Six different teams have won the Grand Prix of Long Beach in the last six IndyCar seasons. Will the race feature a seventh different team winning it this year?
Entering the 2019 IndyCar season, two races on the schedule had featured four different teams winning in the last four seasons. One of these races is the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on the streets of Long Beach, California, and it is scheduled to take place this Sunday, April 14.
Six different teams have won this 80/85-lap race around the 11-turn, 1.968-mile (3.167-kilometer) temporary street circuit on the streets of Long Beach over the course of the last six seasons.
You have to go all the way back to the 2012 season before reaching the most recent team to win the race twice. Team Penske’s Will Power won this race and Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud went on to win it in the 2016 season. As a result, from the 2013 season through the 2018 season, all of the teams that have won it have won it only once.
More from IndyCar
- IndyCar: Two teams with no drivers confirmed for 2024
- IndyCar: Chip Ganassi Racing news hints Alex Palou announcement
- IndyCar: ‘Addition by subtraction’ could pay off in a big way
- Team Penske should make a bold driver signing for 2024
- IndyCar: 5 teams that still have open seats for 2024
A.J. Foyt Enterprises’ Takuma Sato won the race in the 2013 season before Ed Carpenter Racing’s Mike Conway won it in the 2014 season.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon won the race in the 2015 season, and as referenced above, Team Penske’s Pagenaud won it in the 2016 season.
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ James Hinchcliffe won the race in the 2017 season before Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi won it in the 2018 season.
Will this trend of different teams winning the most historic street circuit race on the IndyCar schedule each season continue this Sunday?
For this trend to continue, one of five teams would have to win this race, and these five teams account for only eight of the race’s 23 drivers. These five teams are Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Harding Steinbrenner Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Carlin and Meyer Shank Racing.
Harding Steinbrenner Racing and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing are set to enter this race, which is the fourth of 17 races on the 2019 IndyCar schedule, having just won the season’s second and third races at Circuit of the Americas and Barber Motorsports Park with rookie Colton Herta and Takuma Sato, respectively.
Dale Coyne Racing have also been strong in these two races, as Sebastien Bourdais finished in the top five in both of them and is coming off of a season-high third place finish in the latter. The team’s rookie driver, Santino Ferrucci, however, is still getting adapted to IndyCar and has a career-high finish of ninth in seven starts.
Meanwhile, Meyer Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey is set to enter this race with career-high finishes of 10th place in 12 starts, and Carlin are set to enter this race with rookie of Patricio O’Ward, whose career-high finish is eighth in three starts, and Max Chilton, who has not finished in the top 10 in 19 races driving for the team since they entered IndyCar at the start of last season.
If this trend of different teams winning the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach ends up continuing this Sunday, it will likely continue with a victory by Herta, Sato, Bourdais or Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal.
Be sure to tune in to NBC Sports Network at 4:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 14 for the live broadcast of this year’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach from the streets of Long Beach, California.