LONG BEACH — Taking advantage of a well-timed caution and a lightning-quick pit stop, Alex Palou, driver of the No. 10 OpenAI Chip Ganassi Honda, captured the win in Sunday’s 51st Annual Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

“It’s huge,” said Palou, 29 of Spain. “I am super proud of everybody’s job, but especially this crew. It is incredible to finally win here at Long Beach.”

Palou found himself in unfamiliar territory heading into race. With four NTT IndyCar Series championships since 2021, including the last three years straight, Palou entered the weekend trailing Kyle Kirkwood, driver of the No. 27 JM Bullion/Gold.com Honda for Andretti Global, in the 2026 standing after four races.

Felix Rosenqvist, driving the No. 60 SiriusXM/Acura Honda fielded by Meyer Shank Racing, was the surprise winner of the NTT P1 Award in Saturday’s qualifying by turning a lap of 1 minute, 7.4635 seconds on the 11-turn, 1.968-mile temporary Long Beach street circuit to just edge out Pato O’Ward’s effort of 1:07.5076 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Palou and Kirkwood, a two-time Long Beach winner and defending race champion, made up the second row of the 25-car grid.

The Swede was in complete control of the race from the green flag, leading the first 31 laps, while Palou tried to stay with him after disposing of O’Ward going into Turn 1on Lap 2 of the 90-lap race. Rosenqvist and Palou both pitted for the first time at the end of Lap 31, with the MSR pitcrew getting Rosenqvist out of the pits first, as both drivers started their second fuel stint with their mandatory second set of Firestone alternate “red” tires.

Josef Newgarden, driving the No. 2 Astemo Chevrolet of Penske Racing, was able to briefly take the lead for five laps in the middle of the race by opting for a three stop strategy, while most of the front runners elected to try and make it with two stops. However, the former two-time Indy 500 winner was never in serious contention for the win as the pit stop tactics played out, eventually finishing well down in 14th position.

Rosenqvist steadily built a 3-second lead over Palou and seemed to be on his way to his second career win when a piece of debris off the body of another car brought out the only caution of the race on Lap 57.

Rosenqvist’s hard-earned lead quickly disappeared as the pack lined up behind the pace car, and when the pits were opened two laps later, the entire field pitted for their final stop, where both drivers took four primary Firestone tires and enough fuel to finish the race. Rosenqvist’s crew completed his stop in 8.4 seconds, but Palou’s crew flawlessly executed an even faster stop in just 7.3 seconds, to beat Rosenqvist out of the pits by a single car length.

“That caution saved us. It would have been very, very tough to get him because Felix was very fast today. It was all about patience, trying to manage the tires, the fuel and waiting for the right time,” Palou said. “The team gave us this win today with that pit stop. Without it I would probably not be here.”

When the race restarted on Lap 61, Palou found the harder primary tires to be very much to his liking as he pulled away from Rosenqvist and the rest of the pack, quickly building a 2.4-second lead by Lap 68 before expanding his advantage to 5.5 seconds with 12 laps remaining. After conserving his car over the final laps, Palou cruised to the checkered flag just under 4 seconds ahead of Rosenqvist.

“This is a little bit of a bittersweet race,” lamented Rosenqvist, who led a race-high 51 laps and earned his first podium finish since placing second in June 2025 at Road America. “I lost a little bit on the stop. That’s how it goes. At the end of the day, we’ve got to celebrate this one. P2, plus the points and podium – that’s where I want to be.”

New Zealand’s Scott Dixon, Palou’s teammate and driver of the No. 9 PNC Honda, was also able to take advantage of the final pit stop to gain three positions and take the final spot on the podium while Kirkland and O’Ward rounded out the top five.

The victory was Palou’s first at the historic Long Beach race and his 11th victory in the last 22 races, which includes three wins in five starts in 2026. Palou has now amassed an incredible 22 career wins and 48 podium finishes in just 103 IndyCar races.

As the NTT IndyCar Series heads to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Month of May for the Sonsio GP road course race on May 9 and the 110th running of the Indy 500 on May 24, Palou has reclaimed the top spot in the season standings, holding a 17-point advantage over Kirkwood.