Alex Palou captures his first pole of 2025 at the Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL. (Photo: IndyCar).
Birmingham, Ala – Just when it looked like that Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin was on his way to back-to-back poles in the NTT INDYCAR Series Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix powered by AmFirst at the Barber Motorsports Park, Alex Palou had other plans.
Palou knocked McLaughlin off the pole position with time expired in the Fast 6 session, to solidify his first NTT P1 Award of 2025. Three-time and back-to-back NTT IndyCar Series champion Palou earned his seventh pole of his career with a lap of 1 minute, 7.2918 seconds in the No. 10 HRC Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, edging out McLaughlin by 0.1469 seconds.
Results: Barber Qualifying
“What an amazing day for the 10 car,” Palou said in a post-qualifying interview. “This is such a special place for us here. We got our first race win in IndyCar back in 2021. It was super close. I don’t think my first lap (in the Fast 6) was very good. I was just hoping to get a perfect lap on the second one on the alternates. So, yeah, cannot wait for tomorrow now.”
Two-time reining Barber winner McLaughlin almost scored his second pole of the season and had to settle for second place with a lap of 1:07.4387 in the No. 3 Good Ranchers Team Penske Chevrolet.
“We definitely left a little bit up on the table,” McLaughlin said. “A lap around there is a lot of fun. Alex (Palou) did a great job. From our team, we did a really good job just coming back because I feel like we had a bad test here, we sort of went the wrong way a little bit. Fixed it yesterday, massaged it today, and got it going.”
Scott McLaughlin navigating the Barber Motorsports Park road course during practice for the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix on May 3, 2025 (Photo: IndyCar).
Colton Herta will start Sunday’s race in the third position with a lap of 1:07.4576 in the No. 26 Gainbridge Andretti Global Honda. Herta was the best-performing Andretti Global driver, as notable series favorites Marcus Ericsson and Long Beach winner Kyle Kirkwood failed to move past the first round of qualifying.
After an abysmal average starting position of 15.7-place to start his 2025 season, Team Penske driver Will Power scored a fourth-place starting position in his No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, his best starting position of the season.
The last time that the Dutchman of Rinus Veekay qualified in the top six of an NTT IndyCar Series race, you have to go back to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in 2023. Veekay put together a solid performance in the round of 12 to solidify his shot at the pole in the Firestone Fast 6. Ultimately, Veekay put together a lap of 1:07.9103, good enough for the fifth starting position in the No. 18 askROI Dale Coyne Racing Honda.
“I’m very happy,” said Veekay. “I love this place, it’s always been good to me. The car was exactly what I needed to be quick, so that really makes it a lot more fun too. Big props to Dale Coyne Racing and Honda for giving me what I need. But yeah, it was awesome out there, I had a lot of fun.”
One of IndyCar’s youngest and upcoming drivers, Nolan Siegel, turned heads when he made his first Firestone Fast 6 session of his young career. Ultimately, the pace wasn’t what was needed to break the top five, but Siegel laid down a lap of 1:08.0470, good enough for a career-best sixth-place starting position.
“I think it was just execution to be honest,” said Siegel. “Going into this,s I don’t think we really expected to be in the Fast 6. I think we thought our true pace was top 10 hopefully, we’ve been top 10 in every session. In the fast 6 I just feel like everything went smoothly, we were calm, collected, made good small changes, and didn’t get ahead of ourselves and executed everything really well.”
The 90-lap race at the 17-turn, 2.3-mile Barber Motorsports Park road course will take place at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 4, on FOX and Sirius XM IndyCar National Channel 218.
