Everything to Know for INDYCAR’s 42nd Annual Visit to Long Beach

LONG BEACH, Calif — The 2026 INDYCAR schedule has some shiny new street venues. Racing along the streets of Arlington around the home of the Dallas Cowboys. Racing along the streets of Washington, D.C., around some of the most recognizable national landmarks. And as those shiny new venues create a spotlight, here comes the Long Beach Grand Prix, which can puff out its chest and its iconic fountain turn and scenic Shoreline Drive. This place can boast something the others don’t — 41 years of INDYCAR history. This event has regularly been recognized as the second-biggest event on the INDYCAR circuit behind the Indy 500. During the years of the split, this was arguably the biggest race on the CART calendar. “This place has been it for many years,” Graham Rahal, who will make his 19th start at Long Beach, told me Thursday. “On the [CART] Champ Car side, this race and Surfer’s Paradise [in Australia] were kind of it, and that is still the case today. “Other than Indy, this place always carries the weight. It’s pretty awesome for sure.” This 1.968-mile, 11-turn street course will see 90 laps of INDYCAR racing Sunday, with FOX coverage beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET, following the NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway. There are five drivers among the 25 in the field who have won at Long Beach. “This is still one of the major … races of the year,” two-time race winner and six-time INDYCAR champion Scott Dixon told me Thursday. “[This race] has 40 years of longevity, typically always the same date, and that’s huge. “Arlington set a new standard with attention to detail, the track condition, the hospitality, all that stuff, was definitely next level.” Here’s what to know about the Long Beach weekend. Besides Dixon, who are the other past Long Beach winners in the field? Dixon, Alexander Rossi, Will Power and last year’s winner Kyle Kirkwood — who currently leads the series championship standings — have all won twice at the track. Josef Newgarden has won once. Rossi, notably, was inducted into the track’s “Walk of Fame” on Thursday. Rossi — a California native — had several family members there for the induction. The ECR driver, who won at Long Beach in 2018 and 2019, admitted it is a little weird to be enshrined like that while he still hopes to race for several more years and add to his number of wins. “It’s very cool [to be honored],” Rossi told me after the ceremony. “I think it’s a good reminder to put some things into perspective. “But ultimately, it’s also weird when you’re still doing it. So I hope I have to make their life difficult, and they have to add some years [to the plaque].” What it has taken to be good at Long Beach in recent years is the same as over the last couple of decades, Rossi said. “This race has always been fairly straightforward from a tire life and strategy standpoint,” Rossi said. “The track has stayed very consistent from a surface architecture. It has been resurfaced in some areas, but ultimately, but it’s still the same racetrack as it was when I won here six years ago. “So really, it’s up to me and the team to execute in order to get back to Victory Lane.” Can Former Pole Sitter Felix Rosenqvist Turn Season Around? Felix Rosenqvist sat on the pole at Long Beach in 2024, and he’s hoping this track being a good one for him will be the place where he can have a rebound race in 2026. Rosenqvist hasn’t finished better than 12th in the opening four races. He finished fourth at Long Beach a year ago. “It’s been a little bit of a rough start for us. So nice to come back here to a track, where, normally, when I come here, I know that I can be quick,” Rosenqvist told me Thursday. The Meyer Shank Racing No. 60 car driver, who will have a Green Day-themed paint scheme as part of his organization’s SiriusXM partnership, said the team has improved in some areas. “We’ve actually improved everything we wanted to improve — which is pit stops and strategy and just the small details have been really good,” Rosenqvist said. “We just haven’t really had much speed, which has never really been a problem previously.” What are the qualifying rules for the final round? Oh yes, the always changing rules for the Fast Six, the final round of qualifying where the top-six drivers from the second round duke it out for the pole. After the first street race of the season, INDYCAR experimented with instead of a timed round where drivers could make as many laps as possible to post a fast time, it opted for single-car, single-lap runs. That worked well except the driver slowest among the six in the previous round went out first in the final round and appeared to have an advantage. [DRIVER’S EYE: How drivers navigate Long Beach’s unique 11-turn track] So at Long Beach, INDYCAR will allow the fastest driver from the second round to choose when he will go out in the Fast Six, and then the second-fastest will get to choose his spot and so on. That makes where a driver finishes in the second round possibly important because if you can be the fastest (instead of worrying about just being in the top-six), you have the advantage of choice in the order for the final round. Anything else unique about the street course rules? Teams and drivers are getting used to the new rule this year that they must use at minimum two sets instead of one set of the alternate soft tires during a street race. What have they learned? It isn’t always clear-cut strategy that will work for all drivers. “It’s been very split throughout the field who believes in the alternates,” Christian Lundgaard, driver of the No. 7 car for Arrow McLaren said during a virtual news conference this week. “Obviously, I think that depends a lot on car setup, how your car is treating the tires. “We see cars that are more abusive to the tires and more cars that are nicer to the tires. You see different strategies in the race.” The strategy at Long Beach likely will be to come in and change tires twice, using two sets of the alternate soft tires and one set of the hard primary tires during the race. But if a driver punishes the tires too much, a third stop will be necessary to use four sets of tires overall during the event. “The [alternate] needs to have a higher degrade to it,” Dixon told me. “They’re both pretty consistent. “That could really switch up how this weekend rolls because it now makes the two-stopper very achievable [because the alternates last longer]. Because last year, that just wasn’t a possibility from the longevity of the of the soft tire. This one could get super interesting.” Who are the favorites? Kirkwood — who drives the No. 27 car for Andretti Global, a team known for its street-course prowess — has won the last two races so he is going to be the favorite. And then Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou because, well, he’s Alex Palou and he’s won 10 of the last 21 INDYCAR events. If anyone is going to catch those two, it could be Lundgaard, who finished third at Long Beach a year ago behind Kirkwood and Palou. The Arrow McLaren driver also finished second to Palou in the most recent INDYCAR race a few weeks ago at Barber Motorsports Park. You can see more of my thoughts on predictions by reading this on the FOX Sports Super 6 contest for Long Beach. OK, enough about Long Beach, what about Indy 500 entries? That will be a topic of discussion in the garage and it is becoming pretty clear that there will be 33 entries. There have been 31 announced entries and the other two most likely will be Jacob Abel and Katherine Legge. Legge’s manager Klint Briney confirmed that Legge’s entry is possible. “We’re working hard behind the scenes to get Katherine back in the Indy 500 field this year after missing 2025,” he told me. “She certainly brings a unique story and perspective to the grid.” Having 33 cars is a mixed bag because that means no drama on bump day, but for the drivers who could be on the bubble, that is something that at least allows them to breathe. “God bless, I’ll sleep a lot better,” said Rahal, who was the last driver to make it in on the first day of qualifying last year and was the last driver to make the 2024 field, when he was told it will likely be 33 entries. “I’ve never been a fan of guaranteed entries, … but what I hope people understand is it isn’t an indication of where the sport is at. “It’s not easy to get cars and it’s not easy to get engines.”