Penalty scuppers Power as Rosenqvist loses Long Beach win

The Meyer Shank Racing driver took pole position on Sunday and dominated Monday’s race until the caution came out on Lap 58 of 90 for debris.

A three-second lead vanished and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou leapfrogged Rosenqvist in the pit stop sequence.

The four-time IndyCar champion assumed the lead of the race and never looked like losing as he skipped away to a four-second win.

Palou’s teammate Scott Dixon completed the podium after a rapid final pit stop vaulted him from sixth to third.

“It was that yellow, it was that pit stop, with all the pressure that these boys were able to do it and execute it perfectly,” said Palou.

“From there, it was just managing the tyres. We didn’t know how the primaries (hard compound tyre) were going to be. Incredible to finally win here at Long Beach.”

Rosenqvist led the most laps of any driver with 51 of the 90 to his name.

“A little bit of a bittersweet race,” said Rosenqvist.

“I’m not sure exactly what happened. We lost a little bit in the stop. Alex is obviously going to be 10 out of 10 almost every stop, so I don’t think it was necessarily that our one was slow.

“Anyway, that’s how it goes.

“We’ve got to celebrate this one – P2 – lots of points, podium, that’s where we want to be.”

At the start, Rosenqvist maintained his lead over McLaren’s Pato O’Ward into Turn 1. On Lap 2, O’Ward lost out to Palou entering the first turn.

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden was the first to blink and pitted out of 12th on Lap 11 to commit to a three-stop strategy.

Rosenqvist and Palou skipped away from O’Ward in third to the tune of nearly five seconds by the time the first round of pit stops began in earnest on Lap 30 when the McLaren driver pitted.

Rosenqvist and Palou responded a lap later with most of the top 10 contenders in tow.

Once the pit stop sequence cycled out, it was Newgarden who assumed the lead of the race on his alternate three-stop strategy to the tune of 11 seconds.

Rosenqvist was second, Palou third, Kyle Kirkwood fourth, and David Malukas fifth. O’Ward slipped to sixth, Dixon to seventh, Will Power to eighth, Rinus Veekay ninth, while Scott McLaughlin was the last of the top 10 runners.

Newgarden pitted from the lead with a 17-second gap over Rosenqvist and returned to the race in 14th behind Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong.

Newgarden flat-spotted his left front tyre passing Armstrong at Turn 1, which left the champion battling a big vibration.

Caution is out for debris on the track. pic.twitter.com/PWiv0iet1y

— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) April 19, 2026

As the final round of pit stops approached, Rosenqvist’s lead over Palou extended to more than three seconds, but vanished on Lap 58 when the caution came out for debris.

On Lap 59, everyone came to the pits for their final stops. Then came the decisive moment, Palou pipped Rosenqvist while Dixon leapt from sixth to third.

Kirkwood dropped to fourth while O’Ward was fifth, Power sixth, McLaughlin seventh. Malukas was the biggest loser in the pit stop sequence as he dropped to eighth.

Alex Palou wins the race off pit road and leads at Long Beach! pic.twitter.com/vPPELX28f3

— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) April 19, 2026

Power’s hopes of a strong result were dashed when he was given a drive-through penalty for running over the foot of Caio Collet’s tyre changer. Power eventually finished 19th.

Palou led the field to green on Lap 62 and immediately skipped away from Rosenqvist.

The final stanza of the race was incident-free. Palou cruised away from Rosenqvist to win by 3.966s.

Dixon held off Kirkwood for third while O’Ward was a distant fifth. McLaughlin claimed sixth ahead of Team Penske stablemate Malukas.

Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing), Alexander Rossi (Ed Carpenter Racing), and Kyffin Simpson (Chip Ganassi Racing) completed the top 10.

With his win, Palou has returned to the top of the IndyCar Series standings by 17 points over Kirkwood.

The IndyCar Series returns on May 9 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

Results: IndyCar Series Grand Prix of Long Beach