The IndyCar Afterburn: Long Beach 2025

Today’s theme music: “hey now” by Kendrick Lamar ft. Dody6

If you’re even remotely interested in formula racing, then this past weekend was one long party, with three of the world’s four major leagues holding races. First, Formula E returned from an absurdly long break for the Miami ePrix, where a late red flag made things bizarre on the final sprint. Then, Formula One kicked Sunday off at the Bahrain Grand Prix, where Oscar Piastri once again converted the pole to a win. But, of course, it was all merely a prelude to the main event, as IndyCar hosted the 50th running of the Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Whatever series runs the main event, and whoever else comes along for the party, the streets of Long Beach have earned a reputation over the last half-century as the most vaunted street circuit in the Western Hemisphere. It’s one of the only places anywhere in the world that can get mentioned in the same breath as Indianapolis or Monaco and actually feel like it belongs. For its golden jubilee, IndyCar gave us a shockingly clean chess match on wheels, and while it wasn’t the instant classic last year’s race was, it still provided a major shakeup to the National Championship picture. So before you go back to 2002’s broadcast to hear that punk cover of “I Get Around” again, let’s look at the winners, losers, and storylines out of Long Beach.

Kirkwood snaps Palou’s win streak

In 2024, Kyle Kirkwood was the best winless driver of the season—not the worst place to be, but not a status any driver wants to keep. With pole position in hand and both Colton Herta and Álex Palou not far behind, the Floridian had his work cut out for him if he wanted to convert this opportunity to a victory.

Herta would quickly drop down the order, managing his loose-handling car to 7th, but all throughout the day, it was Palou chasing Kirkwood for either the outright or the effective lead. Either way, though, Kirkwood’s wise overcut on his pit stops, judicious use of push-to-pass, and clutch defense immediately after emerging from pit lane for the final time all added up to Kirkwood’s third IndyCar win, as well as his second from pole at Long Beach in three years. It’s also a moment to celebrate for Andretti Global as a whole—with family patriarch Mario in attendance as co-Grand Marshal, Kirkwood’s win gives the team five Long Beach victories in the last seven runnings. It also means that, in 50 years, the Andretti name has been attached to the victorious driver and/or team 11 separate times. 

Palou, meanwhile, can be content with his third Long Beach podium in four years and his best finish at the track to date. Most importantly, if the other drivers can’t keep him out of the podium ceremony, days like today will only help the Spaniard as he pursues the vaunted threepeat.

Lundgaard paints it black for another bronze

After a crash in the top 12 qualifying session, Christian Lundgaard found himself tasked with making up for Saturday’s mistakes on Sunday, just as fellow McLaren man Lando Norris had been half a world away. Given the situation, the #7 crew decided to gamble, putting Lundgaard on hard tires to start the race and saving his green-sticker stint for the first stop.

In hindsight, perhaps people closer to the front should’ve followed this path, as everyone who did found some degree of success. Scott Dixon led two laps and rose six spots to 8th; Dixon’s teammate Kyffin Simpson led three of his own while posting the day’s fastest lap and his first ever top-10 finish; and Santino Ferrucci pulled himself out of the mud, going from dead last at the start to P11 by race’s end. But it was the Danish driver who reaped the most rewards from this strategy, as Lundgaard led a combined 26 laps, kept everyone else who started the way he had firmly behind him, and ultimately won 3rd place for the second straight race. 

Rosenqvist pushes the button too early

Between the mechanical gremlins that wasted his pole position last year and Meyer Shank’s disastrous Saturday sprint in Acura, Felix Rosenqvist fans had reason to be wary going into this race. For the most part, the Swede had a very strong day, often riding fairly close to Kirkwood and Palou’s battle for 1st. However, his Achilles’ heel this time turned out to be his overuse of the push-to-pass button. As the checkered flag approached, Rosenqvist found himself out of special sauce against a hard-charging Christian Lundgaard, and when the two approached turn 1, the Dane used the last of his own P2P and blew past Rosenqvist. That move ultimately cost Rosenqvist a spot on the podium, but 4th place is still his best finish in a championship race since Alabama last year. If he can continue to build on his momentum, which has snowballed with each race to this point, champagne and trophies are surely in his future.

