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The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will be the 39th Indy car race at an event that started with a Formula 5000 race as the headliner in 1975, and then hosted eight Formula 1 races before switching to CART Indy car in 1984.
Last year, Josef Newgarden of Team Penske outmaneuvered the faster Andretti Autosport car of Romain Grosjean to claim his first Long Beach win. Other former Long Beach winners in the field include Will Power (2008 and ’12), Alexander Rossi (2018 and ’19), Helio Castroneves (2001), Takuma Sato (2013), Scott Dixon (2015), Simon Pagenaud (2016) and Colton Herta (2021).
The most number of wins at the venue is six, held by Al Unser Jr., yet while it is often said that qualifying is hugely important at Long Beach, the pole-winner has gone on to win the race just 10 ti …