The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach race weekend began in disastrous fashion for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing rookie Mick Schumacher, who was initially forced to miss significant practice time with an engine issue.
He then had two separate incidents in the same spot during subsequent practice sessions around the 11-turn, 1.968-mile (3.167-kilometer) temporary street course in Long Beach, California, before qualifying 21st for the 25-car race.
The weekend ended, however, with a career-best finish, and with the 26-year-old German in the best position in the championship standings he's been in yet.
Mick Schumacher no longer last in IndyCar championship
The driver of the No. 47 Honda had been at the bottom of the standings all season, and it started when he was taken out by an overly aggressive and totally unnecessary move from Juncos Hollinger Racing's Sting Ray Robb on the opening lap of the season-opening street race in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Pit road issues damaged his chance of a solid result at Phoenix Raceway after qualifying an impressive fourth for his oval debut, and he was forced to settle for 18th.
He followed that up with finishes of 22nd on the streets of Arlington, Texas and 24th at Barber Motorsports Park, where many had anticipated he would break through due to his road course racing background.
Schumacher moved from 21st to a career-high 17th during the race in Long Beach, and perhaps more importantly, he moved up from 25th to 24th in the point standings.
Robb, who has yet to finish a race inside the top 20 this season, fell to last place with a 23rd place result. Schumacher overtook the driver of the No. 77 Chevrolet by two points.
Schumacher is 12 points behind the next lowest driver, Arrow McLaren's Nolan Siegel. Siegel, like Robb, is a much-maligned pay driver whom fans have long called for to be replaced, but he impressed on Sunday by making up 13 positions from his last-place starting position to finish 12th, giving him a much-needed boost after a rough start to a pivotal year in his career.
In the Rookie of the Year battle, Schumacher trails Dale Coyne Racing's Dennis Hauger by 32 points. A.J. Foyt Enterprises' Caio Collet is 17 points behind Hauger.
The next race on the 2026 IndyCar schedule is the Sonsio Grand Prix, which is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 9 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, although the Indy 500 open test is scheduled to take place on the track's oval on Tuesday, April 28 and Wednesday, April 29, with live coverage of that test set to be provided by IndyCar's YouTube channel.
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