Herta, Honda Claim the Pole for Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

• Defending race winner Colton Herta tops NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying on the streets of Long Beach
• Defending series champion Alex Palou qualifies third in 26-car field
• Alexander Rossi to start fifth, Romain Grosjean sixth as Honda drivers claim four of the “Fast Six” final qualifying positions

Colton Herta, the popular hometown winner of last year’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, headed the time sheets in today’s qualifying action and will lead a 26-car field to the green flag in his Andretti Autosport Honda for Sunday’s third round of the 2022 NTT INDYCAR SERIES.

Herta was the quickest of four Honda drivers to advance to the “Fast Six” final qualifying round on the streets of Long Beach, with defending series champion Alex Palou ending the session third in his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.  Two other Andretti Autosport Hondas, driven by two-time Long Beach winner Alexander Rossi and Formula One veteran Romain Grosjean will start fifth and sixth, respectively.

Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Honda Qualifying Results

•   1^st Colton Herta                       Andretti Autosport Honda
•   3^rd Alex Palou                          Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
•   5^th Alexander Rossi                 Andretti Autosport Honda
•   6^th Romain Grosjean                Andretti Autosport Honda
•   8^th Marcus Ericsson                 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
• 10^th Simon Pageaud                  Meyer Shank Racing Honda
• 13^th Graham Rahal                    Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
• 14^th Helio Castroneves              Meyer Shank Racing Honda
• 16^th Scott Dixon                         Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
• 17^th Devlin DeFrancesco-R        Andretti Autosport Honda
• 19^th David Malukas-R                Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda
• 20^th Christian Lundegaard-R      Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda   
• 21^st Jack Harvey                       Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda   
• 23^rd Takuma Sato                      Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda
• 25^th Jimmie Johnson                 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

R – Rookie

Quotes
Colton Herta (#26 Andretti Autosport Honda) pole qualifier, his first pole of 2022 and first pole at Long Beach, eighth career INDYCAR pole; defending race winner: “I’m super-happy with how qualifying went. The car is really good, Honda was spectacular and we’re starting from the best spot tomorrow.  I’m thrilled to finally get a pole here. The reason I became an Indy car driver was because of this race.  To get a win here last year was amazing, and we checked another box off today with the pole.  It feels incredible.”

Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) will start third, defending series champion: " “Qualifying was a good start to the weekend for us. We were working on the car all day today, changing [the car] a lot with the [changing weather] conditions. We were lacking a bit more with the cooler temperatures [today], but we made it happen. The ‘Fast Six’ was the target, so starting on the second row is really good for the No. 10 NTT DATA Honda car.”

Fast Facts

• This weekend’s return of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES to Southern California marks the third year of Acura title sponsorship of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, and the 47^th running of North America’s oldest and most successful street circuit event.
• Honda-powered drivers and teams have won the Grand Prix of Long Beach 15 times in 21 appearances. This includes victories in eight of the last 12 races; and a seven-year victory streak in Championship Auto Racing Teams competition, against multi-manufacturer competition, from 1996-2002.
• Honda’s most recent Long Beach success was recorded last year by today’s pole qualifier, Colton Herta, a native of nearby Valencia, California.
• Other Honda-powered winners at Long Beach include Jimmy Vasser (1996), Alex Zanardi (1997-98), Juan Pablo Montoya (1999), Paul Tracy (2000), Helio Castroneves (2001), Michael Andretti (his final Indy car victory, in 2002), Dario Franchitti (2009), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2010), Mike Conway (2011), Takuma Sato (2013), James Hinchcliffe (2017), and Alexander Rossi, who scored back-to-back Long Beach victories in 2018 and ’19.

Where to Watch the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach
Television coverage of Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach starts at 3 p.m. EDT on NBC.  Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on NBC Peacock, the INDYCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation (Channel 160).

Honda Racing social media content and video links from this weekend’s activities in Long Beach can be found on Instagram (www.instagram.com/hondaracing_hpd), Twitter (twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD).  Additional features and long-form videos can be found on the Honda Racing/HPD YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV).

# # #