{"id":8294,"date":"2021-09-26T15:24:05","date_gmt":"2021-09-26T22:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/?p=50000002878"},"modified":"2021-09-27T11:54:11","modified_gmt":"2021-09-27T18:54:11","slug":"herta-wins-palou-claims-indycar-title-at-acura-grand-prix-of-long-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/news\/herta-wins-palou-claims-indycar-title-at-acura-grand-prix-of-long-beach","title":{"rendered":"Herta wins, Palou claims IndyCar title at Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Champagne was flowing in abundance Downtown Sunday afternoon, as the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach decided two champions: Colton Herta won the race, and Alex Palou won the IndyCar series championship, which was decided in Long Beach for the first time.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Herta, a 21 year-old Southern California native, has a long history in Long Beach. He attended the race as a baby with his mother, as his father Bryan was racing.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThis has been on the bucket list for so long, I\u2019m super happy,\u201d said Herta after the race. \u201cThis is the biggest race for me outside of Indy, it\u2019s the first race I was able to come to. I was two weeks old when I first came to Long Beach, my father was driving in 2000. Growing up around here, I came to this race every year all the way until I was driving in IndyCar. I can\u2019t believe I won it on my second try.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10000052615\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10000052615\" style=\"width: 1110px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10000052615\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-26-at-3.44.21-PM-1-1110x596.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1110\" height=\"596\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10000052615\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Colton Herta, the crowd favorite, breezes on his way to victory. Photo by Stephen Carr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Herta started way back in 14th place, but jumped into the lead early in the race and was able to defend his position for the final 60 laps\u2014he was the clear crowd favorite, drawing huge applause as he took the checkered flag on Shoreline.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt was fun to come from the back,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe a little bit more stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Palou became the first Spanish driver to win an IndyCar title. Long Beach\u2019s race normally takes place near the start of the season in April, but was postponed to the final race of the season due to COVID-19 protocols, meaning the IndyCar crown was decided here this year. Palou, 24, drives for Chip Ganassi Racing and has a bright future, with more champagne potentially to come in Long Beach.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">After finishing 16th in IndyCar last season, his first with the series, he dominated this season with three wins and eight podiums coming into Long Beach. He finished fourth in Long Beach, giving him top four finishes in 10 of the 16 IndyCar races this season.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10000052613\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10000052613\" style=\"width: 1110px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10000052613\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/0926-GP16-1110x829.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1110\" height=\"829\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10000052613\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2021 NTT Indycar Champion Alex Palou celebrates by kissing the IndyCar Championship trophy, after finishing 4th place at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Sunday, September 23, 2021. Photo by Stephen Carr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI don\u2019t think I realize what we just did fully,\u201d said Palou. \u201cI\u2019m just super happy, and super proud to be the first Spanish guy to win it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Palou, a big fan of American fried chicken, asked the crowd in Long Beach where the best fried chicken was locally and after hearing about Roscoe\u2019s, he said he\u2019d be visiting Sunday night.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Palou&#8217;s series victory was the 14th IndyCar title for Ganassi, who was clearly thrilled with his young driver after the race. Asked if Palou has a weakness to work on, he was stumped.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI\u2019ll have to think about that a little bit,\u201d he said. \u201cI like everything about him as a driver. He\u2019s pretty complete as is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Unfortunately for racing fans, the drama was sucked out of championship Sunday after Pato O\u2019Ward lost his gear box after taking damage on lap 17. O\u2019Ward and Palou were battling for the IndyCar title, but O\u2019Ward\u2019s exit early in the race all but decided things.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A glimpse of Sunday&#039;s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ReDdenENCFo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In a trackside interview with NBC Sports, O\u2019Ward expressed frustration with the move from rival driver Ed Jones that led to his car taking damage.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt\u2019s not the first time he\u2019s hit us, it\u2019s not the first time he\u2019s done something stupid all season,\u201d said O\u2019Ward. \u201cI wish he could use his head a little bit more and at least respect the guys fighting for the championship. I\u2019m not telling him how to race but don\u2019t be stupid about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Racing fans\u2014and Long Beach fans\u2014have a lot to look forward to with this exciting young generation of racers headlined by Palou, O\u2019Ward, and Herta, and that youth was on display in Long Beach. The IndyCar series also crowned its Rookie of the Year, with Scott McLaughlin of New Zealand taking the crown. As a signal of how young the talent in IndyCar is, McLaughlin is 28\u2014meaning that the Rookie of the Year is older than this year\u2019s series champion (Palou is 24), the Long Beach champion (Herta is 21) and the other title challenger (O\u2019Ward is 22).<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">There were still more trophies handed out at Winner\u2019s Circle, with Honda claiming the Manufacturer\u2019s Championship.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Long Beach race fans won\u2019t have to wait long to see a return of the young stars of IndyCar\u2014the city will see its historic race returned to its normal place on the calendar in 2022, with the next running of the Grand Prix of Long Beach coming in a little more than six months, April 8-10, 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colton Herta won the race, and Alex Palou won the IndyCar series championship, which was decided in Long Beach for the first time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":17234,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[223],"tags":[5,15],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[2096],"class_list":["post-8294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-instagram","tag-acura-grand-prix-of-long-beach","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8294"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=8294"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}