Sting Ray invokes luck of the Irish

This week, we learned that the green on Sting Ray Robb’s car may be about more than just his Juncos Hollinger team. Apparently, Robb’s found a mentor in Adam Carroll, who famously won the final A1 Grand Prix championship for Ireland, and that wisdom proved crucial when Robb forged a third strategic path. Not only did Sting Ray start on hard tires, he stayed with them after his first stop, enabling Mr. Excitement to lead a glorious 12 laps in the midgame. Though he never quite found the front again after he finally ran his stint on softs, the gains he made paid off, as Robb came home 9th, matching his career best finish. The fact he did so on a street circuit, as opposed to his usual best days happening on ovals, could be a sign that everyone’s favorite meme driver is transforming into a genuine midfield fighter before our eyes.

Newgarden’s day literally comes undone

So far, the Team Penske story this year has been two drivers doing well and the third eating dirt. This time, Will Power and Scott McLaughlin posted a 5-6 finish, which meant it was Josef Newgarden’s turn to get whacked. For about the first two-thirds of the race, it looked solid enough for the reigning Indy 500 champion, as his extreme undercut strategy seemed to work well and set him up for at least a low top-10. However, that all came undone in the final stretch, when Newgarden’s seatbelt repeatedly tried to kill him by unbuckling itself, forcing him to make multiple extra stops to get it reattached. Thankfully, Newgarden was able to get it secured eventually and finish the race unharmed, but he did so dead last and two laps down. In fact, Joey Plants has now missed the top 25 in three of his last six races. With just two more races between now and the Indy 500, Newgarden needs to find a way to stabilize and avoid these kinds of days if he wants to enter that title defense in a position of strength.

Championship Collage: Palou leads a surprising pack

As expected, Álex Palou still leads the National Championship standings, but the men hottest on his tail are a bit of a shock. Kyle Kirkwood’s win catapulted the Andretti driver directly to second in the championship, Christian Lundgaard now sits 3rd to match his consecutive bronzes, and if the season finale was upon us, Felix Rosenqvist would be the last man alive going into that last race weekend. Scott Dixon rounds out the top five, and the lower half of the top ten hosts the rest of Palou’s big challengers from last season.

Robert Shwartzman still leads the three-way tussle for Rookie of the Year, and even got a taste of the spotlight by following the Sting Ray strategy and leading a fraction of a lap, but Louis Foster won the day among the class with a P16 finish, narrowing the gap between them in the process.

In the Manufacturers’ Cup chase, Honda defended their home turf in style, taking both the pole and the 1-2 finish. After an extremely successful SoCal swing, they lead Chevrolet 278 to 209, and while the Detroit bowties won’t be panicking just yet, they will have to figure something out soon if they don’t want their adversaries flying far out of reach.

Finally, our official unofficial Nations’ Cup tally got a bit of a shakeup this week, as 7 different countries finished in the top 7. Spain still leads, but the United States has shrunk the gap to 20, while Denmark’s surge to 3rd means that New Zealand once again finds itself down a place compared to last time and down a single point compared to the next-highest country.

Future Flames: Alabama art expo

Once again, it’s a three-week wait for the next race, and we’ll finish our season-opening Sun Belt pendulum with a swing back east to Barber Motorsports Park for the Alabama Indy Grand Prix. Last year’s race was an absolute barn-burner, featuring nonstop elbows-out racing, a shock podium that helped catapult Linus Lundqvist to Rookie of the Year honors, and most famously, Georgina the mannequin falling on the track and getting run over. Combined with the fallout of P2Pgate hanging over the whole thing, Alabama 2024 feels destined to become one of the most iconic races of its era.

That all sets a high bar for this year’s running to live up to, and no one will feel that pressure more than Scott McLaughlin. After a statement pole and victory last year when he needed it most, Scotty Mac now guns for three straight Barber victories. However, with Team Penske sitting a collective 8-9-10 in the standings and amassing more last-place finishes than podiums to this point, there’s an unfamiliar kind of pressure hanging over the entire operation. If their rivals get an inkling that Penske’s road and street setups have regressed compared to last year, they’ll pounce to exploit that weakness, so a win for any of the trio would go a long way in fending off accusations of waning dominance.