LONG BEACH, CA (April 9, 2017) – The Verizon IndyCar Series traveled to the Streets of Long Beach for one of the most popular races of the season. Alexander Rossi had a fast car all weekend and was running P2 when he was struck with bad luck for the second race in a row. The engine blew on the #98 NAPA AUTO PARTS machine at lap 62. 

Rossi's weekend had been strong, including qualifying for his first "Firestone Fast Six" and starting P5 for the race. “I thought we had a really good shot at winning," said Rossi. "The pace of the car was really good all day, and were able to recover from a little bit of a tricky pit stop sequence. It cost us around five seconds to the leaders, and the air was rough amongst the cars where I popped out. Was proud to fight back to the top."

"An extremely disappointing result to what had been an excellent weekend," said Rob Edwards, Strategist for No. 98 and Chief Operating Officer for Andretti Autosport. "I was very happy with how the #98 team worked this weekend, highlighted by Alex's first Firestone Fast Six. In the race we had the pace, fuel mileage and strategy to challenge for the win, but it wasn't to be our day."

"The NAPA AUTO PARTS car was awesome this weekend," said Rossi. "We’ll just have to fight back at Barber. Honda has done an amazing job so it’s unfortunate. But congrats to Honda and Hinch on the win.”

James Hinchcliffe won the race for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, and points-leader Sebastian Bourdais was second for Dale Coyne Racing. Team Penske's Josef Newgarden finished third. This is the 43rd running of the Grand Prix of Long Beach. 

Rossi's race season continues with the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.