Grand Prix of Long Beach: Alex Palou looking to start season with 3 straight wins

LONG BEACH — Winning the first three races of an NTT IndyCar series season is no easy task. Scott Dixon was the last to do it in 2020.

Alex Palou of Spain will have the chance to duplicate that this Sunday in the 50th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach after having won the season opener at St. Petersburg and IndyCar’s second race in Thermal, which became a full championship points race this year after being an exhibition in 2024.

Palou has done so much already in his young career, having won three series championships in his first five seasons. But he’s never won in Long Beach, having finished third twice, fourth and fifth. His fourth-place finish in 2021 clinched his first series title when the race was contested at the end of the season instead of early on because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which canceled the 2020 race.

Palou on Friday had the seventh-quickest lap time of 1:07.5306 in the first official practice. Team Penske’s Will Power, a two-time winner here, was fastest at 1:07.3227.

Qualifying is Saturday at 11:30 a.m.

Palou met with reporters in a bullpen session ahead of practice. The topic of starting the season with three victories was hot.

“Yeah, I mean, we’ve been close,” Palou, of Chip Ganassi Racing, said about Long Beach. “I think I finished third, fourth. So, yeah, I mean, it’s a great track and a track that it’s super tough to win. Street courses are always very, very tough and everybody wants to win it.

“But I think we’ve been there. We’ve just never had a perfect day. And I think as (with) every other track, it just takes perfect execution. But our cars have been fast. Like, (teammate) Scott (Dixon) has won here and I think we’ve had opportunities in the past.”

Dixon won in 2015 and last year.

Palou, of Spain, was asked if it’s more important to win at this iconic track, or to win three in a row.

“I think both, right?” said Palou, 28. “It just makes it even more interesting. I think if it was another track, it would still be super fun to try and get three in a row. But being Long Beach, which is probably our second-biggest race of the year, it would make it extra, extra special.”

Although Palou won the Thermal exhibition in 2024, his best finish at St. Pete had been second before this year with a worst of 17th in five previous tries. This is not lost on Palou, who smiled big when asked about his start to this season.

“Yeah, I mean, amazing, right?” he said. “I couldn’t be happier at the moment. We couldn’t have started a better way, two different tracks completely – St. Pete that we struggled at in the past and Thermal (where) we were really good. And to be able to gain on St. Pete and still keep our performance at Thermal was great. But, yeah, hopefully we do the same this week.”

A big part of it is the team as a whole, Palou said.

“Yeah, it’s tough to win, so whenever you get the chance, whenever the car feels good, whenever you have confidence in the team as well, you can feel that the team has the confidence in the calls that we are making are right,” he said.

“You need to try and get that wave and try and surf it for as long as possible because you know that there’s going to be a moment where that wave ends a little bit and hopefully you can get back on really soon.”

Marcus Ericsson of Andretti Global had the second-fastest practice time Friday at 1:07.3503, teammate Kyle Kirkwood was third at 1:07.3523, Marcus Armstrong (Meyer Shank Racing) was fourth at 1:07.3602, Felix Rosenqvist (Meyer Shank Racing) was fifth at 1:07.3875 and Josef Newgarden (Penske) was sixth at 1:07.5191.

Colton Herta (Andretti Global w/Curb-Agajanian) was eighth 1:07.6632, Christian Lundgaard (Arrow McLaren) was ninth at 1:07.7108 and two-time winner and defending champion Dixon was 10th at 1:07.8080.

Ericsson was happy about what the day brought.

“I’ve been looking forward to this race a lot; I always do,” he said. “It’s one of the highlights of the season, for sure, and with Andretti as well with the history here in this race, we expect to be out there fighting for the win and a start like this is the best way to do that.”

Newgarden was satisfied with his practice session, too.

“Very good,” said Newgarden, who won here in 2022. “I think our car was pretty solid rolling off.”