Scott Dixon admitted he’s struggled to string together a complete qualifying effort this season.

On a sun-splashed afternoon in Southern California, he delivered his best result yet, earning a sixth-place start in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda for Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Finding that pace began with Chip Ganassi Racing’s approach in Friday’s opening practice.

“Yesterday, we tried something a little bit different setup for the whole group, just something we’ve been working on in the sim,” Dixon said.

The team also made a subtle but impactful change this weekend by turning off Dixon’s in-car lap time display. Team advisor Dario Franchitti, performance director Chris Simmons and race engineer Brad Goldberg believed Dixon spent too much time monitoring data on his steering wheel and wanted him focused solely on extracting pace.

The move paid off at the end of the second round of qualifying. On his final lap, Dixon (photo, top) beat Will Power by a scant .0738 of a second, gaining an edge with a strong launch out of the final corner to bump Power from the final group and earn his first Firestone Fast Six appearance since March 2025 at St. Petersburg.

He did it without knowing exactly where he stood on that lap.

“No, actually,” Dixon said. “They’ve turned off my cumulative, so I can’t see my splits because they think I focus too much on that. This is the first time I’ve run without it. Maybe that’s a good thing.”

Six-time series champion Dixon has made a habit of charging forward on race day, gaining eight positions at Phoenix Raceway, 12 at Arlington and six at Barber Motorsports Park.

His experience also shaped a key strategy call today in qualifying. In the second round, Dixon elected to stay on a used set of Firestone Firehawk alternate tires that he used in the first round rather than switch to the primary compound to begin the session, a common approach.

“We were talking about keeping those because we just did the one push lap on that set,” Dixon said. “We obviously wanted to make sure that we made it to the Fast Six.

“The team wanted to go black, red in Q2, but I pushed for red, red so we could make the Fast Six. It was a smooth day for us and a lot better than where we’ve been starting.”

Dixon is a two-time Long Beach winner, the most recent in 2024.

Palou Pushes, Dixon Plays It Safe in Fast Six

Chip Ganassi Racing rolls off strong for Sunday’s 90-lap race (5:30 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX One, FOX Sports app, FOX Deportes, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls), with three cars near the front. Alex Palou (photo, above) starts third in the No. 10 OpenAI Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, Dixon sixth and Kyffin Simpson ninth in the No. 8 Sunoco Honda.

Simpson’s ninth-place effort marks his best career start at Long Beach, continuing a consistent weekend for the sophomore driver.

Palou and Dixon arrived at their starting spots in very different ways during the Firestone Fast Six.

Palou entered the final round as a favorite for the NTT P1 Award but overcooked his lap entering the tight Turn 11 hairpin, locking up and losing time.

“I was just trying to push to get the pole,” Palou said. “Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. I just went a little too deep and kind of lost everything there.”

Despite the missed opportunity, Palou remains a strong contender Sunday. He has yet to win at Long Beach but owns five consecutive top-five finishes at the circuit. He enters the fifth race of the season second in points, trailing Kyle Kirkwood by two.

Kirkwood, who starts fourth alongside Palou in the No. 27 JM Bullion/Gold.com Andretti Global Honda, has had the upper hand recently. He won last year’s Long Beach race and topped Palou in the most recent street course event March 15 at Arlington.

Dixon, meanwhile, took the opposite approach in the Fast Six. With just one timed lap to decide the pole, he opted for caution, prioritizing a clean run over maximum attack.

“Struggled to get the front tires to turn on for that one lap,” Dixon said. “Just a little bit cautious not to lock up.”

The result was sixth on the grid, though Dixon believes more pace was available.

“Starting sixth, we can definitely win from there,” he said.

Felix Rosenqvist Pato O'Ward

O’Ward Tried Something New in Long Beach…It’s Working

Pato O’Ward starts second in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, marking his best qualifying effort in seven starts at Long Beach. His previous best was sixth in 2023.

