INDYCAR: SECOND LONG BEACH WIN FOR ROSSI

Alexander Rossi claimed his second Long Beach win – Photo: LAT

For the second straight year, Alexander Rossi has won IndyCar’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The Andretti Autosport driver led all but five of 85 laps from the pole position to cruise across the finish line 20.2359 seconds ahead of Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden to become the first back-to-back winner at Long Beach since Sebastien Bourdais from 2005-07.

“I think we got lucky that we were able to get through some traffic and Josef was held up for a bit,” said Rossi said.

“From that standpoint, we were able to build a gap. It’s never easy. We didn’t have a whole lot of pressure … but you still have to go quick, right? There are a bunch of really fast guys behind you, so you can’t relax at all.”

Spencer Pigot ( Ed Carpenter Racing), Marcus Ericsson (Schmidt Peterson), and Jack Harvey (Meyer-Shank) caused the first and only caution period of the race after crashing at the fountain on the opening lap.

Once the race resumed Rossi etched out his lead over the rest of the field, while Newgarden took advantage of pit strategy to get ahead of Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing) who had started the race in second.

Will Power finished seventh – Photo: LAT

Australian Will Power (Team Penske) also got in front of Dixon during the pit stops, however, while the two battled over third place, Power braked too deep at Turn 1 and ended up down the run-off area. He would recover to finish the race in seventh.

“I guess it’s my mistake for going down there. I kind of went in the marbles.” said Power after the race.

“Probably went to the wrong side to defend from (Scott) Dixon. That was it, man. It was probably a podium finish there, but threw it away, unfortunately.”

“I was debating whether to make the corner and I thought nah, it’s better to be seventh than in the tires. I was close. I may have made it, but I didn’t want to take the risk.”

The focus of the NTT IndyCar Series shifts now to Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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