INDYCAR: 2023 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Driver Rankings

Crash INDYCAR journalist Chad Smith goes through the field to hand out driver ratings for the 48th edition of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Romain Grosjean, Andretti Autosport at Long Beach
Romain Grosjean, Andretti Autosport at Long Beach

Kyle Kirkwood: 10

Nearly a perfect weekend with pole positio🐓n, winning the race, and leading the most laps. This young, talented driver is the real deal.

Romain Grosjean: 9

Grosjean earned his fourth runn🔯er-up finish, as he continues to knock on th🐼e door for his first IndyCar win.

Marcus Ericsson: 9

After qualifying on the front row, Ericsson was the only driver that could keep up with the🐬 A🐟ndretti cars, and takes over the championship lead.

Colton Herta: 8

He was right there along with his teammates, bu🦂t just didn’t have enough to c⛎hallenge for the lead.

Alex Palou: 7

Another strong result for Palou, who is quietly off t𒈔o a fantastic start this season.

Driver Ratings for 2023 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

Will Power: 8

A much-needed result for the r🐷eigning series champion, after a no-show in Texas and a shaky qualifying performance this weekend.

Felix Rosenqvist: 8

His two teammates may have be💖en faster, but Felix was the only Arrow McLaren driver to earn 🐻a solid finish today.

Marcus Armstrong: 8

He wasn’t discussed much during the race𝐆, but this was a fanta♈stic drive by the rookie.

Josef Newgarden: 7

Early on it looked as though Newgarden would score back-to-back wins, but strategy di🍸d not go their way and he got eaten up late in the race.

Scott McLaughlin: 6

It was a decent result for McLa🥃ughlin, but he was never a🦋ble to challenge at the front of the field.

Santino Ferrucci: 8

Clearly one of the best results for the AJ Foyt Racing team in quit🐼e some tꦫime.

Graham Rahal: 8

After starting in the back of the pack, Graham did what Graham always does, and drove his way through aꩵ chunk of the field.

Jack Harvey: 7

He was right there with his teammates, which is somethin෴g he wasn’t able to s🎀ay at all last year.

Christian Lundgaard: 7

His race sta𒉰rted out well but he and the RLL team were just lacking someth😼ing all weekend.

Driver Ratings for 2023 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

Simon Pagenaud: 5

A𒐪nother poor performance by Pagenaud and the Meyer Shank Racing team, who are really struggling riꦯght now.

Pato O'Ward: 4

He made two questionable decisions in this race, in the same turn. Neither of them worked out well and his day was r♏uined even without being penalized.

Callum Ilott: 4

A forgettable weeken﷽d for Ilott and the Juncos Hollinger Racing team.

Helio Castroneves: 3

Crashing on the opening lap of the race is never good, especially when t♈here is no one else to blame.

Alexander Rossi: 7

Rossi had a top-ten run nearly in the bank, but it all went away on the final lap whe✱n he crashed int🃏o the tier barriers.

Conor Daly: 4

His 100th start did not gﷺo as well as he or the Ed Carpenter Racin🀅g team had hoped.

Rinus VeeKay: 4

See above,ꦍ the ECR organiz🀅ation desperately needs to get to Indy.

Scott Dixon: 2

His day was ruined when O’Ward put him into the tires. Outside of the Indianapolis 500 in 2014 and 2017, his 27th place finish tod✨ay was the worst of his car🎃eer, which spans 371 races.

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