Fast Facts: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach - MotorSportsTalk

The INDYCAR PR staff has assembled the following details for this weekend’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Here are the fast facts heading into this weekend’s race (Sunday, 4 p.m. ET, NBCSN):

—

TOYOTA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH FAST FACTS

Track: 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street course (clockwise)
Race distance: 80 laps / 157.4 miles
Entry List: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach (PDF)
Push-to-pass parameters: 10 activations for 20 seconds each
Firestone tire allotment: Four sets primary, three sets alternate
Twitter: @ToyotaGPLB @IndyCar, #TGPLB, #IndyCar
Event website: www.gplb.com
INDYCAR website: www.IndyCar.com
2014 race winner: Mike Conway (No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet)
2014 Verizon P1 Award winner: Ryan Hunter-Reay (No. 28 DHL Honda),1:07.8219, 104.462 mph
Qualifying lap record: Justin Wilson, 1:06.902, 105.898 mph, April 2008

NBCSN race broadcast: Sunday, April 19 (4 p.m. ET)
NBCSN qualifying broadcast: Saturday, April 18 (6:30 p.m. ET)

Brian Till will be the play-by-play announcer for NBCSN’s broadcast of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach alongside analysts Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy. Marty Snider, Kelly Stavast, Kevin Lee and Robin Miller are the pit reporters.

Radio broadcasts: Paul Page is the chief announcer alongside analyst Davey Hamilton. Qualifying and all Verizon IndyCar Series races are broadcast live on the IMS Radio Network, Sirius 213, XM 209, IndyCar.com, indycarradio.com and on the INDYCAR 15 app. Verizon IndyCar Series practice sessions are on IndyCar.com, indycarradio.com and the INDYCAR 15 app.

Video Streaming: All practice sessions for the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season will be available on the INDYCAR YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/indycar) and RaceControl.IndyCar.com.

INDYCAR 15 App: Verizon Wireless puts fans in the driver’s seat with its INDYCAR 15 app. The app has been enhanced with new features to keep fans in the know of the latest race-day action. Exclusive features of the INDYCAR 15 app for Verizon Wireless customers will stream live through the app and include Interactive 3D Live View with real-time leaderboard and car telemetry to see where a fan’s favorite driver is positioned, leaderboard with enhanced 2D marching ants and car telemetry for 2015, in-car camera video streams from cameras that move 360 degrees and Driver-Pit Crew Chatter as drivers talk strategy with their pit crews during the race.

At-track schedule (all times local):
Friday, April 17
12:30-1:15 p.m. (Verizon IndyCar Series practice)
3:45-4:30 p.m. (Verizon IndyCar Series practice)

Saturday, April 18
10-10:45 a.m. (Verizon IndyCar Series practice)
2 p.m. (Three rounds of Verizon IndyCar Series qualifications)

Sunday, April 19
10-10:30 a.m. (Verizon IndyCar Series warm-up)
1 p.m. NBCSN on air
1:37 p.m. Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach green flag

Race Notes:
* James Hinchcliffe and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports played strategy to perfection and won the inaugural Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana at NOLA Motorsports Park on April 12. Now the “mayor of Hinchtown” hopes to make Long Beach his latest conquest.

* This weekend’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will mark the 32nd Indy car event on the historic street circuit. Mario Andretti won the first Indy car race there in 1984. Mike Conway was the 2014 race winner.

* Al Unser Jr. has won the most times at Long Beach (six), while Sebastien Bourdais and Will Power are the only entered drivers with multiple wins. Bourdais won three straight races from 2005-2007. Power won in 2008 and 2012. Other former race winners scheduled to compete are: Juan Pablo Montoya (1999), Helio Castroneves (2001), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2010) and Takuma Sato (2013).

* Team Penske drivers have won four of the last six poles at Long Beach: Power from 2009-2011 and Ryan Briscoe in 2012. In addition to Power, other past pole winners entered in this year’s race are: Hunter-Reay (2014), Justin Wilson (2008), Bourdais (2006-2007), Castroneves (2001) and Tony Kanaan (1999).

* Four drivers have won the race from the pole – Andretti (1984, 1985 and 1987), Unser Jr. (1989-90), Castroneves (2001) and Bourdais (2006-07).

* Nineteen drivers entered in the event have competed in Indy car races at Long Beach. Twelve of those drivers have led laps: Bourdais 168, Power 162, Hunter-Reay 122, Castroneves 101, Sato 66, Marco Andretti 64, Kanaan 51, Montoya 40, Simon Pagenaud 26, Scott Dixon 25, Sebastian Saavedra 3, Josef Newgarden 1.

