In a shocking race, Scott Dixon in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing, won the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 21.
California native Colton Herta and teammate Alex Palou ended their races in P2 and P3 respectively.
Dixon started the weekend with mid-grid performances. With 15th and 12th place finishes in the practice sessions, the New Zealander did not have the pace to clinch a spot in the Firestone Fast 6, missing out by 0.0112 seconds and qualifying eighth for Sunday.
Front row starters Felix Rosenqvist in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda and Will Power in the No. 12 Team Penske Chevy looked confident at their chances to win, with Power hoping to end his history-making winless streak.
At the start of Sunday’s race, Power took the lead while Rosenqvist fell down the grid. Dixon was quiet, consistently holding positions around P8 and P6.
On lap 15, IndyCar rookie Christian Rasmussen in the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy went into the wall at the exit of turn four, causing a full-course yellow caution after he also pinned Jack Harvey.
This triggered Dixon to make a pit stop for new tires on lap 18, causing him to have a major fuel-saving race as he opted to pit only once more in the next 67 laps.
Dixon overtook then-race-leader Power on the restart but Josef Newgarden took over the lead when Power pitted on lap 31.
In the closing laps, the leaders, Dixon, Newgarden, Palou, and Herta, ran into traffic. In the chaos, Herta hit Newgarden on the back, causing him to go into anti-stall mode.
This allowed a chasing Palou and Herta to pass Newgarden, who could not recover from the contact and was out of win contention.
“I had good speed all weekend and good strategy, so happy with fourth, but I’m just not sure about the Herta deal; I think they should look at that differently,” Newgarden said.
Race control penalized a similar incident between Arrow McLaren teammates Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi earlier in the race.
Dixon confidently led 42 of the 85 laps of the race, fighting challenges behind Newgarden, Herta, and Power and went on to secure his victory.
With this win at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, Dixon extends his career record wins to 57.
After winning, Dixon praised the Honda team, his engine supplier.
“Huge shout out to everyone on the Honda team. It’s their home race here with over 100 employees, and I had a fun time driving my Honda today,” Dixon said.
During the post-race press conference, Dixon talked about how unique Long Beach is to the IndyCar calendar.
“I think what we really enjoy as drivers and teams is the atmosphere, man. This place is wild. It’s got a lot of energy. It’s a lot of fun. That’s what we need to be doing,” Dixon said. “We always say we hope we can have more events like Long Beach or the 500 or Nashville, places like that. This one’s tough to beat, man.”