LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 19, 2026) — Sunny skies and 70 degrees provided the perfect racing conditions for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Sunday afternoon.
Rookie Caio Collet was on pace for a top-12 finish in the No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet in his first ever appearance on the streets of Long Beach. Unfortunately, a caution for track debris on lap 57 of the 90-lap event set up a chain of events that ruined his chances of tying or improving on his best finish of the season (12th) to date. The caution came in the fuel window which saw the full field pit making pitlane a crowded affair.
Collet pitted and got off cleanly but his outside rear tire changer Ryan Marzec was struck by Will Power exiting his pitbox. Incredibly, Marzec finished changing the tire before crawling to safety as Collet exited the pit box. Marzec was transported to the infield care center and released after X-rays revealed no bones were broken.
When asked about still changing the tire despite the accident, he responded, “Of course, that’s my job.”
Adding insult to injury, Collet was penalized for a pitlane speed violation enroute to his pit stall and was ordered to the back of the line for the restart.
After the race, a picture’s worth a thousand words…
“I think we are on for our top 12 there if it wasn’t for the penalty in the pit,” said the disappointed young Brazilian, who finished 22nd. “So, I have to look again and see what exactly happened if it was my mistake, or I just pushed too hard on the pit in. I don’t know. We’ll see what happened exactly on data, why we had a penalty, but I think regardless, we were looking quite good for a top 12, maybe top 10 there. It’s really frustrating, but we’ll move on. I’m glad that Ryan is going to be okay. When you pit under yellow, it’s always very, very tight and you need to look out for the guys.”
Santino Ferrucci was encouraged after his morning warmup when he was ninth quickest in the No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet. However, in the race, which didn’t start until after 3 p.m. (PT), he struggled with the car’s handling.
“Just overall a rough weekend,” said Ferrucci, who last year came from last to finish 11th. He was philosophical about this 18th place finish after starting 22nd, sounding more like a car owner than a driver, saying, “But the car’s in one piece and we’re gonna roll it back up on the trailer. It was just really tough to drive, hard to find a balance. Moving on to the Indy GP and the Month of May.”
Santino making time for a fan before the race.
Reigning INDYCAR champion Alex Palou continued his dominance of the NTT INDYCAR Series posting his third victory in five races after starting outside pole. NTT P1 Award winner Felix Rosenqvist finished second after losing the race off pit road on lap 59. Palou’s teammate Scott Dixon finished third followed by Kyle Kirkwood and Pato O’Ward.
Teams head to Indianapolis for the Open Test at the Speedway on April 28-29. Following that event is the Sonsio Grand Prix at the Speedway’s road course on May 9th, which kicks off the Month of May.
