Long Beach IndyCar: Rossi beats Dixon, Power to pole

Andretti Autosport-Honda driver Rossi lapped the 1.968-mile course in 66.481s, at an average speed of 106.569mph, to beat Dixon by 0.2668sec. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver appeared to be on a faster run but abandoned his effort at Turn 9.

Will Power, despite struggling through practice, conjured up a time – albeit 0.4sec off pole – good enough to beat Penske teammates Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud, as well as Rahal's Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda.

Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport) was the surprise exclusion at the end of Q2 as he tried to advance using scuffed alternate compound Firestones to save himself a new set for the Firestone Fast Six. He will start alongside Barber Motorsports Park winner Takuma Sato in the second RLLR-Honda, who tried the exact same tactic.

Patricio O’Ward slotted his Carlin Racing-Chevy into ninth alongside his former Indy Lights rival and teammate Colton Herta of Harding Steinbrenner Racing, with Marco Andretti in 11th.

Ganassi’s second car, that of Felix Rosenqvist, blew his chances of making it into the Firestone Fast Six, having just claimed second-fastest time during Q2. He locked up under braking at the end of the back straight, and skidded down the escape road where he thumped into a tire barrier, bringing out the red flags. He lost his two fastest times and will start 12th.

Tony Kanaan shunted at Turn 6 during Q1 Group 1, just after using an early switch to red alternate tires to lift his AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy into the top six to advance to Q2. The inevitable red flag that followed cost him his best times, but also occurred late enough in the segment that it killed off the chances of those who hadn’t yet set a time on alternate Firestones.

These included both Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda drivers, James Hinchcliffe and Marcus Ericsson, as well as Santino Ferrucci in the Dale Coyne Racing-Honda and Ed Jones in the Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy.

Three-time Long Beach winner Sebastien Bourdais in the Dale Coyne Racing Vasser-Sullivan Honda was eliminated in Q1 Group 2 by a wall-brushing late effort from Herta, while Max Chilton (Carlin), Jack Harvey (Meyer Shank-SPM), Matheus Leist (Foyt), Zach Veach (Andretti) and Spencer Pigot (ECR) also dropped out.

Firestone Fast Six:

Pos.	#	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	27	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	1'06.4811
2	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'06.7479	0.2668
3	12	Will Power	Team Penske	1'06.8748	0.3937
4	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	1'06.9096	0.4285
5	22	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	1'07.1877	0.7066
6	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'07.3052	0.8241

Q2:

Pos.	#	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'06.6566
2	27	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	1'06.7644	0.1078
3	22	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	1'06.9328	0.2762
4	12	Will Power	Team Penske	1'06.9620	0.3054
5	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'07.0414	0.3848
6	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	1'07.0710	0.4144
7	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	1'07.1520	0.4954
8	30	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'07.2626	0.6060
9	31	Patricio O'Ward	Carlin	1'07.2764	0.6198
10	88	Colton Herta	Harding Racing	1'07.7721	1.1155
11	98	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	1'08.3746	1.7180
12	10	Felix Rosenqvist	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'08.4410	1.7844

Q1 Group 2:

POs.	#	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	27	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	1'06.8621
2	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'07.0080	0.1459
3	22	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	1'07.1474	0.2853
4	98	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	1'07.2040	0.3419
5	88	Colton Herta	Harding Racing	1'07.2201	0.3580
6	31	Patricio O'Ward	Carlin	1'07.2620	0.3999
7	18	Sébastien Bourdais	Dale Coyne Racing	1'07.3135	0.4514
8	59	Max Chilton	Carlin	1'07.4577	0.5956
9	60	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	1'07.5287	0.6666
10	4	Matheus Leist	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1'07.7317	0.8696
11	26	Zach Veach	Andretti Autosport	1'07.7822	0.9201
12	21	Spencer Pigot	Ed Carpenter Racing	1'07.8763	1.0142

Q1 Group 1:

Pos.	#	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	30	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'07.7245
2	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	1'07.7307	0.0062
3	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	1'07.7836	0.0591
4	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'07.8102	0.0857
5	12	Will Power	Team Penske	1'08.0121	0.2876
6	10	Felix Rosenqvist	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'08.0811	0.3566
7	19	Santino Ferrucci	Dale Coyne Racing	1'08.1008	0.3763
8	5	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	1'08.1811	0.4566
9	20	Ed Jones	Ed Carpenter Racing	1'08.7711	1.0466
10	7	Marcus Ericsson	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	1'08.9516	1.2271
11	14	Tony Kanaan	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	3'22.3800	2'14.6555

GRID LINE-UP

Cla	#	Driver		Team	Time	Gap	Mph
1	27	Alexander Rossi		Andretti Autosport	1'06.4811		106.569
2	9	Scott Dixon		Chip Ganassi Racing	1'06.7479	0.2668	106.143
3	12	Will Power		Team Penske	1'06.8748	0.3937	105.941
4	2	Josef Newgarden		Team Penske	1'06.9096	0.4285	105.886
5	22	Simon Pagenaud		Team Penske	1'07.1877	0.7066	105.448
6	15	Graham Rahal		Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'07.3052	0.8241	105.264
7	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay		Andretti Autosport	1'07.1520	0.6709	105.504
8	30	Takuma Sato		Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'07.2626	0.7815	105.330
9	31	Patricio O'Ward		Carlin	1'07.2764	0.7953	105.309
10	88	Colton Herta		Harding Racing	1'07.7721	1.2910	104.539
11	98	Marco Andretti		Andretti Autosport	1'08.3746	1.8935	103.617
12	10	Felix Rosenqvist		Chip Ganassi Racing	1'08.4410	1.9599	103.517
13	19	Santino Ferrucci		Dale Coyne Racing	1'08.1008	1.6197	104.034
14	18	Sébastien Bourdais		Dale Coyne Racing	1'07.3135	0.8324	105.251
15	5	James Hinchcliffe		Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	1'08.1811	1.7000	103.911
16	59	Max Chilton		Carlin	1'07.4577	0.9766	105.026
17	20	Ed Jones		Ed Carpenter Racing	1'08.7711	2.2900	103.020
18	60	Jack Harvey		Meyer Shank Racing	1'07.5287	1.0476	104.915
19	7	Marcus Ericsson		Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	1'08.9516	2.4705	102.750
20	4	Matheus Leist		A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1'07.7317	1.2506	104.601
21	14	Tony Kanaan		A.J. Foyt Enterprises	3'22.3800	2'15.8989	35.007
22	26	Zach Veach		Andretti Autosport	1'07.7822	1.3011	104.523
23	21	Spencer Pigot		Ed Carpenter Racing	1'07.8763	1.3952	104.378