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