IndyCar starting lineup for Long Beach GP - MotorSportsTalk

IndyCar starting lineup Long Beach: Josef Newgarden started his goal of achieving maximum points this weekend with a bang, winning his series-leading fourth pole position of the season.

To win his third championship, the Team Penske driver likely still will need to win Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach and hope that title contenders Alex Palou (who has a 35-point lead) and Pato O’Ward falter ahead of him.

Palou will start 10th in seeking a finish of 11th or better to clinch his first IndyCar championship in his second year on the circuit and first with Chip Ganassi Racing. O’Ward, who also is after his first IndyCar crown, will start eighth.

INDYCAR AT LONG BEACH: Details and how to watch Sunday’s race

After leading both practice sessions, Colton Herta stunningly was eliminated in the first round. The Andretti Autosport driver will start 14th. Teammate Alexander Rossi, who has won the past two IndyCar races at Long Beach from the pole, will start 15th.

"You never say never in this sport."

It would take a LOT for @JosefNewgarden to come away this year's @IndyCar champion, but a pole run gives him a bonus point and keeps him in the hunt. @Team_Penske x @GPLongBeach pic.twitter.com/bt4ksBSo4H

— IndyCar on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) September 25, 2021

Jimmie Johnson, who will be wrapping up his rookie IndyCar season before an entourage of 80 at the track nearest his hometown of El Cajon, California, will start 27th of 28 cars.

Here’s the IndyCar starting lineup for Sunday’s IndyCar Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach at the 1.968-mile temporary street circuit (qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, engine, time and speed in parentheses):

ROW 1

1. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 01:08.2241 (103.846)
2. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 01:08.4422 (103.515)

ROW 2

3. (06) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 01:08.4827 (103.454)
4. (22) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 01:08.6514 (103.200)

ROW 3

5. (7) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 01:08.7461 (103.057)
6. (51) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 01:08.7577 (103.040)

ROW 4

7. (29) James Hinchcliffe, Honda, 01:08.7143 (103.105)
8. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 01:08.8339 (102.926)

ROW 5

9. (18) Ed Jones, Honda, 01:08.8797 (102.858)
10. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 01:08.9464 (102.758)

ROW 6

11. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 01:09.1330 (102.481)
12. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 01:09.2279 (102.340)

ROW 7

13. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 01:08.8611 (102.885)
14. (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 01:09.1094 (102.516)

ROW 8

15. (27) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 01:08.9946 (102.686)
16. (30) Takuma Sato, Honda, 01:09.3814 (102.114)

ROW 9

17. (8) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 01:09.1368 (102.475)
18. (77) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 01:09.4360 (102.034)

ROW 10

19. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 01:09.3998 (102.087)
20. (11) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 01:09.6793 (101.677)

ROW 11

21. (20) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 01:09.5816 (101.820)
22. (14) Sebastien Bourdais, Chevrolet, 01:09.7022 (101.644)

ROW 12

23. (59) Max Chilton, Chevrolet, 01:09.7525 (101.571)
24. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 01:09.7602 (101.559)

ROW 13

25. (60) Jack Harvey, Honda, 01:10.4664 (100.542)
26. (4) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, 01:09.9144 (101.335)

ROW 14

27. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Honda, 01:10.5127 (100.476)
28. (45) Oliver Askew, Honda, 01:10.0178 (101.186)

Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

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