2016 Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi won for a second consecutive year at Long Beach after a dominant run, beating nearest rival Josef Newgarden by 20 seconds.
Scott Dixon attacked polesitter Rossi on the start but Rossi defended amazingly, pushing reigning champion wide and keeping the lead. Dixon settled into second ahead of the Penske duo.
But not all Penskes were up ahead, as Simon Pagenaud fell back as low as seventh.
A couple of laps after the start, 4 cars were involved in an incident bringing out full-course yellow flags. Three of the cars, including Jack Harvey, Spencer Pigot and Marcus Ericsson collided with Matheus Leist also picking up some damage, coming into the pits for a front wing change. Marcus Ericsson was declared at fault for the incident by stewards, resulting in a drive-through penalty for Arrow SPM car.
The race restarted soon afterwards at Lap 4, as Dixon attacked Rossi again on Turn 1 but Rossi again showed brilliant performance to keep Dixon trailing behind in the Chip Ganassi-Honda.
Behind the leading cars, it was Colton Herta who showed pace as he passed Patricio O'Ward, as the Mexican fell behind Felix Rosenqvist and Marco Andretti. Sebastien Bourdais and Santino Ferucci also passed the young driver but it was later revealed by the team that he was saving fuel. He fell as low to 16th at the start of Lap 10.
On the front however, Rossi continued to gain advantage over Dixon, with just 1.5 seconds separating them.
Rossi continued to gain his lead by 2 seconds on Lap 13 to 4 seconds on Lap 17 while Power closed in on Dixon, just 2 seconds separating them.
James Hinchcliffe was first to come in pits for servicing and put on a red set of tyred on Lap 25 with Ryan Hunter-Reay and Bourdais swapping blacks with reds.
The leader came in next lap and shifted to red tyres, with Dixon following him soon after. Power got promoted to lead but pitted soon afterwards with Newgarden pitting the following lap ahead of Scott Dixon.
After the pitstops, Rossi agained took the lead by 6 seconds with Power in second and Dixon, Graham Rahal and Hunter-Reay inching on him. The Meyer Shank Racing car of Jack Harvey held Power behind from lapping in, forcing Power to make a mistake and running down the escape road, tumbling down the order and rejoining in 8th.
Rossi extended his lead as much as 10 seconds up at front almost halfway point to the race, with Newgarden now trying to keep Dixon behind him, just 1 second separating the 2nd to 5th position cars.
Colton Herta soon had another disappointing victory after being youngest winner at COTA, as he lost control and went into the wall, forcing him to pit and retire.
Second pitstops for many of the front runners came by Lap 54, as Andretti duo of Marco Andretti and Hunter-Reay stopped for reds, with Rahal Letterman Lanigan cars following them. Rossi also pitted two laps later, but losing lots of time in pitlane due to refuelling issues.
After the pitstops, Rossi kept his lead from Newgarden, with 10 seconds separating them. Rahal was third ahead of Hunter-Reay and Dixon.
Hunter-Reay soon got under pressure from Dixon as he went under fuel saving mode and just 3 laps before chequered flags, he started slowing down to leap home with low fuel, as Dixon took the fourth place from him. Dixon then closed in on Rahal, who made a mistake in final lap by locking up in Turn 8. As Dixon came closer to completing the race, Rahal started blocking him aggressively as stewards gave Dixon the third place after the chequered flags.
In the end, Rossi was dominant by a major lead of 20 seconds, getting his first victory of 2019 season over Newgarden.
Behind Dixon and Rahal, Hunter-Reay took fifth ahead of Penske drivers Simon Pagenaud and Will Power with sister Rahal Letterman Lanigan car finishing ahead of Hinchcliffe and Rosenqvist to round off the top 10.
Bourdais came home 11th after a difficult weekend, with Pato O'Ward, Marco Andretti and Max Chilton following. Matheus Leist finished 15th after damage in early stages of the race.
Tony Kanaan finished 19th ahead of Marcus Ericsson, while Jack Harvey finished last in 23rd, ahead of Colton Herta who was the only casuality of the race.
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