2026 Grand Prix of Long Beach: Yelloly gets team’s first Long Beach pole

LONG BEACH — Nick Yelloly marked a first for his team on Friday.

Turning the fastest lap during Grand Touring Prototype qualifying in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Yelloly earned Meyer Shank Racing its first ever pole position in Long Beach.

“Very happy to bring that to the boys and girls who’ve been working their tails off to try and get this for a while,” Yelloly said. “Now we just have to keep it clean during the race because there’s always some chaos during the races here on Long Beach.”

Yelloly’s fastest lap – 1 minute, 11.626 seconds – came on his first lap of qualifying in his No. 93 Acura ARX-06, and was more than a half-second faster than any other driver during either of the two early practice sessions.

“I decided to really go out and get on top of it early,” Yelloly said. “I love street circuits and I was really able to push it. It was good fun.”

Canadian Orey Fidani got black-flagged for going the wrong way and will start 17th on the starting grid.

In GT Daytona qualifying, Frankie Montecalvo’s last lap was his best after posting a 1:18.411 in his No. 89 Lexus RCF GT3 to grab his sixth career pole and first at Long Beach.

“This place is a very difficult and technical track but we rolled off the truck extremely fast,” Montecalvo said. “Lexus loves this place and it’s one of my favorite street circuits.

“We work really hard off the track to come out swinging,” Montecalvo said. “I think we’ll rub some walls and use every inch of the track we’ve got, and it’ll pay off in the end.”

RASMUSSEN HONORED

IndyCar NTT Series driver Christian Rasmussen received his country’s top motorsports award on Friday.

Ahead of the post-qualifying press conference, Rasmussen was given the Danish Motorsport Driver of the Year award by the representatives of the Danish Automobile Sports Union.

“I didn’t think I get a trophy before the weekend even started,” said Rasmussen, who previously won the award in 2017. “At the end of the day, you’re just a little kid dreaming big.”

Rasmussen was the 2022 IndyCar NTT Series Rookie of the Year and is the first Danish driver to ever win an IndyCar race (Toronto in 2023).

ST. JAMES SURPRISE

IndyCar series icon Lyn St. James was among the 2027 induction class announced by the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America during a trackside ceremony on Friday.

MSHFA president Daren Lucas, IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway president J. Douglas Boles and IMSA president John Doonan combined to surprise St. James, the first woman to win the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year award in 1992.

St. James and the rest of the 2027 class will be formally inducted into the MSHFA in March during a ceremony at the museum located at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Other new inductees include Gary Bettenhausen (open wheel), Ron Capps (drag racing), Rob Dyson (sports cars), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (stock cars), Herb Fishel (business), Steve Hinton (aviation), Harry Hartz (historic), Angelle Sampey (motorcycles) and Robert Yates (stock cars).

TRÉ COOL TO RIDE

He drums fast but he’s about to go faster.

Tré Cool, the drummer for the five-time Grammy Award-winning and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted punk rock trio Green Day, will ride in the pace car ahead of the 51st annual Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday.

Representing a special livery on the No. 60 Meyer Shank Dallara Honda driven by Felix Rosenqvist, Cool joins a long list of celebrities to ride in an IndyCar ahead of the green flag in Long Beach that includes seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady, actors Channing Tatum and Simu Liu and musicians/singers Jon Bon Jovi and Lady Gaga.