Rossi, Honda Dominate Long Beach Qualifying

• Alexander Rossi clears the field in knockout qualifying
• Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal also advance to final qualifying round
• Seven Honda drivers to start from top-10 positions

Alexander Rossi took his Andretti Autosport Honda to the pole today in qualifying for Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, leading both the opening and final rounds of "knockout" IndyCar Series qualifying. In the third and last round, Rossi's time of 1 minute, 06.5528 seconds was 0.3526 seconds quicker than nearest rival Will Power, and a larger gap than that which  covered the entire remaining Fast Six final qualifiers.

Scott Dixon, the 2015 Long Beach winner, and Graham Rahal also advanced to final round qualifying for Honda. Another four Honda drivers advanced as far as the second qualifying round, including Ryan Hunter-Reay, defending race winner James Hinchcliffe, impressive rookie Robert Wickens and St. Petersburg race winner Sebasties Bourdais. 

In all, seven Honda drivers will start from the top-10 grid positions in Sunday's third round of the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series.  The 85-lap race starts at 4 p.m. EDT, with live television coverage on the NBC Sports Network.

Alexander Rossi (Andretti Autosport Honda) pole qualifier, first pole of 2018 and second career IndyCar Series pole: "The whole Andretti Autosport NAPA team has done such a great job, and Honda has continued their development and their push in the off-season, so it's a huge result for us, and I think that we've been – we were close in St. Pete, had we not had the penalty on the qualifying. So, to get the pole here was good, a good start for tomorrow.  But this sport has a way of humbling you pretty quick, so we have to execute against tomorrow, and hopefully we can get that redemption we're talking about."

Verizon IndyCar Series Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

Circuit: Long Beach Convention Center (1.968-mile temporary street circuit) Long Beach, Calif.
2017 Winner: James Hinchcliffe (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda) 90.845 mph average
Weather: Sunny, warm, 79 degrees F

Top-12 Qualifying Results:

Other Honda Results

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