Everything you need to know about the 2026 Long Beach Grand Prix

The powerful Indy cars competing in Sunday’s Long Beach Grand Prix will consume about two gallons of fuel on each of their 90 trips around the tight 1.968-mile street course.

So, if all 27 cars that start the race also finish, the peloton will consume 4,860 gallons of fuel. And that doesn’t include fuel used in qualifying or in the five other categories of cars that will compete in the three days of racing at Long Beach.

That’s a lot of fuel for drivers who will find themselves back in the same place they started, especially as seven weeks of war in the Middle East have pushed gasoline prices to record levels. However, the fuel used by the IndyCar Series differs significantly from what comes out of the pump at the gas station.

“This year marks the fourth season that IndyCar has used 100% renewable racing fuel for the NTT IndyCar Series – the first motorsports series in North America to use this type of fuel,” an IndyCar spokesperson wrote in a statement. “Developed through a collaboration with Shell, this innovative fuel is made from a blend of second-generation ethanol derived from sugarcane waste and other biofuels primarily derived from animal waste. The use of this renewable racing fuel enables a 60% reduction in life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions.”

So while driving Indy cars 177 miles in a circle may seem pointless in a gas crisis, Sunday’s race will have a negligible effect on the price and availability of fuel at gas stations. The biggest impact will be fans traveling to Long Beach; last year’s three-day race weekend attracted more than 200,000 people.