Felix Rosenqvist claimed the NTT P1 Award for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach with a lap of 1:07.4635 in the No. 60 SiriusXM/Acura Honda for Meyer Shank Racing, earning his seventh career pole. Pato O’Ward qualified second at 1:07.5076 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, just 0.0441 seconds off pole. Reigning four-time champion Alex Palou starts third at 1:07.5289, series leader Kyle Kirkwood fourth at 1:07.6199, David Malukas fifth at 1:07.6508, and Scott Dixon rounds out the Firestone Fast Six in sixth at 1:07.8566.
IndyCar Long Beach Qualifying 2026 Fast 6 Results
P1 Felix Rosenqvist, No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda, 1:07.4635
P2 Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, 1:07.5076
P3 Alex Palou, No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, 1:07.5289
P4 Kyle Kirkwood, No. 27 Andretti Global Honda, 1:07.6199
P5 David Malukas, No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet, 1:07.6508
P6 Scott Dixon, No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, 1:07.8566
The wider context for the weekend, including the title fight between Kirkwood and Palou and the impact of the new qualifying format, was already building heading into Long Beach.
Key Points: IndyCar Long Beach Qualifying 2026
- Rosenqvist poles at 1:07.4635 in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda. Seventh career pole, MSR’s second ever at Long Beach, part of a same-day IMSA/IndyCar double for the team
- O’Ward P2 at 1:07.5076. His best qualifying result at Long Beach. 0.044 seconds off pole. Went last in the Fast Six to benefit from delta times and track progression
- Palou P3, Kirkwood P4. Two points between them in the championship. Both laps compromised by mistakes at the hairpin and through the final sector
- Dixon P6 knocks Power to P7 with a late Q2 third sector. McLaughlin P8. Armstrong misses the Fast 12 by 0.003 seconds after a hairpin bobble, starts 13th
- Grosjean and Siegel both crashed in practice, both rebuilt in time to qualify. Start 23rd and 25th respectively
- Single-car Fast Six used for the second time on a street course. Fastest Q2 driver chose run order for the first time, a change from Arlington
How the Session Unfolded
Andretti came in as favourites. Will Power was fastest in Practice 1. Kirkwood led Practice 2. Neither of them made the front two rows.
Group 1 of Q1 set the tone early. Rosenqvist went fastest at 1:07.469, nearly two tenths clear of O’Ward, with Malukas, Lundgaard, McLaughlin and VeeKay completing the six who advanced.
Marcus Armstrong, quickest of the MSR pair in practice, was seventh in his group, 0.003 seconds behind VeeKay. That margin, lost at a bobble on the final hairpin, cost him a Fast 12 place. He starts 13th. Marcus Ericsson also went out in Group 1, starting deep in the field.
Group 2 had its own story. Dixon put in a lap quick enough to go fastest in the group. Palou and Power advanced alongside him, as did Kirkwood, Simpson and Rahal. Newgarden missed the cut by less than two hundredths. He starts outside the top 12.
Q2 was where the grid really took shape. Dixon and Rosenqvist led after the first runs. Then on new reds, Palou went quickest before Malukas beat him. Kirkwood, O’Ward and Dixon also advanced. The final spot came down to McLaughlin edging Power by the narrowest of margins in the closing seconds. Power, fastest in Practice 1 and one of the circuit’s all-time great qualifiers, starts seventh. McLaughlin eighth.
Rosenqvist Delivers When It Mattered
Meyer Shank Racing had already won a race before IndyCar qualifying began. Their IMSA car took pole and victory earlier in the day, completing a same-day double at the same venue. The session also used the new single-car, single-lap Firestone Fast Six format for the second time on a street course, with the fastest Q2 driver choosing run order for the first time.
Rosenqvist came out third in the Fast Six, put down a 1:07.4635, and then had to sit and watch as Kirkwood, Dixon and O’Ward tried to beat him. None of them did.
MSR made significant setup changes going into qualifying, nailed their tyre preparation on the first run, and Rosenqvist said the car was dialled in from the start. Malukas, who led Q2, chose to go first in the shootout. In Arlington, Marcus Ericsson went first and took pole. Malukas knew that. He managed only fifth. Rosenqvist, going third, put in the lap that held.
“That was nerve-wracking to watch. My old buddy Pato there at the end, that was close. That was a good lap.”
Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank Racing
He said he did not feel great about the final corner. Timing showed he gained the time there anyway. Palou had locked up. O’Ward said his hairpin was poor. The margins at Long Beach in a one-lap shootout are that fine.
