LONG BEACH, Calif. — Stop me if this sounds familiar.
In the final laps of Sunday’s (April 16) Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, Swiss-born Frenchman Romain Grosjean was closing in on the leader, an American former champion of Indy NXT. Both drivers were searching for their first win at the historic Southern California street circuit and Grosjean was on the back foot, unable to use as much push to pass as he’d like. As the laps ticked by, he watched out the aeroscreen as someone else took the twin checkered flags on Shoreline Drive.
For the second year in a row, despite his very best efforts, Grosjean came up just one position short. He’ll celebrate another NTT IndyCar Series podium, but will have to wait at least a few more weeks for his first IndyCar win. Agonizingly, the 2011 GP2 (now Formula 2) feature race at the Hungaroring is his most recent first-place finish in any form of motorsports.
In 2022, Grosjean lost Long Beach to Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden. In 2023, he followed his Andretti Autosport teammate Kyle Kirkwood home.
Again, Romain is the runner-up.
It’s a third consecutive heartbreak to start the season for the former Renault, Lotus and Haas F1 wheelman. On the streets of St. Petersburg, late-race contact with Scott McLaughlin took both drivers out of a battle for the lead. A strong top-five run last time out at Texas Motor Speedway ended with a spin into the wall and a caution that handed the win to Newgarden. Now in Long Beach, Grosjean must listen to his teammate describe the elation of winning his first IndyCar race while he fields questions about how it feels to finish second, again.
But his answer is simple and lighthearted: “It’s better than finishing third for two years in a row.”
Speaking to the media, including Frontstretch, from the Long Beach Convention Center, Grosjean continued: “I didn’t even want to go for the win today [after the results from] the first two races.”
“I tried [to go for the win] a couple of times last year … If we had won St. Pete and finished on the podium at Texas, things would have been slightly different. But we did not, and for everyone I think it is more important that [Andretti Autosport] are first and second then just trying to go for the win. We’re going to Barber [Motorsports Park] in two weeks, I’m not worried. We’re going to have a fast car. We could win Barber, we could win [the Indianapolis road course] … an Indy…
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