Alex Palou celebrates with his No. 10 HRC Chip Ganassi Honda crew after a dominant performance at the Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park. (Photo: IndyCar | Joe Skibinski)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Coming into the Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix presented by AmFirst at Barber Motorsports Park, Alex Palou knew a thing or two about success at the 17-turn, 2.3-mile natural terrain road course. Palou’s first race in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Car in 2021 resulted in his first NTT IndyCar Series victory.
Fast forward four years later – Palou and his No. 10 team are still winning at Barber Motorsports Park.
Palou and the No. 10 HRC Chip Ganassi Racing Honda team masterfully executed the overcut strategy and led 81 of the 90 scheduled laps as he cruised to victory by 16.003 seconds over second-place finisher Christian Lundgaard in the No. 7 Velo Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. This marked Palou’s third victory in four races of the young 2025 season.
“It was a perfect day,” said Palou. “I would say a perfect weekend. First time we broke in that No. 10 HRC livery. Super proud of everybody that has been working on the 10 car at Chip Ganassi Racing and HRC as well. Honestly, it’s just been the perfect day, the car was amazing, super fast and just had a ton of fun.
“I was a bit lonely there, but I loved it. It was an amazing day.”
Christian Lundgaard driving his way to his third podium finish of the season at the Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park. (Photo: IndyCar | Joe Skibinski)
In his first year with Arrow McLaren Racing, Lundgaard has put pressure on team-lead driver Pato O’Ward as the best performing driver in 2025. Lundgaard came to Barber Motorsports Park with a 46-point deficit to Palou. With his second place run and third podium of the year, Lundgaard moved up one spot in the standings to second place, but now has a sizable 60-point gap behind points leader Palou.
“It’s everything we could’ve hoped for and much better,” said Lundgaard. “The No. 7 Velo Arrow McLaren Chevrolet crew has done an awesome job all year. I think in Thermal we proved it straight on pace, strategy was good and the 10 car still beat us. We knew we could go aggressive after yesterday. The car hasn’t really been as good all week as it was in the test when we tested here.”
The Barber winner for the last two years, Scott McLaughlin, demonstrated his continued success at the 17-turn road course by rounding out the podium with a third-place finish in his No. 3 Good Ranchers Team Penske Chevrolet.
“The Good Ranchers Chevy has been fast last few years,” said McLaughlin. “We got to keep being there, and if we’re there we’re okay.”
It will be hard-pressed to choose one driver who had the drive of the day, outside of Palou’s dominance. Scott Dixon and Rinus Veekay are two drivers who certainly made their case. Six-time series champion Dixon was the biggest mover of the day, gaining 14 positions from his 26th starting position to bring it home in 12th.
“We were hoping for some caution man,” said Dixon. “It’s definitely frustrating starting 26th, and I think when you have a field that’s so strong right now, to pass 14 cars is really really tough.”
Rinus Veekay navigating the Barber Motorsports Park on his way to his best finish of the season, coming home fourth in the Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix. (Photo: IndyCar)
Veekay arguably had the most impressive showing of the weekend with a fifth-place starting position during Saturday’s Firestone Fast 6. He raced hard throughout the event to improve one position and come home in the fourth position for his first top five finish of the season in the No. 18 askROI Dale Coyne Racing Honda, his first top five since Iowa Race 1 last season.
Veekay now looks to build on a strong weekend showing, moving into two of his better racetracks at the Sonsio GP at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course and the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.
“It was a great race,” said Veekay. “I had a lot of fun out there. Showed a lot of strength in a car that was really allowing me to be strong. The key was pit sequences and being in clean air.”
If you ask anyone in the series, Palou’s domination came at no surprise. Since 2021, there have been four races with double-digit winning margins on road course tracks. Those four races were all won by Palou (Laguna Seca ’22, Indy GP ’23, Thermal GP ’25 and Barber ’25).
“Props to Alex,” said McLaughlin. “When a guy is on top of his game you can just do the best you can in that regard. I feel like week in and week out we can challenge him. But if he keeps executing, all we can do is execute as well. Props to his team.”
The start of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season has caused some uneasy feelings among fans. After the checkered flag at Barber, this season has now seen 339 consecutive green-flag laps, dating back to Lap 1 of the season opener Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Coincidently, since the NTT IndyCar Series debuted the new hybrid technology in July of 2024 at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the series has only seen two on-track green-flag passes for the lead on road and street courses.
Time will tell how the series directors will improve the on-track product of late, but it seems as though no drastic changes will be made in the foreseeable future.
Palou surrendered his 4.8-second advantage over Lundgaard when he made his final stop of the day at Lap 65. The Chip Ganassi crew orchestrated a flawless stop, and Palou regained the lead on lap 68 after Lundgaard and Alexander Rossi in the No. 20 Java House ECR Chevrolet made their final stops from the lead.
It was smooth sailing from there for the 28-year-old Spaniard. Palou stretched his lead out in the closing laps and cruised to an easy victory, and the 14th of his IndyCar career. Palou built a 34-point lead over second-place driver Kyle Kirkwood with three races into the season. Leaving Barber, Palou now enjoys a comfortable 60-point advantage over Lundgaard.
Up next for the NTT IndyCar Series is the Sonsio Grand Prix at the infamous Indianapolis Motor Speedway, all paving the way to the first day of oval practice on Tuesday, May 13 in preparation for the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. The 500 takes place on Sunday, May 25 at 12:45 p.m ET on FOX and the SiriusXM IndyCar Radio Network channel 218.
