LONG BEACH, Calif. — Entering this weekend’s 51st Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, Andretti Global was considered the team to beat.
The team lived up to that billing with two-time Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach winner Will Power the fastest driver during Friday’s practice at 1:07.6053 around the 11-turn, 1.968-mile street course in the No. 28 Honda.
“It would be very nice, but a lot of things have to go right and play out,” Power said. “As you have seen in previous years, the Andretti cars are very good here. We still have things to improve, but we’re looking good.”
Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was second fastest at 1:07.7914 in the No. 3 Honda, although his day ended with a crash in the tire barriers in Turn 9 in the split-group session.
Two-time and defending Long Beach winner Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global was third at 1:07.9861 in the No. 27 Honda.
It didn’t take long for Alex Palou to turn the fastest speed at 1:08.4489 in the No. 10 OpenAI Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Felix Rosenqvist of Meyer-Shank Racing was in hot pursuit at 1:08.5397 in the No. 60 Honda followed by Southern California hero Pato O’Ward of Monterey, Mexico at 1:08.5721 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
Forty-three minutes into the session, the red flag stopped practice for debris on the course.
The track went green with 30 seconds left in the all-cars session, allowing each driver one final lap as long as they were on track in time.
When the all-cars session ended, Palou was the fastest at 108.4489 followed by Rosenqvist’s 1:08.5347, O’Ward’s 1:08.5721, Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin’s 1:08.6805 in the No. 3 Chevrolet and teammate David Malukas’ 1:08.7290 in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet.
Marcus Armstrong of Meyer Shank Racing gave his explanation of practice as the ninth fastest in the No. 66 Honda.
“We didn’t do a lot of running, a lot of traffic, but the black tires feel pretty robust and the grip feels OK,” Armstrong said. “We’re going to put the Reds on now and go loads quicker, so we’ll see.
“It’s quite nice to jump out of the car, have a breather, go to the bathroom, it’s all good.”
The field was split into two groups for two practice sessions afterwards.
Group B was first on the track for the split session.
Two-time and defending winner Kyle Kirkwood was the fastest at 1:07.9861 before Andretti Global teammate Will Power took the top spot at 1:07.8428 in the No. 28 Honda.
Power went even faster on a second push lap, upping the speed to 1:07.6053. Former teammate Scott McLaughlin moved into the second position in the group session at 1:07.791 with Kirkwood third.
That was just before McLaughlin stuffed his Chevrolet into the tire barriers in Turn 9 with less than 1:10 left in the session to stop the action with another Red Flag.
McLaughlin reported that the car denied him to downshift after his car began to spin. He was able to get out of the car by himself as the AMR Safety Team put his damaged Team Penske Chevrolet onto the hook to tow it off track.
“I felt like I got a denied downshift,” McLaughlin explained. “It was a bit unfortunate, going in there, you’re committing pretty high. Looking back on it now, I probably should have. Looking back on it now, I probably didn’t have as much time because it was sliding for a long time. I grabbed a gear and it just locked the rear tires, and I was a bit of a passenger.
“The car was super good. I was just trying to test those AAA tow trucks and figure if we could get some help; they were right there on the job. Excited for the AAA Travel Team Chevy. We’ve got a rocket ship this weekend; it’s just a matter of putting it together.”
Just as the all-cars session ended with one lap out of the pits, so did the Group B split session.
When the session ended, Power was on top at 1:07.6053.
Power was followed by McLaughlin’s 1:07.7914, Kirkwood’s 1:07.9861, Marcus Ericsson’s No. 27 Honda for Andretti Global at 1:08.1932 and Rosenqvist at 1:08.2306.
“It seems like we had speed out of the gate and that is always promising,” Rosenqvist said. “We’re rolling pretty good so far.”
In the final group of the split session, Kyffin Simpson of Chip Ganassi Racing was the early pacesetter at 1:08.659 in the No. 8 Sunoco Honda followed by Nolan Siegel’s No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet at 1:08.834 with five minutes left in the session.
With 3:05 left, Palou went out on a push lap, and it paid off with the fastest time of 1:08.002. Armstrong was second at 1:08.121 followed by Christian Lundgaard’s No. 7 Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren at 1:08.246, Scott Dixon’s No. 9 PNC Bank Honda at 1:08.368 for Chip Ganassi Racing and Alexander Rossi’s No. 20 ECR Chevrolet at 1:08.470.
Palou was the fastest driver of that session, but the Andretti Global drivers were the fastest of the day with two-time Acura Grand Prix driver Power on top.