Sorry for Rosenqvist, Honda at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

• Felix Rosenqvist leads Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach qualifying for Honda, Meyer Shank Racing
• Sixth pole for Rosenqvist, first NTT INDYCAR SERIES pole for Meyer Shank Racing
• Honda drivers claim eight of the top 10 qualifying positions

Felix Rosenqvist returned to Honda power in the off-season, joining Meyer Shank Racing for the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES, and has continued his impressive start to the 2024 season, scoring a dominant position in Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Rosenqvist’s position comes after a third-place finish at the non-championship Thermal Million Dollar Challenge last month, and a seventh at the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Louis.

Colton Herta, the winner of the race here in 2021, will start fourth in his Andretti Global Honda; while teammate Marcus Ericsson qualified fifth, and defending champion Alex Palou started sixth for Chip Ganassi Racing. In total, Honda drivers and teams claimed eight of the top 10 starting positions for tomorrow’s 49th race of the road race.

Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Honda Qualifying Results

R- Rookie

Quote
Felix Rosenqvist (#60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda) pole qualifier, his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES pole of 2024 and sixth career pole: “It was hard, man. To be honest, I didn’t think I had it as I did a big ‘tank tank’ coming out on Turn 5, but it worked. What was the limit, four thousandths of a second? That’s INDYCAR man. Amazing Honda power today and the entire Meyer Shank Racing team did an amazing job. Now let’s see what happens tomorrow.”

Colton’s heart (#26 Andretti Global Honda) will start four: “I am happy to start in the first two rows with the power of Honda, there is still a lot in the car that we can build on for tomorrow’s race.”

Marcus Ericsson (#28 Andretti Global Honda) five finalists: “That’s another Fast Six (last round of qualifying) for us. The car felt good, good power today, good driveability. We can definitely win from P5, so I’m happy for the race tomorrow. I can’t wait to go. race! “

Quick Things

• This weekend’s return of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES to Southern California marks the fifth year of Acura’s title sponsorship of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, and the 49th running of North America’s oldest and most successful street circuit event.

• Honda’s US racing organization, Honda Performance Development, was renamed Honda USA Racing Corporation (HRC US) in January to reflect the company’s new role in Honda’s global racing efforts. With this change, HRC US will play a larger role in Honda’s global motorsports activities.

• Honda-powered drivers and teams have won the Long Beach Grand Prix 16 times in 23 appearances. This includes wins in nine of the last 14 races; and a seven-year winning streak in the Auto Racing Teams championship, against multi-manufacturer competition, from 1996-2002.

• Honda of Long Beach’s most recent success came last year in a dominant performance from Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood, who recorded his first career INDYCAR victory from the pole, leading 53 of 85 laps.

• In addition to the Acura Grand Prix featured in the Long Beach NTT INDYCAR SERIES race on Sunday, Acura teams will compete in today’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race. Wayne Taylor Racing will present a pair of Acura ARX-06 electric prototypes challenging for overall victory in the main GTP division; while Gradient Racing will feature the Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 in the GTD category.

A Place to Watch
Television coverage of Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach begins at 3 pm EDT on USA Network. Flag-to-flag race coverage will also be available on NBC Peacock, the INDYCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation (Channel 160).