Alex Palou is in a familiar position, starting first for Sunday’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix powered by AmFirst.
The four-time series champion, including three consecutively, earned the NTT P1 Award last year and turned it into his second Barber Motorsports Park victory, by a whopping 16.0035 seconds.
Graham Rahal finds himself in less familiar territory, starting third in the No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Rahal and points leader Kyle Kirkwood were the only drivers to qualify on used sets of the softer Firestone Firehawk alternate tires in the Firestone Fast Six, leaving them with two fresh sets for Sunday’s race. Kirkwood starts a season-best fifth in the No. 27 JM Bullion/Gold.com Honda for Andretti Global.
“We’re not here all that often, so we don’t really know the strategy too much,” Rahal said with a smile.
That assessment undersells Rahal’s recent form. He reached the Firestone Fast Six four times last season, including two appearances on natural road courses. He started second in the Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and sixth at Road America.
Still, Rahal believed his qualifying effort at Barber was far from perfect and questioned whether he has enough to challenge Palou, who led 81 of 90 laps in last year’s race at the 2.3-mile, 17-turn circuit, in Sunday’s 90-lap race airing at 1 p.m. ET on FOX, FOX One, the FOX Sports app and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls.
But if the tire strategy breaks his way, Rahal may be well-positioned to contend for the win.
Rahal has two runner-up finishes at Barber, in 2015 and 2016. He enters Sunday’s race riding a 146-race winless drought dating to his 2017 doubleheader sweep at Detroit.
While the pole sitter has won the last two Barber races, recent trends are less decisive. The last six pole winners dating to the final three races of last season have finished second, second, 24th, second, third and fourth, respectively.
“Hopefully, we can take the battle to him,” Rahal said of Palou. “We’ve had a chance to win here before, so hopefully we can make it happen. We have good tire wear and good life.”
Malukas Keeps Rolling
David Malukas continued his strong start to the season in qualifying, earning the second starting spot in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. His previous best start at Barber was 17th for Dale Coyne Racing in 2023.
He entered the weekend with the best average starting position in the field after qualifying fifth in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, winning his first career pole in the Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway and starting ninth in the inaugural Java House Grand Prix of Arlington.
“Satisfied, for sure, but it still hurts because we could have gone for the pole,” Malukas said. “We made a call at the end in the Fast Six and overstepped it a bit.
“That’s on me. I wanted to be aggressive. But overall, this Team Penske Chevrolet has been awesome. I’m really happy to start on the front row and keep the consistency going.”
Malukas seeks his first series victory in his 65th start.
Team Penske has won a record eight races at Barber and won the last natural road course race, last August at Portland International Raceway with Will Power. Malukas replaced Power at Team Penske this offseason.
Armstrong Delivers Fourth-Place Start
Marcus Armstrong starts fourth in the No. 66 SiriusXM Honda for Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian.
Barber is the site of Armstrong’s first-ever Firestone Fast Six appearance in 2024, and his Saturday speed created his seventh career run in the final round of NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying.
“That was like driving a rocket ship with wheels,” Armstrong said. “That’s what it felt like. I was very determined today. Maybe a little too determined, as I demonstrated on my lap. I pushed a little too hard, but that’s good because Angela (Ashmore, lead engineer) gave me a car that I was able to do that and not put it in the wall. There’s potential there if the driver does his job. I feel good for the race, and the car is fast.”
Armstrong (photo, above) is winless in 49 career starts but has a career-best finish of third twice, the most recent last year at Iowa Speedway. He enters this race ninth in points with a top-11 finish in all three races.
Ferrucci Trending Up
Santino Ferrucci starts seventh in the No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet, his best road course qualifying result since his pole in 2024 at Portland International Raceway.
“I sent it into Turn 13 and just went a bit too far,” Ferrucci said. “That probably cost us a spot in the Fast Six. But we’ve come a long way as a team.
“We’ve had great race cars. I just want to pass fewer cars in races. It feels good to start up front.”
Ferrucci had a 15.4 average starting position on permanent road courses last season. He climbed from 17th to finish seventh at Barber in 2024.
Dixon Still Chasing Saturday Speed
Barber remains one of four active tracks (St. Petersburg, Arlington, Portland International Raceway the others) where Scott Dixon has yet to win. It is also the track where he has the most runner-up finishes, with six.
If he is to change that Sunday, the six-time series champion will need to do it from 13th on the grid.
Oddly, this marks Dixon’s best qualifying effort of the season after starts of 16th at St. Petersburg, 15th at Phoenix and 20th at Arlington. He recovered to finish seventh and eighth in the last two races.
“There have been things out of our control and some in my control,” Dixon said. “I just haven’t executed well.
“We went aggressive on the push lap and didn’t execute. I lost a lot of time in Turns 12 and 13.”
Dixon has 59 career victories, second all-time behind A.J. Foyt’s 67. A win Sunday would make Barber the 29th different track where he has won.
Strategy Could Swing Race
Barber’s 90-lap race typically falls within a 26-30 lap fuel window, but tire strategy continues to evolve with Firestone’s compounds.
Teams must use both primary and new alternate tires for at least two laps.
Recent races have featured a mix of two- and three-stop strategies.
Pato O’Ward won the 2022 race, and his strategy was to begin on the softer alternate tires. He pitted on Lap 29 for primaries and again on Lap 61 for a new set of primary tires. He made it to the finish line with two pit stops.
Scott McLaughlin won the next two years with two different strategies. Both years, he started on primary tires. However, in 2023, he pitted on Laps 15 and 38 for alternate tires. He chose to pit for a third time on Lap 63 for primaries. That allowed him to go the final 27 laps to the checkered flag without stopping. The next year, McLaughlin pit on Laps 28 and 46 for alternates. He ran the penultimate stint to Lap 75 and did the final 14 laps on another set of alternates.
Last year, Palou started on alternates. By doing so, his first pit stop came five laps sooner than McLaughlin’s in 2024 by pitting on Lap 23. His second-to-last stop came on the same lap as McLaughlin’s on Lap 46. He also went with alternates. The final stop was the difference. Palou pitted on Lap 65 for the more durable primary tires to get him home for the final 25 laps.
What’s this year’s strategy?
Drivers believe the alternate tires are again the preferred method, so strategy is a crucial part to determine Sunday’s outcome.
Odds and Ends
- Nine of the 10 full-time teams made the second round of quals. Juncos Hollinger Racing was the only team not represented. Rinus VeeKay starts 16th in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet while Sting Ray Robb is 25th in the No. 77 Juncos Hollinger – Goodheart Chevrolet.
- There were seven different teams represented in the top seven of the starting lineup: Chip Ganassi Racing (first), Team Penske (second), Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (third), Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian (fourth), Andretti Global (fifth), Dale Coyne Racing (sixth), AJ Foyt Racing (seventh).
- Romain Grosjean earned his second Firestone Fast Six appearance of the season. He started sixth at St. Petersburg. This car, driven by VeeKay last season, started fifth and finished fourth. Grosjean also finished runner-up here in 2023 after winning the pole.
- O’Ward and Kirkwood are the only drivers with top-10 finishes in all three races this season. O’Ward starts a season-worst 12th on Sunday in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. He started eighth, seventh and third in the first three races, respectively.
- Phoenix winner and two-time Barber victor Josef Newgarden (No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet) starts ninth for the second consecutive year at Barber. He finished 10th in last year’s race.
- Alexander Rossi overcame a mechanical issue in Friday’s practice to qualify 11th for Sunday’s race in the No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet. Rossi started last in St. Petersburg but has since qualified sixth, 10th and 11th, respectively.
