Featured IndyCar Latest News

Clutch Pit Stop Catapults Alex Palou To Victory In ACURA Grand Prix Of Long Beach

by Hunter Thomas April 19, 2026 0 comments

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Alex Palou’s pit crew put him in prime position, and he capitalized to win the ACURA Grand Prix of Long Beach.

With 33 laps to go in Sunday’s race, Palou was trailing polesitter and race leader, Felix Rosenqvist by three seconds when the one and only caution of the day came out for debris on the track. Leaders pitted, and it was Palou’s pit crew completing service by 7.3 seconds to win the race off pit road. Once in the lead, Palou never looked back as he navigated the tight 11-turn Long Beach course in the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 10 OpenAI Honda.

“The OpenAI car was super, super fast, but it was that yellow, that pit stop with all the pressure that these boys were able to do it and execute it perfectly,” Palou said. “From there, it was just managing the tires. We didn’t know how the primaries were going to be.”

The win marked Palou’s third victory in the opening five races of the 2026 season. He now has 22-career wins in the NTT INDYCAR Series.

Rosenqvist held on to finish second, 3.9663 seconds behind Palou. Although he didn’t win, Rosenqvist had a strong showing in the Meyer Shank Racing No. 60 SiriusXM/Acura Honda. In addition to sitting on the pole, he led a race high of 51 laps.

“A little bit of a bittersweet race,” Rosenqvist said. “I lost a little bit on the stop. Alex is obviously going to be 10-out-of-10 almost every stop, so I don’t think it was necessary that out one was slow, but they probably had a great one, as well. That’s how it goes.”

Scott Dixon finished third, followed by Kyle Kirkwood and Pato O’Ward. Rounding out the top-10 was Scott McLaughlin, David Mulkas, Graham Rahal, Alexander Rossi and Kyffin Simpson.

Following Sunday’s race, Palou leads Kirkwood in the standings by 17 points.

The NTT INDYCAR Series will head to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course for the Sonsio Grand Prix on Sunday, May 9. Palou is the defending winner of the race. Live coverage will broadcast on FOX at 4:30 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Christopher Vargas/TheFourthTurn.com