O’Ward (photo, above, right) admitted he didn’t expect to be this competitive entering the weekend. He had an average finish at Long Beach of 15th.

“It’s great when you come in with zero expectations and end up blowing them out of the water,” O’Ward said. “This has been one of the toughest tracks for me in the past. I’d say Toronto has been at the top in terms of difficulty and challenge, but we turned that around last year (in his win).

“Coming into this year, there was a big emphasis. I told my engineer and the No. 5 team, ‘I’m sick and tired of struggling here.’ I know I can be strong.

“We’ve brought something completely new, and it’s clearly working. I’m so much more comfortable. It feels like a completely different car -- which it pretty much is. Hats off to the team for giving me the tools to make that happen. It’s amazing how much more you enjoy it when you’re running up front.”

O’Ward enters the weekend sixth in points, with three top-five finishes in four starts.

Winning Strategy

Tire strategy could again shape Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, but the variables look different than 2025.

Last season’s race expanded from 85 to 90 laps. The extra distance, combined with a high wear from the Firestone Firehawk alternate tire, pushed the event from a two-stop into a three-stop race. This year, the distance remains 90 laps, but Firestone’s revised alternate compound is designed for lower wear. Teams are also required to use one set of primary tires and two sets of alternates for at least two laps each, a rule not in place last season.

That raises a key question: Does the race trend back toward two stops, or do teams still lean into aggressive three-stop strategies?

“I think the cool part about this race is that both of them are doable, so it'll be fun,” Palou said.

Many drivers agreed that there is a strong potential to see a Long Beach race Sunday with varying pit strategies.

Recent history offers mixed signals. Three of the last four Long Beach winners started on alternate tires, except for Dixon in 2024, who won from eighth on primaries using a strategy that flipped the field. From 2022-24, podium finishers largely executed two-stop races, with pit windows forming consistently between Laps 22-30 for the first stop and Laps 51-57 for the final stop.

That changed in 2025, when the longer race and higher tire wear triggered early pit cycles and a clear three-stop race, with front-runners committing as early as Laps 6-7.

Even with shifting strategies, one constant remains: Primary tires are typically favored for closing stints, with alternates used early to gain track position. Whether the reduced wear this year keeps teams on a more traditional two-stop approach -- or still invites aggressive undercuts – will be one of the defining strategic storylines Sunday.

Malukas, WWTR Owner Deliver Business Insights to Students

Students in the Rawlings Sports Business Management Program at Maryville University in St. Louis got a first-hand look at motorsports this week during a campus visit from NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver David Malukas and World Wide Technology Raceway owner Curtis Francois.

Malukas, in town to promote the June 6–7 Bommarito Automotive Group 500, shared insights on his path to INDYCAR, the importance of sponsorships and building a personal brand, while Francois discussed transforming the raceway into a multi-series venue and driver of economic impact to the region.

About 30 students attended the session, which included a question-and-answer period, with several set to gain hands-on experience as volunteers during race weekend at WWTR.

Odds and Ends

  • A Chip Ganassi Racing driver has finished third in six of the last seven Long Beach races. The team placed three cars inside the top nine on Sunday’s starting grid.
  • Andretti Global has produced the second-place finisher in two of the last three years and has two drivers starting inside the top seven.
  • Marcus Ericsson entered the weekend averaging a 1.5 starting position across the first two street races but will line up a disappointing 15th in the No. 28 Allegra Honda of Andretti Global.
  • Honda has won seven of the last eight Long Beach races and swept the podium twice in the past three years. Still, two Chevrolet-powered cars (O’Ward in second, Malukas fifth) are inside the top five on the starting grid.
  • Christian Lundgaard (No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet) climbed from 12th to third here last year behind Kirkwood and Palou and charged from 10th to second in the most recent race at Barber Motorsports Park. He starts 11th Sunday.
  • Attendance has exceeded expectations so far this weekend. The last two years featured record race day crowds -- more than 194,000 in 2024 and 200,000 last year – and trends point toward another strong turnout Sunday.