Front-row start for Scott Dixon, Honda at Grand Prix of Long Beach
• Dixon, Ryan Hunter-Reay lead Honda qualifying attack in Long Beach
• Four Honda teams, five drivers reach “Firestone Fast Six” final qualifying round
• James Hinchcliffe, Alexander Rossi and Graham Rahal complete top six in qualifying
LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 8, 2017) – As at last month’s season-opening race in St. Petersburg, Florida, Scott Dixon again led the way for Honda Saturday in Verizon IndyCar Series qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Long Beach. Again as in St. Petersburg, Dixon will start on the outside of the front row, second, for Chip Ganassi Racing as Honda placed five drivers, from four different teams, in final round “Firestone Fast Six” qualifying.
Andretti Autosport teammates Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi made the final round of Indy car knockout qualifying for the second consecutive race and will start third and fifth, respectively. They will be split on the grid by the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda of James Hinchcliffe, who will start fourth. Graham Rahal rounded out the top six in his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda.
Sunday’s 80-lap race starts at 4 p.m. EDT, with live television coverage on the NBC Sports Network.
Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing Honda): “Yeah, bit of a bummer [missing the pole] there, but congrats to Helio [Castroneves]. I think he put together a hell of a lap. The NTT DATA car actually had a lot more grip than I expected and kind of caught me off guard, I think. I tried to go beyond it a couple of times and just made too many mistakes on the qualifying run. We struggled a little bit this weekend on the red [softer compound] tires just with straight-out speed. Unfortunately, I think we are going to be running a lot of reds tomorrow, but that’s the way it will work out. But I’m definitely confident in the fact we have a great race car here, all four Ganassi cars have been strong this weekend and we will see how it plays out.”
