Long Beach IndyCar: Thursday driver round-up

Jackson Lambros
4 days ago
4 min read

Written by Jackson Lambros, Edited by Archie O’Reilly

Ahead of the 50th edition of IndyCar’s Grand Prix of Long Beach - the third round of the 2025 season - DIVEBOMB caught up with a number of drivers during Thursday’s Media Luncheon…

Will Power (Team Penske)

Power: “I think apart from the 500, this is the race you want to win. It’s a cool venue with a lot of history and a cool track. You’ve got the fountain, you’re on the ocean, always a massive crowd here. So it’s a cool one to win.”

Q: Defending champion Álex Palou is off to a hot start. Is that something that’s concerned the Penske camp at all?

Power: “It’s a long season, man. Even with four [races] to go, you’re not out of the game. I have to say he’s not really on my mind. I’m just trying to get my season going. It’s not like I’m P2 in the championship - I’m way back. So I’ve just been thinking: ‘Let’s get some points on the board and start rolling here.’”

Q: Exactly a year ago, you called your shot with your team’s performance at the Indy 500, saying you had front row pace. Any desire to share your thoughts again this year?

Power: “I know what I feel but I got in trouble last time I said it… it’s no different.”

Devlin DeFrancesco (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing)

DeFrancesco: “Happy to be back with a new team and new colours. I think I’ve settled in well here. We’ve shown solid speed at the last two rounds, we just haven’t put it together yet, to be quite frank. To nail it in this series you can’t have any small mistakes. A couple tenths is the difference between advancing in qualifying.

“To have a puncture in St. Pete was tough and everyone saw what happened in Thermal. We had the third quickest lap [at thermal] and our average stint pace was seventh best, so it’s frustrating. We’re looking forward to getting going here in Long Beach - there’s no better place to start strong and really get our season going than here.”

Q: Obviously a big altercation with Scott McLaughlin post-race after a collision between you two at Thermal. Have you two spoken since then?

DeFrancesco: “We spoke about it. Air has been cleared and we’re moved forward.”

Rinus VeeKay (Dale Coyne Racing)

VeeKay: “Going out every weekend now, I think we can legitimately go for top 10 everywhere. We were on our way to do it in Thermal again, running seventh but with a tyre issue. I think we have top-10 pace so far but also I can’t really tell because we can’t really go off last year from this team.

“But we’re all still getting into the groove since everything came together very late for us. I’d be happy with a top 10. But maybe it will be a top five at the end of the weekend. Who knows?”

Q: You have brought out a lot of pace for Dale Coyne Racing unseen last year. What does it feel like you have contributed to the team?

VeeKay: “When a team has nine drivers the past season, that doesn’t help. Everyone looks for something different and it gets all over the place at that point. Having five years of IndyCar experience helps. Knowing what a car needs and what we need to chase as a team, that really helps.”

Q: How has it been settling into the team and working alongside Jacob?

VeeKay: “It’s the first time I’ve had a younger teammate. But it’s been good - we’re a good combo and we’re having fun, which is super important. We’re doing what we need to do, keeping the car in one piece and getting those finishes so we get into the Leaders’ Circle.”

Jacob Abel (Dale Coyne Racing)

Abel: “I raced here in a Robby Gordon Stadium Super Truck in 2021 so I’ve raced on the track technically. But I don’t really have a tonne of valuable experience I can pull from. But I think it’s going to be a really cool event. I’ve heard a tonne about it, obviously being one of the most historic IndyCar races there is.

“Just hearing all the history and the drivers that have won here makes us a lot more motivated to go out and do well. Obviously it’s my first time so expectations aren’t super crazy, but I think just trying to get through here with another clean result and just getting a lot of experience will be the best thing for us.”

Q: You said at the start of the season the objective was to bring the Abel Motorsports mentality of a family team to Dale Coyne Racing. How has that process been?

Abel: “Awesome. And I think Rinus is a huge help with that. We’re obviously one of the smaller teams on the grid so I think it just means we need to all work together and pull together our minds and experiences to succeed. There’s not a lot of us out there so it’s really crucial that we work efficiently and we all work together well.”