* Gabby Chaves, Stefano Coletti, Francesco Dracone and Luca Filippi will compete in their first Verizon IndyCar Series race on the streets of Long Beach. Chaves competed on the circuit in Indy Lights.

* Kanaan seeks to start his 236th consecutive race, which would extend his Indy car-record streak that began in 2001 at Portland. Teammate Dixon has made 177 consecutive starts.

* Dixon, the longest-tenured driver for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, is tied with Bobby Unser for fifth on the all-time Indy car victory list with 35.

* The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg marked the competition debut of aerodynamic bodywork kits designed, manufactured and supplied by Chevrolet and Honda. Cars are differentiated by their shape on the street course as the manufacturers have designed separate aero kit specifications for road and street course/short ovals and speedways for the Dallara IR-12 chassis. References to the cars will incorporate the name of the corresponding manufacturer.

* The No. 5 Arrow/Lucas Oil Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda Dallara crew of James Hinchcliffe won the Firestone Pit Stop Performance Award during the Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana with a total pit lane time of 35.066 seconds. The Arrow/Lucas Oil Schmidt Peterson Motorsports crew will receive its $10,000 award during pre-race festivities at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

For the fifth time in 10 rounds of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross season, the three riders at the top of the championship standings shared a podium and while those points tell one story, the NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings after Detroit tell a slightly different tale.

SuperMotocross Power Rankings Detroit — *Cooper Webb is peaking at the right time. – Feld Motor Sports*

Chase Sexton has been all but perfect during the past 45 days with podium finishes in each of his heats and Triple Crown features. His only stumble during this period was a 10th-place finish in the Indianapolis Main. Last week, Sexton was perfect with wins in both his heat and the feature, although he needed a little help from an Aaron Plessinger mistake to take the top spot on the podium at the end of the night.

Cooper Webb finished fifth at Houston and was beginning to worry ever so slightly about his position in the points. Prior to the race in Tampa, he told NBC Sports that it was time to win and like Babe Ruth pointing to the outfield fence, Webb went out and captured it. Following that race, Webb has swept the podium and earned the red plate two weeks ago in Indianapolis. At Detroit, he added two more points on Eli Tomac as the season begins to wind down.

Tomac struggled with a stiff neck at Indianapolis and after a modest third-place showing in Detroit, he revealed he was still suffering a little. Webb and Sexton have been able to close the gap on Tomac in the past 45 days, but one of the main reasons he is so close in the points was a pair of wins that started the year. Seattle is going to be important for the defending champion because Tomac cannot afford to lose any more momentum with seven rounds remaining.

MORE: Chase Sexton inherits the win in Detroit

It appeared Jason Anderson was turning things around. He earned his fifth heat win at Detroit, which was also his sixth consecutive race (including features) in which he scored a top-five. A fall in the Detroit Main dropped him a lap off the pace and sent him home with a season-worst finish of ninth, causing a ripple effect in the SuperMotocross Power Rankings.

Justin Barcia was a huge part of the show last week in Detroit. He swapped positions with both Webb and Tomac in the middle stage of the race, which allowed Sexton to close the gap. Barcia finished fourth in that race to earn his third consecutive top-five. He’s been outside the top 10 only once in the first 10 rounds.

Adam Cianciarulo had a great start to the Main. He led a couple of laps before losing a lap and slipping back to eighth in the final rundown. That run was strong enough to elevate him three positions in the SuperMotocross Power Rankings after Detroit.

450 Rankings

This Week	Driver	Percentage Points	Last Week	Diff.
1.	Chase Sexton [2 Main, 6 Heat wins]	87.00	1	0
2.	Cooper Webb [2 Main, 1 Heat win]	86.71	2	0
3.	Eli Tomac [5 Main, 6 Heat wins]	84.57	3	0
4.	Jason Anderson [5 Heat wins]	80.71	4	0
5.	Ken Roczen [1 Main, 1 Heat win]	80.50	5	0
6.	Justin Barcia [1 Heat win]	79.07	7	1
7.	Aaron Plessinger	77.14	6	-1
8.	Adam Cianciarulo	69.75	11	3
9.	Christian Craig	68.86	10	1
10.	Justin Cooper	63.90	9	-1
11.	Justin Hill	58.57	15	4
12.	Dean Wilson	51.50	12	0
13.	Colt Nichols	51.25	13	0
14.	Shane McElrath	46.86	17	3
15.	Josh Hill	46.79	16	1
16.	Benny Bloss	45.31	18	2
17.	Jared Lesher	39.00		NA
18.	Joey Savatgy	38.63	14	-4
19.	Cade Clason	37.50	21	2
20.	Grant Harlan	35.54	23	3

