Alexander Rossi believes IndyCar’s Long Beach Grand Prix would produce more exciting races if the distance was extended.
Since 2017 the race has run to 85 laps (269 kilometres), a distance it previously ran to from 2009 to 2012. Rossi believes this length leads teams to use similar refuelling strategies which creates processional racing.
“Qualifying [at every race] is very critical, but especially Long Beach because when it works out, it’s a pretty straightforward two-stop race,” explained Rossi ahead of IndyCar’s annual visit to the track this weekend.
“There’s not many yellows, it’s a pretty clean race, historically speaking. So the leader doesn’t really get hung out by a closed pit situation type of thing.
“Everyone’s kind of just flat out from the drop of the green, and the tyre life’s usually pretty good there,” he added. “There’s not a whole lot of strategy or saving, like different fuel [strategies]. It’s just everyone does the same thing, so you can push pretty hard from the green.”
This puts the onus on drivers making passes on-track rather than depending on pit strategies, as is often the case in other street races where caution periods can be more common.
Nonetheless the race has produced surprise results. Two years ago, when the race was unusually held at the end of the season when it returned to the schedule following a Covid-enforced absence, Colton Herta came from 14th on the grid to win.
Herta made eight on-track passes in the opening stint of the race, dropped to 21st with his first pit stop, then recovered to 15th before several drivers ahead pitted during a caution period. That lifted him up to sixth in the space of a lap, and once green flag action resumed he only took four laps to make his way into the lead.
But Rossi, a two-times winner at this track, believes a longer race distance may make the race even more exciting.
“I’m kind of in the opinion that we can make Long Beach a little bit longer, so then you can have the two options. I think some of our best races are when you’ve got guys on a fuel-save two-stop, and then other guys on a flat-out three-stop race trying to make up that pit lane difference.
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“It’s been this length for a long time, it’s put on some great shows. Colton in ‘21, where he started 14th and ended up winning and there wasn’t really any yellows that he had to help him. So if…
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