IndyCar: O’Ward tops Practice 1 at Acrua Grand Prix of Long Beach

The championship points leader, Arrow McLaren driver of the #5 Chevy, Pato O’Ward, topped the practice chart in the last two minutes of the session.  Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing driver of the PNC Bank #7 entry, also jumped up in the last few minutes of practice to grab the second spot.

“It’s a tight field,” O’Ward said. “Long Beach is always such an intense qualifying. We just kept chipping at it today. We rolled off strong, but we’ve been definitely making adjustments to get it a little more in the window, a bit more to this track’s characteristics and to what I like. So far, it’s good.”

“We’re going to look into it and see where we can make improvements, but I think we’re in good shape for tomorrow,” O’Ward said. “It’s all about executing, man. It’s going to be really, really tough.”

2023 Long Beach Grand Prix Pato O’Ward By_ Chris Owens

Colton Herta, the Andretti Autosport driver of the Gainbridge #26, edged out Ganassi Racing Huski Chocolate #8, Marcus Ericsson for the third spot.

Arrow McLaren driver Alexander Rossi driving the NTT Data #7 Chevy, rounded out the top five.

2023 Long Beach Grand Prix Alexander Rossi By_ Chris Owens

The session was uneventful until 52 minutes in when Helio Castroneves, Meyer Shank Racing driver of the SiriusXM #06, stopped on course in turn 11, and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s rookie, Agustin Canapino, stopped on course in turn 9.   Both drivers were given a five-minute penalty for causing a red flag.

Pato O’Ward commented on the new pavement in turn 8.  “I think what’s made it a little bit trickier is where the new asphalt meets the old one in turn eight, it reminds you of turn three in St. Pete. It’s smooth moving in, but it’s a smaller scale, not as quick, but there’s definitely a bump there. I think that will be something to watch just throughout the weekend.”

“Yeah, I’m happy with it. We got into the window. It’s tight, man. I think qualifying is going to be as tight as it’s probably ever been. I think it puts a lot of emphasis on just the little mistakes you can make.”

Reigning Long Beach winner Josef Newgarden ended up 14th at 1:07.4273 in the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet after scraping the wall exiting Turn 5 about 35 minutes into the session

Practice Results

Pos No Name Time Behind Gap Laps Speed Engine Team
1 5 Pato O’Ward 1:06.6999 0.000s 0.000s 23 106.219 Chevy Arrow McLaren
2 9 Scott Dixon 1:06.9649 0.2650 0.2650 27 105.799 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
3 26 Colton Herta 1:06.9808 0.2809 0.0159 25 105.774 Honda Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
4 8 Marcus Ericsson 1:06.9859 0.2860 0.0051 24 105.766 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
5 7 Alexander Rossi 1:07.0104 0.3105 0.0245 23 105.727 Chevy Arrow McLaren
6 28 Romain Grosjean 1:07.1049 0.4050 0.0945 25 105.578 Honda Andretti Autosport
7 10 Alex Palou 1:07.1515 0.4516 0.0466 24 105.505 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
8 77 Callum Ilott 1:07.2467 0.5468 0.0952 27 105.355 Chevy Juncos Hollinger Racing
9 6 Felix Rosenqvist 1:07.3135 0.6136 0.0668 25 105.251 Chevy Arrow McLaren
10 45 Christian Lundgaard 1:07.3237 0.6238 0.0102 24 105.235 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
11 27 Kyle Kirkwood 1:07.3355 0.6356 0.0118 27 105.216 Honda Andretti Autosport
12 30 Jack Harvey 1:07.3864 0.6865 0.0509 23 105.137 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
13 3 Scott McLaughlin 1:07.3973 0.6974 0.0109 30 105.120 Chevy Team Penske
14 2 Josef Newgarden 1:07.4273 0.7274 0.0300 16 105.073 Chevy Team Penske
15 12 Will Power 1:07.4420 0.7421 0.0147 33 105.050 Chevy Team Penske
16 15 Graham Rahal 1:07.4785 0.7786 0.0365 27 104.993 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
17 18 David Malukas 1:07.5242 0.8243 0.0457 25 104.922 Honda Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
18 60 Simon Pagenaud 1:07.5308 0.8309 0.0066 25 104.912 Honda Meyer Shank Racing
19 11 Marcus Armstrong 1:07.5392 0.8393 0.0084 37 104.899 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
20 20 Conor Daly 1:07.5978 0.8979 0.0586 30 104.808 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
21 29 Devlin DeFrancesco 1:07.6755 0.9756 0.0777 28 104.688 Honda Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
22 21 Rinus VeeKay 1:07.7257 1.0258 0.0502 32 104.610 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
23 78 Agustin Canapino 1:07.8087 1.1088 0.0830 23 104.482 Chevy Juncos Holling Racing
24 06 Helio Castroneves 1:07.9204 1.2205 0.1117 25 104.310 Honda Meyer Shank Racing
25 51 Sting Ray Robb 1:08.2600 1.5601 0.3396 30 103.791 Honda Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
26 14 Santino Ferrucci 1:08.9570 2.2571 0.6970 25 102.742 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
27 55 Benjamin Pedersen 1:09.0446 2.3447 0.0876 34 102.612 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises

 

Lucille Dust reporting live from Long Beach