12 Apr

Qualifying Report: Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

The highs and lows of racing played out today for AJ Foyt Racing in today’s qualifying session for the 50th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

David Malukas was on his way to a possible Firestone Fast Six qualifying round when the session was red-flagged for Christian Lundgaard’s hard hit into a tire barrier while Malukas was on his flyer. Moments after qualifying he told team owner Larry Foyt that the last change they made for that run “lit up the car.” He was confident they would have transferred into the final round.
 
Although that did not happen, Malukas is still quite happy with his car and the team’s efforts for today as they will start 10th in the No. 4 Chevrolet. It is the second straight time that he has advanced to round two, having qualified 12th at the Thermal Club Grand Prix last month.
 

Overall, really, really happy with how things ended up turning out,” Malukas said. “We kind of had our heads twisted on setup changes from Practice 1 and Practice 2, but going into qualifying, we didn’t hit it perfect. There was a bit of understeer in the car, but we did an incredible job getting the car where it needed to be. Scraped through in Q1 and going into that Fast 12, we had a very fast car for the short four corners I did. Unfortunately, luck is always a big play into it, and we had a really unlucky red. They didn’t give us the extra lap in the end. We couldn’t really show what we had, so I ended up with a P10 in the end. We can work from there. We feel very confident that we finished P10, but we know we have a fast car, and it could’ve been a lot better. There’s always the other scenario where you got lucky and you’re in P10 and you’re not fast. Heads are forward and we know that results are not in qualifying. Results are in the race, so we’ll get it done.”

Santino Ferrucci has had a tough two practices this weekend but the team made some significant changes on the No. 14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet which he felt really improved the car’s handling. Unfortunately, he clipped the wall in Turn 8 on his flyer lap and was not able to continue. He will start 27th in tomorrow’s race.
 
Despite the frustration of the weekend, Ferrucci is confident about his car for tomorrow’s race. Here he is with his race engineer Mike Armbrester.
 
“We struggled all the way through the weekend,” Ferrucci revealed. “Made some pretty big changes in the car going into qualifying. It felt really good. Honestly, I think we made some solid strides. The car was very capable of advancing. I just had a slight bobble in (turn) eight, and I clipped the wall the wrong way. It unfortunately ended our session. But I feel really good about being able to move forward. I think the car is in a really good spot at the moment. We’re not really going to change anything going into tomorrow’s warm up, and we’re going to do what we got to do to advance. Hopefully, it’s entertaining.”  
 
Santino Ferrucci, last year’s “Pass Master,” is always entertaining.

Kyle Kirkwood won his third career NTT P1 Award today after posting a lap time of 1 minute, 6.1921 seconds on his final lap. His first pole position came in Long Beach in 2023 when he went on to win the race. His teammate Colton Herta will start alongside him.
 
Rounding out the Firestone Fast Six are Alex Palou, Felix Rosenqvist, Marcus Ericsson and Scott McLaughlin.
 
A 30-minute morning warmup will precede the 50th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach which will be broadcast live on FOX starting at 4:30 p.m. ET Sunday afternoon.

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