Supercross 450 Points

The NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings look at the past 90 days in the 250 class in order to have a balanced comparison between the East and West divisions and Hunter Lawrence has been all but perfect this year. At Detroit, he earned his fifth win of the season and kept alive a streak of podium finishes in six rounds. He tied his brother Jett Lawrence with 10 250 wins one week before the West riders take to the track for back-to-back races at Seattle, Washington and Glendale, Arizona.

The Lawrence brothers are dominating the points in each of their respective divisions, which means the remainder of the field is battling to be best in class.

In the East, that rider is Nate Thrasher, who beat Hunter in a head-to-head matchup in their heat only to finish second in the main when the majority of points were awarded. Thrasher seems to have accepted his position in the championship standings, but that doesn’t mean he won’t keep trying for wins.

Haiden Deegan showed a lot of aggression in his heat last week. He threw a couple of block passes at his teammate Jordon Smith and set up a series of events that kept Smith from making the big show while Deegan settled into second in the preliminary. Deegan was unconcerned about how he raced his teammate and would not let a little controversy keep him from celebrating his second career podium in Detroit.

Supercross 250 Points

Jeremy Martin just keeps clicking off solid results. He won his heat last week by making a pass on Deegan and Smith while they were in the heat of their battle. Martin finished fourth in the Main, which means he continues to have only one finish worse than sixth in any of the features or mains.

Smith fell one position in the points standings, but the damage was even worse in SuperMotocross Power Rankings after Detroit. Crash damage in his heat contributed to a last-place finish in that race, for which he earned minimal points. He was not able to advance from the Last Chance Qualifier after stalling his bike in heavy traffic.

250 Rankings

This Week	Rider	Power Avg.	Last Week	Diff.
1.	Hunter Lawrence – E [5 Main, 5 Heat wins]	90.43	1	0
2.	Jett Lawrence – W [3 Main, 3 Heat wins]	90.30	2	0
3.	Nate Thrasher – E [1 Main, 3 Heat wins]	84.00	5	2
4.	Cameron McAdoo – W [1 Heat win]	79.80	9	5
5.	Haiden Deegan – E [1 Heat win]	78.21	7	2
6.	Jeremy Martin – E [2 Heat wins]	78.00	8	2
7.	Jordon Smith – E [3 Heat Wins]	76.77	4	-3
8.	Levi Kitchen – W [1 Main]	75.30	3	-5
9.	Mitchell Oldenburg – W	75.20	11	2
10.	RJ Hampshire – W [4 Heat wins]	74.50	17	7
11.	Max Anstie – E	74.43	6	-5
12.	Tom Vialle – E	72.07	12	0
13.	Max Vohland – W	71.56	10	-3
14.	Stilez Robertson – W [1 Heat win]	69.22	14	0
15.	Chris Blose – E	67.43	18	3
16.	Chance Hymas – E	67.10	15	-1
17.	Enzo Lopes – W	66.00	20	3
18.	Michael Mosiman – E	65.80	16	-2
19.	Pierce Brown – W	65.78	13	-6
20.	Phil Nicoletti – W	59.25	21	1

* The NBC Power Rankings assign 100 points to a Main event winner and 90 points for each Heat and Triple Crown win, (Triple Crown wins are included with heat wins below the rider’s name). The points decrement by a percentage equal to the number of riders in the field until the last place rider in each event receives five points. The Power Ranking is the average of these percentage points over the past 45 days for the 450 class and last 90 days for 250s (because of the split nature of their season).

POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 8 AT DAYTONA: Chase Sexton unseats Eli Tomac
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 7 AT ARLINGTON: Jason Anderson narrowly trails Tomac
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 6 AT OAKLAND: Perfect night keeps Tomac first
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 5 AT TAMPA: Sexton, Cooper Webb close in
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 4 AT HOUSTON: Tomac rebounds from A2 crash, retakes lead
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 3 AT ANAHEIM 2: Consistency makes Ken Roczen king
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 2 AT SAN DIEGO: Roczen moves up, Sexton falls
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 1 AT ANAHEIM 1: Tomac, Jett Lawrence gain an early advantage

Read more about SuperMotocross