Rossi Dominates Milestone Andretti Win at Long Beach Grand Prix

Alexander Rossi may not have won the “Amazing Race” on television, but the Californian put on an amazing race Sunday at the 45th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Rossi, from Nevada City, Calif., started on the pole and led 80 of 85 laps around the 11-turn, 1.968-mile temporary street course and posted a 20.23-second victory over Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden.

It was the 200th victory for the Michael Andretti-owned Andretti Autosport across all its racing platforms. Six of those victories, in only 54 starts, have come from Rossi, whose victories also include the Indianapolis 500 as a rookie in 2016, Pocono, and iconic road courses Road America and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

“I’m so proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish in what I think is a short period of time, to get to 200,” Andretti said. “We’ve had so many great people help get us there. I was just told we had 38 different drivers that won for us over the years to get us to this point.”

It’s the 63rd Indycar victory for Andretti Autosport, which formed in 2003. In addition to Rossi, there have been victories by Indycar drivers Ryan Hunter-Reay, Takuma Sato, Carlos Munoz, James Hinchcliffe, Marco Andretti, Mike Conway, Tony Kanaan, Danica Patrick, Dario Franchitti, Bryan Herta, and Dan Wheldon.

“To do it here in Long Beach even makes it that much more special because Long Beach has always been a special place for all of us, the Andretti family,” Andretti said. “For me, I won my very first race here, and my very last race here. It’s very special. I was really happy we were able to get it done here.”

Michael may be selling short the Andretti connection with Long Beach. His father, Mario Andretti, passed Jody Scheckter three laps from the end to win the 1977 race – the third race overall – to become the first American to win a Formula One race on American soil. It put Long Beach on the map, sealed the grand prix as a fixture in the community, and sparked much of the development that is now downtown.

It’s Rossi’s second consecutive victory at Long Beach. He became the first repeat winner since Sebastien Bourdais won three in a row from 2005-07. He is the eighth driver to win more than once, a list that includes Mario and Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr., Alex Zanardi, Paul Tracy and Mike Conway. It’s pretty heavy company.

“I said yesterday, winning the pole is huge come Sunday because it allows you to hopefully be in front leaving Turn 1 and really just control the race from there,” Rossi said. “You can run your own strategy, your own pace, really dictate what the rest of the field does. We were able to do that. Obviously, you can’t do that without a fantastic crew, car, no mistakes, great strategy.”

Both of Rossi’s wins were dominant, but his performance Sunday was otherworldly. He averaged 98.794 mph as he jumped five-time and defending series champion Scott Dixon for second place in the standings. Newgarden remains atop the championship with Rossi trailing by 28 and Dixon by 33.

After Newgarden came Dixon, Graham Rahal, and Hunter-Reay to round out the top five. All but Newgarden were driving Hondas. Newgarden teammates Simon Pagenaud and Will Power were sixth and seventh in Chevrolet-powered Dallaras, followed by Sato, Hinchcliffe, rookie Felix Rosenqvist, and Bourdais. They were the only ones on the lead lap as Rossi lapped his way to 12th place.

Dixon was awarded third place after a controversial blocking penalty was assessed against Rahal on the last lap.

In spite of Rossi’s domination, there were some who said they might have had something for him had it not been for Dixon’s strategy.

“If we could have not had traffic in between us, absolutely” we could have had something for Rossi, said Power. “The worst thing that happened was Dixon started on scuffed (red Firestone alternate) tires and backed us all up, and it allowed Rossi to take off. If Dixon had started on new tires, it would have been a different story. He would have hung with Rossi and we would have been right there.”

Dixon practically admitted as much.

“We took a real gamble at the start of the race using used reds,” said Dixon, who overcame an 18-second pit stop en route to the podium. “We maybe didn’t do the right thing there.”

With Rossi pulling away from Dixon and the race going green after the third lap – there was one caution for contact between rookie Marcus Ericsson, Spencer Pigot and Jack Harvey – there was no way for anyone to stay with Rossi.

Among other notables, Mexican rookie Patricio O’Ward finished 12th and the youngest winner in IndyCar history, Valencia’s Colton Herta, finished last among 23 cars after he made contact with the wall. Tony Kanaan, who crashed head-on into the wall during qualifications on Saturday, started his record 304th consecutive race despite experiencing neck, lower back and right knee pain that arose during the night. Kanaan, walking with a noticeable limp, started 21st and finished 19th, two laps down.