IndyCar Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Race Results
