STREETS OF LONG BEACH QUALIFYING NOTES
STARTING POSITIONS
8th: ALEXANDER ROSSI No. 20 Java House Chevrolet
18th: CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet
RACE: Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach
TRACK: Streets of Long Beach
LOCATION: Long Beach, California, USA
TRACK LAYOUT: 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit
RACE LENGTH: 90 laps
BROADCAST: Sunday – 1:30 p.m. PT (FOX)
ALEXANDER ROSSI, NO. 20 JAVA HOUSE CHEVROLET
ALEXANDER ROSSI, No. 20 Java House Chevrolet, Qualified 8th: “It has been a rough day and a half in Long Beach. We didn’t start strong in Practice 1, but the whole team is constantly working to improve as the sessions go on. We are relieved after qualifying, considering where we were to start the weekend! Christian (Rasmussen) had a good lap as well so there is a lot of potential for both cars tomorrow.”
BIRTHDAY: September 25, 1991
HOMETOWN: Nevada City, CA
RESIDENCE: Indianapolis, IN
LONG BEACH STATS
NUMBER OF STARTS: 8
TOP 5 FINISHES: 2
TOP 10 FINISHES: 5
BEST START: 1st (2018, 2019)
BEST FINISH: 1st (2018, 2019)
CAREER STATS
SEASON: 10th
STARTS: 149
WINS: 8
POLES: 7
TOP 5 FINISHES: 50
TOP 10 FINISHES: 92
LAPS LED: 996
- Alexander Rossi will start from inside the Top 10 in his 150th NTT INDYCAR SERIES race. For the second race in a row, Rossi advanced beyond the first round of qualifications. In Round 2, Rossi set the 9th fastest lap of the session. After another competitor caused a red flag, Rossi will move up to 8th on tomorrow’s starting grid in the streets of Long Beach.
- The Grand Prix of Long Beach is one of three events on the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES calendar that takes place in the 33-year-old Rossi’s home state of California. The Nevada City native is a back-to-back winner in Long Beach, earning victories from the pole position in both 2018 and 2019. Over those two years, Rossi led 151 of the possible 170 laps. He has competed in the event eight times, with five of his last six starts yielding Top 10 finishes. ECR’s No. 20 Chevrolet, which Rossi drives, was the winning car in the 2014 Grand Prix of Long Beach with Mike Conway behind the wheel.
- Rossi’s first season with ECR is off to a strong start. He earned his first Top 10 finish in his first race with the team, bringing the No. 20 Java House Chevrolet home in 10th place in the streets of St. Petersburg. He started sixth in The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix a few weeks later, placing ECR in the Firestone Fast 6 for the first time since mid-2022. During the race, he began to encounter an issue with temperature of the hybrid unit and was not able to deploy at regular intervals. However, Rossi worked diligently to manage the issue until the checkered flag and scored his second Top 10 finish in as many races with a ninth place.
- Java House made its on-track debut on Rossi’s No. 20 Chevrolet during his first test with ECR at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in October 2024. The innovative cold brew coffee brand now serves as Rossi’s primary sponsor at select races throughout the 2025 season, including Grand Prix of Long Beach. In addition to its versatile Peel n Pour™ single serve beverages, Java House owns and operates cafes in the Indianapolis and Lafayette, IN markets.
CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN, NO. 21 SPLENDA CHEVROLET
CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN, No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet, Qualified 18th: “We’ve just been kind of chasing the car all weekend. While we have been struggling a bit, we took a step forward in this session, so that’s a positive! The No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet team has done a good job in getting the car headed in the right direction. Qualifying this year has been our Achilles heel, we’ve been moving forward in the races but have not been able to qualify super well. In the races, the car has been pretty good so hopefully that will continue tomorrow and we’ll see where we end up!”
BIRTHDAY: June 29, 2000
HOMETOWN:
Copenhagen, Denmark
RESIDENCE: Indianapolis, IN
LONG BEACH STATS
NUMBER OF STARTS: 1
BEST START: 21st (2024)
BEST FINISH: 27th (2024)
CAREER STATS
SEASON: 2nd
STARTS: 15
- Christian Rasmussen will start his second Grand Prix of Long Beach from the outside of Row 9. His No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet crew worked hard to improve the car across each on-track session, which allowed Rasmussen to turn his fastest lap of the weekend during qualifying. Two runs on alternate green Firestone Firehawk tires yielded a lap of 67.4664 seconds, which will give him the 18th starting position.
- Rasmussen has the benefit of returning to the streets of Long Beach with experience. Last year, the downtown circuit was one of only a handful of courses on the NTT INDYCAR SERIES calendar that the then-rookie had not competed at in any racing category.
- The Danish driver currently leads the 27-car field in passes for position this season, executing 24 overtakes in just two events. Most recently at The Thermal Club, he completed 17 passes – most of all drivers in the field. Rasmussen took the checkered flag in the 12th position, his best finish of the year to date.
- Splenda®, the most recognizable low-calorie sweetener brand in the world, will be featured on Rasmussen’s No. 21 Chevrolet at select races throughout the 2025 season, including the The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix. Since Splenda’s launch in 1991, more than 100 billion yellow packets have been sold. Coincidentally, Splenda’s packaging facility and ECR’s race shop are both on Georgetown Road in Indianapolis with locations less than one mile apart.