Munoz wins Indy Lights pole in Long Beach

Carlos Munoz earned his third consecutive Sunoco Pole Award with a last-lap, track-record lap of 1:12.9374 for the Long Beach 100 on April 21. It supplanted Jack Hawksworth, who seconds before jumped to P1 with a lap of 1:13.3324.

The front-row starters are the same for the third race in a row in the young season, and each driver has a victory. Getting to the front was a victory of sorts for Hawksworth, the Firestone Indy Lights points leader who crashed in practice less than 24 hours earlier.

The Schmidt Peterson Motorsports crew worked for more than seven hours into the evening to convert a backup car, which is the same car that Esteban Guerrieri used to win last year's Long Beach 100, into the primary car. It, however, was in oval configuration in preparation for a test at Auto Club Speedway with driver Kyle O'Gara next week.

In order to be ready for practice and qualifying, the team – with assistance from the other two Schmidt Peterson Motorsports crews – put the road course package and Hawksworth's setup on the car, change the engine and customize the car to fit Hawksworth, who stayed with the team until the work was completed.

Results

1. (26) Carlos Munoz, 01:12.9374 (97.135)
2. (77) Jack Hawksworth, 01:13.3324 (96.612)
3. (12) Zach Veach, 01:13.3614 (96.574)
4. (5) Peter Dempsey, 01:13.3961 (96.528)
5. (7) Gabby Chaves, 01:13.5298 (96.353)
6. (2) Juan Pablo Garcia, 01:13.7280 (96.094)
7. (22) Mikael Grenier, 01:13.8222 (95.971)
8. (4) Jorge Goncalvez, 01:14.4856 (95.116)
9. (56) Matthew Di Leo, 01:15.5059 (93.831)
10. (8) Sage Karam, 01:15.9610 (93.269)