LIVE BLOG: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

Welcome to More Front Wing’s live blog from the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach! MFW Co-editor Paul Dalbey is at the track tapping out updates all weekend long. Updates are posted with the most recent at the top, so if this is your first visit to the live blog please go to the last page and work your way forward. For Verizon IndyCar Series time sheets and race info, visit the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Event Summary.

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Sunday

6:44 AM PT Monday — Good morning! Steph here. Paul has found himself internetless and needing to head home, so I’ll put a bow on the weekend’s live blog by redirecting you to our weekend wrap-up coverage via the links below.

Conway scores second win on the streets of Long Beach

2014 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Event Summary (already complete with full results, stats, and post-race point standings)

Our first impressions of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach (please add yours!)

Hot quotes from the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

Chaves flips the script with Indy Lights win at Long Beach

We hope you’ve enjoyed our coverage from the 40th running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. As always, we can’t thank you enough for your support!

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5:54 PM (PT) — The 40th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is in the books, and it will take quite a while to process what we just witnessed.  First of all, congrats to Mike Conway and the entire Ed Carpenter Racing team for their victory.  Regardless of the derpage that went on throughout the day, Conway drove a great race and earned his victory today.

That said, some of the action we saw on track today was just a little short of amateurish.  Let’s start with the biggest accident of the day.  When your own teammate calls you out as being impatient and rookie-like, that says something.  But that’s exactly what James Hinchcliffe said about Ryan Hunter-Reay.  Ryan’s move in a part of the track that just isn’t conducive to passing ruined the day for a significant number of drivers at the front of the field.  Besides the two Andretti Autosport drivers, Josef Newgarden, Helio Castroneves, and Jack Hawksworth were essentially (or totally) eliminated from competition.  All three were justifiably upset afterwards, with Helio taking to Twitter (in a tweet that has since been deleted) to decry Race Control’s failure to issue any penalties in the aftermath of all the carnage.

Another driver very upset (and justifiably so) after the race was Simon Pagenaud.  Simon was also having a great race before being punted out by Will Power. Now, I know my esteemed Co-editor Steph is already pondering conspiracy theories regarding Power getting a little favoritism because of the name on his sidepods, but I’m not buying it.  Yet.  I recognize their consistency today was questionable (at best), but I’m not ready to go so far as to imply he gets preferential treatment because Verizon adorns his car.  I’ll leave it at that for now.  I’m sure we’ll discuss this on this week’s More Front Wing podcast.

I could go on and on about other whacky happenings during today’s race, but I need to get a handful of other things done.  I’ll be back with more later.

NEXT PAGE: More coverage from the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach