This weekend’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is loaded with drivers who have excelled on the famed Southern California street circuit.

Will Power, Scott Dixon, Alexander Rossi and Kyle Kirkwood each have won a pair of NTT INDYCAR SERIES races on the 11-turn, 1.968-mile course. Josef Newgarden also has been to victory lane there in this series.

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Alex Palou, Christian Lundgaard, Marcus Ericsson, Romain Grosjean and Graham Rahal are among the other drivers who have stood on the podium in past events. Palou and Lundgaard joined Kirkwood there a year ago.

In other words, nearly half the field has celebrated there in the past and surely believe they have a chance to do so again this weekend. So, let’s get right to it.

Kyle Kirkwood

Kirkwood Leads Andretti Global’s Way

Andretti Global has won six of the past 14 street races in the series, with Kirkwood (photo, above) winning five of them. Two of those victories have come in this event (2023, 2025).

The series points leader won both Long Beach races from the pole. He also won one of this year’s other street races, the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington, and he finished fourth in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Kirkwood’s teammates are Power, who won two Long Beach races with Team Penske, and Ericsson, who finished third in the 2023 race as a Chip Ganassi Racing driver.

Andretti Global has won three of the past four NTT P1 Awards in the event and six poles overall. Its other Long Beach race winners were Ryan Hunter-Reay (2010), Mike Conway (2011), Rossi (2018, 2019) and Colton Herta (2021). Rossi is the only one of these drivers in the field, and he is employed by ECR.

Top Three Were Last Year’s Top Three

After four NTT INDYCAR SERIES races, the top three in the standings are Kirkwood, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Palou and Arrow McLaren’s Lundgaard. Those also were their positions in last year’s Long Beach race (photo, top).

Kirkwood led 46 of the 90 laps en route to capturing his second Long Beach victory in three years, and he started both races from the No. 1 position. He has led each of the past three Long Beach races, including 53 laps in his 2023 victory. In 2022, Kirkwood reached the second round of qualifying in a car fielded by AJ Foyt Racing, and he finished 10th.

Long Beach is one of the few events that Palou hasn’t won, but he has finished on the podium in three of the past four visits. He was second last year and third in 2022 and 2024.

Lundgaard’s only series win came on a street circuit (Toronto in 2023). He finished third in the season-opening race on the St. Petersburg streets.

In the current standings, Kirkwood leads Palou by two points, and he has a 35-point advantage on Lundgaard.

Scott Dixon

Dixon is Fond of Long Beach

Chip Ganassi Racing’s six-time series champion Dixon (photo, above) enters the weekend with one of his best chances to score his 60th career victory. Only A.J. Foyt (67 wins) has reached that plateau.

It took Dixon a while to get the hang of the Long Beach circuit – his average finish in his first eight races was 15.0 – but he has made up for it in recent years.

Dixon finished second in 2016 and was third in 2019 and 2021. He won for a second time in 2024 in classic Dixon fashion, using experience and pace to hold off Herta, Palou and Newgarden in the late going. That performance was a classic case of fuel conservation while maintaining the lead of the race, an artform Dixon has mastered.

Dixon finished eighth in last year’s race.

Pato O'Ward

O’Ward Could Use Good Result

One prominent name that hasn’t been addressed here is Pato O’Ward (photo, above), and that’s because the Arrow McLaren driver has usually not left Long Beach with a good result.

O’Ward has made six series starts in the event, earning only one top-10 finish (fifth in 2021). His other results: 12th, 27th, 17th, 16th and 13th. That’s an overall average of 15.0.

His average Long Beach qualifying position: 9.5.

O’Ward needs a strong result to stay in touch with the series leaders, who after four races have nearly a full-race advantage on last year’s series runner-up. O’Ward trails Kirkwood by 50 points and Palou by 48. His point total ranks sixth, three positions behind teammate Lundgaard (35 points out of the series lead).

Firestone Fast Six Changes

The final round of qualifying will take on new elements Saturday (6:30 p.m. ET, FS1, FOX One, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls).

The updated format for the remaining four street circuit events includes single-car, single-lap runs in the Firestone Fast Six by the six participating drivers. The driver with the quickest lap time in the second round will get first choice of qualifying position in the final round.

Teams also will make tire selections as the drama unfolds during the live broadcast.

The move to single-car Fast Six qualifying is designed to create a greater opportunity to spotlight and translate the challenge and expertise required by INDYCAR SERIES teams and drivers competing for the top positions on the starting grid.

The traditional “knockout” format of the first two rounds of qualifying remains the same as in past events.

Coverage of Sunday’s 90-lap Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, the fifth round of the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship, begins at 5:30 p.m. ET on FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX One, the FOX Sports app and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls.