Step inside the mind of Alexander Rossi.
The Andretti Autosport driver has only improved since his 2016 Indianapolis 500 win, as he gave Scott Dixon a scare in the 2018 NTT IndyCar Series championship race. And he's second in points this year after a dominant showing at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach three weeks ago. It was his second consecutive win from the pole in on the famous Southern California street course — this time by nearly 18 seconds.
But he's not always been this sharp, especially in qualifying. When he raced in Europe, he had a hard time clearing his mind. His times suffered the consequence.
"I was making tiny little mistakes," Rossi said. "I actually went to a sports psychologist who talked to me A) about compartmentalizing all the information you have; and B) visualization."
Since then, Rossi has become really, really good at visualization (and qualifying). Watch him take on one of his favorite tracks (Long Beach, of course) with no reference, by memory — and for good measure — wearing a blindfold. It's scary good.