Rossi dominates Long Beach GP for 3rd career IndyCar victory
Alexander Rossi pulled away after a late restart to win the Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday, completing a dominant weekend by holding off Will Power for his third career IndyCar victory.
Starting on the pole, Rossi thrived amid the usual excitement on this beloved downtown street course just off the Pacific Ocean en route to his first win of the season. Rossi led 71 of 85 laps in his Andretti Autosport Honda before taking charge on the restart with nine laps to go, pulling away from Power and moving into the IndyCar points lead after three races.
“Even though it’s not my true home race, it really feels like one,” said Rossi, who is from Nevada City (Nevada County). “... This is one I’ll definitely remember for a very long time for a lot of different reasons.”
Ed Jones finished third, and Zach Veach was a career-best fourth. Graham Rahal was fifth after an opening-lap collision with Simon Pagenaud, who was knocked out of the 44th edition of the Long Beach race.
Rossi comfortably earned the second pole of his three-year IndyCar career during qualifying, and his pace was still there in the race. The 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner and veteran of five Formula One races hadn’t won since Watkins Glen last year, but he had put his speedy Honda in position to win this year both in St. Petersburg — where he instead made late contact with rookie Robert Wickens — and again the previous weekend in Phoenix, where he finished third.
The result also was encouraging for Power, who had been off to a discouraging start to the season, with his Team Penske Chevrolet back in 14th in the points standings before his standout drive in Long Beach.
The Long Beach course is popular for its friendly atmosphere and the opportunities for remarkable racing created by its dimensions. Those opportunities were seized by many drivers — particularly Sebastien Bourdais, who executed a jaw-dropping move to pass diagonally through three drivers.
Bourdais was ordered to give back the position to Dixon because he used the pit lane to make his move, but Bourdais then caught and passed Dixon for second place again, anyway. Jordan King then spun Bourdais while curiously trying to pass on the hairpin turn, and the former champion finished 14th.
Newgarden also set a race lap record midway through, turning a lap on the streets in 1:07.551. NASCAR Cup Series: Kyle Larson will have to wait another day to try to capture his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season after the race at Bristol Motor Speedway was postponed until Monday because of heavy rain in Tennessee with Larson out in front. Racing was halted three times Sunday because of wet weather.
Action is scheduled to resume at 10 a.m. PDT Monday.
Larson led 74 laps when the race was halted on lap 204, just 46 laps from it becoming official. NASCAR hopes to complete all remaining 296 laps, although the forecast calls for more rain and possibly snow.