Unanswered questions hanging over some of IndyCar’s title hopefuls ahead of Long Beach

Some important questions will be answered at this weekend’s Long Beach Grand Prix as the NTT IndyCar Series heads into its second points-paying contest of the season.

The first area where the 1.9-mile, 11-turn track should provide insights is whether the crushing form Team Penske demonstrated last month on the streets of St. Petersburg was a bad omen of what’s to come for the rest of the field over the remaining street course events.

Pole- and race-winner Josef Newgarden was uncatchable in the No. 2 Chevy as he hit the trifecta by leading the most laps — 92 of 100 – and crossed the finish line a full 7.9 seconds clear of Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Chevy. O’Ward was the only thing stopping Penske from a podium sweep as Newgarden’s teammates Scott McLaughlin and Will Power placed third and fourth.

Penske’s had great success on street courses as recently as 2022 when McLaughlin won at St. Pete, Newgarden won at Long Beach, and Power who’d go on to clinch the championship — won at Detroit, so the strong start to 2024 is by no means a first for the team. But what separates the recent run at St. Pete from past street course victories is the clear domination by the team as a whole, and the potential separation it holds over its rivals.

That’s the main question that awaits an answer during qualifying and the race: Was St. Pete the revealing of a big street course gap Penske has established over everyone, or just a really amazing one-off outing where its trio were on a different level? We’ll know by the end of the weekend.

On a related note, Team Penske’s ownership of St. Pete also reinforced how uncompetitive the likes of Andretti Global and Chip Ganassi Racing – winners of 80 percent of the street races last season — were in Florida. The same could be said for Arrow McLaren, which earned a podium with one of its three cars, but was no match for Newgarden.

Andretti won at Long Beach and Nashville in 2023 with Kyle Kirkwood in the No. 27 Honda, who was a non-factor at St. Pete, but did have Colton Herta qualify fourth and cross the finish line in fifth, albeit 10.2s behind Newgarden in the No. 26 Honda. New teammate Marcus Ericsson qualified sixth and ran as high as fifth until he was sidelined by a fluke issue with the air intake on the No. 28’s engine. It wasn’t a bad showing for Andretti by any means, but with Kirkwood’s wins in mind, the soft start to the new season was not anticipated.

The lone caveat to consider for Andretti this weekend is how far ahead and clear Kirkwood and former teammate Romain Grosjean were one year ago at Long Beach, when they qualified first and third and finished 1-2 with Herta not far behind in fourth.

Last year’s Long Beach winner Kyle Kirkwood had a quiet weekend at St Pete, but once the checkered flag waves on Sunday we’ll have a better picture of what kind of street course shape Andretti Global is in this year. Gavin Baker/Motorsport Images