LONG BEACH, Calif. — After opening the season with back to back 20th-place runs on the Streets of St Petersburg and Phoenix International Raceway, a wreck and a 24th-place finish on the Streets of Arlington and an 18th-place effort at Barber Motorsports Park, Nolan Siegel brought his No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet home in a very creditable 12th place in Long Beach after starting all the way back in 25th — a solid day just when he needed it. It was also Siegel’s first finish of 12th or better since an 11th-place run at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course back in July of 2025, race 10 of last season.
“Yeah, we needed it on the 6th car for sure, but I’m very proud of the group,” Siegel told Frontstretch. “It’s a new group, a lot of new people that are working together for the first time, and to have a result like this, it, you know, you look at 12th on paper and it might not look that spectacular, but coming from 25th to 12th around a street circuit like this, with just one yellow, I think that’s a really solid day and a big improvement for us on the 6 car, so looking forward to building on it and hopefully on days when we qualify well, we can turn that into, you know, a podium contender.”
Siegel was the biggest mover of the race, securing a solid result at a time when he’s under intense scrutiny for his performance compared to his Arrow McLaren teammates, Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard.
And on an afternoon when on-track passes were at a premium and it was very much a fuel-saving race, Siegel did a great job advancing through the field.
“Yeah, we made passes,” he said. The car was fast, so the fuel save is obviously a little bit easier when you’re just kind of naturally quick, but no, it was nice. Yesterday was, you know, we knew we had a lot of pace in the car and just didn’t get it done yesterday, so it’s nice to kind of realize the potential that we had yesterday, today.”
One additional element Siegel had to contend with on a warm afternoon in front of a packed house at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach was the disparity between the black Primary and red Alternate tires.
“It was actually a bigger difference than I was expecting,” Siegel continued. “I think a lot of people struggled to make the reds last and that was a big focus for me. After Saint Pete, we had some work to do on the tire conservation front. Just for my end, I have really good resources that have helped me a lot, and we were able to make the reds last really well. “So, for me, I think the red was the preferred tire actually, which was kind of unexpected, but ultimately I think a lot of our success came from the fact that we had low degradation on the reds.”
And with the first five races now in the books, the thoughts of the entire paddock turn to Indianapolis and the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
“Going into the month of May, it’s the most grueling part of the season for sure, but also the most exciting with the Indy 500 and in kind of IndyCar’s hometown, so there’s a lot of excitement around it. For us, I feel like again we had a lot of potential last year, and I’m very much looking forward to going to the speedway.
“We’ve got the Indianapolis Grand Prix first, so another road course race, but going into it, coming off of a strong day here, I think is really good, and it’s nice to have everyone be, you know, happy and excited about the month of May before it gets grueling.”
Danny Peters has written for Frontstretch since 2006. An English transplant living in San Francisco, by way of New York City, he’s had an award-winning marketing career with some of the biggest companies sponsoring sports. Working with racers all over the country, his freelance writing has even reached outside the world of racing to include movie screenplays.
This guys a keeper, keep him away from indycar.