In the fortnight between the Brazilian and Long Beach races, Carlos Reutemann decided that he wanted to retire from Formula 1. Williams scrambled around to find a replacement and ended up with Mario Andretti in the car. Qualifying produced a surprise as Andrea de Cesaris took pole position in his Alfa Romeo ahead of Niki Lauda's McLaren, the two Renaults of René Arnoux and Alain Prost and Bruno Giacomelli in the second Alfa. The top 10 was completed by Nelson Piquet (Brabham), Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari (which featured a strange extra wide rear wing), Keke Rosberg in the Williams FW07 and the impressive Jean-Pierre Jarier in one of the Osellas.

At the start de Cesaris went into the lead while Lauda did not get away well and so it was Arnoux who led the chase. On lap six Giacomelli tried to pass Lauda and in doing so collided with Arnoux. Both were out and the road was clear for Lauda to close on de Cesaris. In the early laps John Watson drove a storming race in his McLaren and was in third place by the ninth lap ahead of Villeneuve, Rosberg, Piquet and the rest. Pironi and Prost soon joined the list of retirements as they crashed out. On lap 15 Lauda took the lead from de Cesaris and began to pull away.

Six laps later Villeneuve tried to pass Rosberg and ended up in an escape road. On lap 26 Piquet made a mistake and hit the wall and nine laps later de Cesaris's race ended in a similar fashion although his engine had blown up just before the crash. All this left Lauda with a huge lead. Rosberg was second because Watson had run into trouble and pitted. Villeneuve was third but was later disqualified for using the curious rear wing which was declared illegal. This gave Patrese third with Michele Alboreto (Tyrrell) fourth, Elio de Angelis (Lotus) fifth and Watson sixth.