The pole matters beyond Sunday. Rosenqvist is 14th in the championship after four rounds. MSR said they needed a turnaround this weekend. An IMSA win, an IndyCar pole and a front row start is about as complete a turnaround as a team gets in a single afternoon.
O’Ward: A Different Driver at Long Beach
Pato O’Ward has historically struggled at Long Beach. Average qualifying position of 9.5 coming in. One top-ten finish in six starts. He said he had been sick of underperforming here and told his engineer before the weekend that he knew he could be strong at this circuit.
The issue was not new. Christian Lundgaard had already pointed to Saturdays as the problem in the pre-event press conference. Arrow McLaren brought what he described as a new approach. It worked immediately. He was quick in Group 1, advanced comfortably through Q2, and then in the Fast Six went last by choice, wanting the delta times from every driver ahead to set his lap against.
“Feels good to be a bit more in attack mode rather than defense.”
Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren
His lap danced back and forth on the timing screen as each sector came in. He lost time at the hairpin and finished 0.044 seconds off pole. A cleaner final corner and O’Ward is on pole. Instead, he starts alongside it.
O’Ward sits 50 points behind Kirkwood in the championship after four rounds. He needs a strong Sunday to stay relevant to the title fight. The qualifying result says the tools are there.
Palou, Kirkwood and the Championship Picture
Two points separate Kirkwood and Palou at the top of the standings. They start P4 and P3, at a circuit where Kirkwood won last year from pole and has led the last three Long Beach races.
Palou had a brilliant lap for 99% of it, then locked the left front at the hairpin. He still did 1:07.528 and held third. Chip Ganassi put three cars into Q2 and two into the Fast Six. That is not an operation having a bad day, even if the pole slipped at the final corner.
Kirkwood’s lap told a similar story. A slide at Turn 4, a wall graze at Turn 8, a messy Turn 10. He did 1:07.619 and starts fourth. The defending winner. The series leader. He knows this circuit. Starting from the second row is not the problem. Dropping points to Palou, Rosenqvist or O’Ward over 90 laps would be.
Dixon Back in the Mix, Power Out of Position
Scott Dixon qualifying sixth matters. First Fast Six since St. Petersburg in March 2025. He produced a heroic third sector in Q2 to pip Power to the final Fast Six spot, then ran 1:07.856 in the shootout. Not pole pace, but Dixon in the top six at Long Beach, a circuit where he has won twice, is a factor on Sunday.
Power starts seventh. Fastest in Practice 1, strong all weekend, knocked out of the Fast Six by Dixon’s late Q2 lap. McLaughlin takes eighth alongside him. Penske are not out of this race. They are out of position, which at Long Beach is a different and more specific problem.
Simpson starts ninth after a strong Group 2 run. Ganassi’s depth across their three-car entry was one of the cleaner stories of the session.
The Incidents and the Rebuilds
Two cars that probably should not have made qualifying did. Grosjean crashed in practice, the Dale Coyne Racing crew rebuilt the car in time, and he qualified 23rd. Nolan Siegel also crashed in practice and came back to start 25th in the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Both were well off the pace but both were on the grid. The concrete walls at Long Beach left fresh marks on almost every car through the session. Nobody went in hard enough to end their day, this time.
Notable Grid Positions and Qualifying Results: IndyCar Long Beach Qualifying 2026
P7 Will Power, No. 26 Andretti Global Honda
P8 Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet
P9 Kyffin Simpson, No. 2 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
P13 Marcus Armstrong, No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda
P23 Romain Grosjean, No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda
P25 Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet
Coffee Corner Take
Meyer Shank Racing had a day where everything landed: IMSA pole and win in the morning, IndyCar pole in the afternoon. The question is whether Rosenqvist can finally convert. Seven poles. One win. He knows the stat. He said race pace has been the singular off-season focus. Sunday is the test.
O’Ward at P2 is arguably the more significant result for the championship. He came in having historically struggled at this circuit, brought a completely revised setup, and looked comfortable throughout. If Arrow McLaren have genuinely found something here, and the lap time says they have, he is going to be a problem for Kirkwood and Palou for 90 laps.
Power at seventh is the quiet story from a session that looked like it was set up for Andretti. Fastest in practice, one of the best qualifiers this series has ever produced, knocked out of the Fast Six by Dixon’s closing lap in Q2. McLaughlin alongside him in eighth. Penske are not out of this race but they are starting from exactly the wrong place at a circuit that punishes it.
The defending winner and the championship leader start third and fourth. The front row belongs to two drivers who needed this result badly. Ninety laps to sort it out. From the front. Or just behind it.
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