The 51^st Annual Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach has come and gone and was packed with fans enjoying perfect weather by the shore. An exciting mix of racing and strategy played out, along with seeing some racing greats dominate their competition. 

The headline NTT INDYCAR SERIES featured multiple teams and drivers setting fast laps throughout the weekend. The Andretti Global team saw former winners Will Power and Kyle Kirkwood lead the first two practice sessions respectively. Team Penske’s David Malukas led the Qualifying 2 session while Josef Newgarden led the warm-up and also set the fastest lap of the race. Meyer Shank Racing’s (MSR) Felix Rosenqvist led Qualifying Round 1, Group 1, and also earned the pole position for the race – his second pole at Long Beach. For the Chip Ganassi Team, Scott Dixon led the Qualifying Round 1, Group 2, while his teammate Alex Palou ended up winning the race.

The race itself was dominated mostly by Rosenqvist, but with a full-course caution coming out just in time for everyone to make their final pit stop, the Ganassi crew made quick work in the pits, and Palou used his pit position with nobody in front of him, to rocket away into the lead. Rosenqvist had a good pit stop but was relegated to second place while Dixon’s crew made good work and got him out in third place where he completed the podium.

In the IMSA WeatherTech Series, the Acura ARX-06 claimed the pole and the win with the MSR entry driven by Nick Yelloly and Renger van der Zande. Between the Acura GTP entry of MSR, the IndyCar pole by MSR, and almost a win (2^nd for Rosenqvist) it was almost a perfect weekend for the team. It was perfect for Acura/Honda as they earned the pole and victory in both headline classes. The only spoiler was an IMSA victory by the Lexus RC-F GTD car that won their category after an incredible pole position by Robert Wickens using hand controls in his DXDT Corvette.

The Porsche Carrera Cup North America races were a clean sweep by Tom Sargeant both days.

The historic TransAm and IMSA GT cars put on a ground pounding show with lots of American V8 muscle to show fans how it used to be. Chris Hines did the double victory dance in his Oldsmobile while www.raceschool.com podcast interviewee, Cary Eisenlohr rounded out the podium in third on Sunday! Here’s a direct link to the podcast interview: https://raceschool.com/raceschool-com-podcast-interview-cary-eisenlohr/

One of the coolest cars there was the 2.1 liter, turbo Audi Quattro driven by McLaren CEO Zak Brown. 

Robby Gordon’s SPEED Energy Stadium Super Trucks put on their high-fly, jumping act with a real barn burner in Saturday’s race. Gordon and his son Max traded positions for the lead multiple times before Max was able to beat his dad on the last lap of the race. Race 2 saw Matt Brabham (who also drove the IndyCar 2-Seater on the pace lap) earned the win in front of Robby and Max Gordon.

Formula Drift, rock concerts and more filled out the schedule for fans who wanted to make their dollar work extra hard! All-in-all, another terrific weekend of racing on the streets of Long Beach!

NOTE: Chris Pook gave a heartfelt speech lauding his longtime friend and co-worker, Jim Michaelian, before the start of the race. His emotion was clearly shown while he did this in front of thousands of fans as well as Jim’s wife and two sons.

By Larry Mason

Copyright © 2026 Larry Mason

Interview and photos Copyright © by Larry Mason (unless otherwise noted)

It was a messy start with a big gap to everyone behind the leading group as shown here by the open space, but tight up front with Rosenqvist hanging onto his lead for the majority of the race. Alex Palou (running third here) would pass Pato O’Ward on lap two and then Rosenqvist during the final pit stop to take the win.

The Open AI Dallara of Alex Palou was hooked up on the streets of Long Beach. Here he’s shown running over the red, white and blue paint of the tricky Turn 10.

Felix Rosenqvist did everything right during the weekend by earning the pole and cutting some great lap times throughout the race. However, it was Alex Palou’s pit crew who got the job done just a wee bit quicker in the final stop that relegated Felix to second place.

It was a perfect weekend for the MSR Acura GTP car of Yelloly and van der Zande as they swept pole and victory in the Acura Grand Prix. Even with that success, it was announced days later that Acura would put a pause on this program at the end of the season…

It was a spoiler of sorts as the Vasser-Sullivan Lexus won the Acura Grand Prix in the GTD class of the Saturday IMSA event.

Robert Wickens was quickest in the first practice session last year driving this DXDT Corvette GTD car with hand controls for the first time, and followed that up by earning his first pole position in the car at Long Beach!

Tom Sargeant earned the double victory at Long Beach in his Porsche Carrera Cup North America double-header. He was dominant on Saturday but even with a bit more pressure on Sunday, he finished the job.

Chris Hines earned two victories in the HMSA Historic races at Long Beach. Here he leads home a Mustang and Cary Eisenlohr’s Camaro on Sunday.

One of the coolest cars to hit the track over the weekend was Zak Brown’s historic Audi TransAm car. This car had to be regulated out of its dominance back in the day!

Founder, friend and co-worker with Jim Michaelian – Chris Pook paid tribute to Michaelian who passed away last month.

On stage to hear what Chris Pook had to say were the two sons, and wife of Jim Michaelian.