IndyCar: Winners and losers from 2018 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

The 2018 IndyCar season’s third race is in now in the books. Who were the winners and losers from the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach?

The third race of the 2018 IndyCar season, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, was run Sunday on the streets of Long Beach, California. Alexander Rossi, who has run up front all season, ended the day atop the podium, while Simon Pagenaud had his day end on the first lap. Who were the winners and losers in this race? Read on and find out.

Winners from Long Beach

Alexander Rossi

Rossi was the dominant driver at Long Beach, starting on the pole and then leading 71 of 85 laps on his way to his first win of the season and the third of his career. Will Power got close near the end to make it interesting, but Rossi did a good job of managing his push-to-pass and holding onto the lead. Rossi is now the points leader and looks to be for real in his quest for an IndyCar championship.

Will Power

After eight straight seasons with a top five points finish, Power was off to a disappointing 2018 campaign, which included a 10th place finish at St. Petersburg where he never showed speed and then a good run in Phoenix derailed by an accident that led to a 22nd place finish. Power finished in second in Long Beach. He was the only driver at the end who was capable of keeping up with race winner Alexander Rossi.

Zach Veach

Shouts to the rookie Veach, whose best career finish in four races before Sunday was 16th place. We know he has a good team under him — Andretti Autosport does field Alexander Rossi, after all — but he hadn’t quite shown at this level that he could compete at the level he did in Indy Lights. Well, he has now with a 4th place finish in Long Beach!

Losers from Long Beach

Simon Pagenaud

Pagenaud started third. Before he could show that he was a contender, though, he was back in the garage area after a lap one, turn one incident with Graham Rahal. After finishes of 13th and 10th place so far this year, Pagenaud needed to have a strong race in Long Beach. Instead, he’s now mired back at 16th in points.

Robert Wickens

Wickens had gearbox issues that put him multiple laps down and he ended up finishing the race in 22nd place. Wickens has shown speed during his rookie season, but he has now had bad luck in two of the first three races. He’s 12th in the points, though he’s run like a driver who should be much higher.

Ryan Hunter-Reay

Long Beach was just an unfortunate race for Hunter-Reay — damage from the early wreck, a tire puncture, contact with the wall late, and a 20th place finish. He’ll hope to have a better weekend at Barber Motorsports Park, where he has won twice before.

Next: Top 10 IndyCar drivers of all-time

The 2018 Verizon IndyCar series continues on Sunday, April 22nd at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. That race airs at 3:00 pm ET on NBC Sports Network.