The Trackside Report

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Long Beach, Calif. – Will Power doesn’t show any signs of slowing down anytime soon.

This weekend will mark Powers’ 19^th start at the 50^th Edition of the Acura Grand Prix at Long Beach, putting him number one in all-time starts at the infamous street course. Power made a statement early in the weekend, by pacing opening practice with a lap of 1:07.3227 on the 1.968-mile 11-turn street course in his No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet.

“It was pretty good,” said Power. “Definitely determined to get qualifying right. Haven’t for the last couple races. Got to work on that. It’s going to be really tight.”

See: Practice Results

2022 Indianapolis 500 champion Marcus Ericsson will be making his 100^th career start this weekend at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. The 34-year-old Swede showed his experience and pace to kickoff the weekend by turning the second fastest lap of 1.07.3503 in his No. 28 Bryant Honda of Andretti Global. Ericsson’s teammate and 2023 Long Beach winner Kyle Kirkwood was third at a time of 1:07.3523 in the No. 27 PreFab Honda, as Andretti placed two cars in the top three overall times.

“Very good start,” said Ericsson. “I’ve been looking forward to this race a lot. I always do. It’s one of the highlights of the season for sure.”

Power’s teammate, two-time series champion and former Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach winner Josef Newgarden held the sixth fastest time of the opening session with a lap of 1:07.5191 in his No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet.

“I think our car was pretty solid rolling off just like St. Pete,” said Newgarden. “We’re trying to create good race cars across the board, which you have to have in this series. You sort of have a base position on a street course style, road course style and then ovals alike.”

On tap for the remainder of the weekend on the 11-turn, 1.968-mile street course is a second practice session at 11:30 a.m. ET Saturday on FS1, followed by the NTT IndyCar Series qualifying at 2:30 p.m. ET on FS2. This all leads into the 90-lap race at 4:30 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX.