Alex Palou delivered an unflappable drive to win the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park.
There was little doubt from the drop of the green flag as Palou, the reigning and four-time IndyCar Series champion, set sail into Turn 1 and relished a mistake-free race, leading 79 of 90 laps to beat Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard by 13.2775s. It’s his third win in six starts on the 2.3-mile, 17-turn natural terrain road course, and also stands as the 21st victory of his career.
“Incredible day for the #10 DHL Honda car,” said Palou, 28. “Qualiyfing was one of the best car balanced cars I ever drove. Today, in the race, it was really at the beginning, really good at the end, but we suffered a little bit on used blacks that we had to use. It was just a decision we had to take on strategy but yeah, incredible to win here. Love this place. Love the fans. Incredible day.”
Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) finished third, earning his first podium since 2023 at the second Indy GP race.
Team Penske’s David Malukas finished fourth, ahead of Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood.
With the victory, Palou moves to within two points of Kirkwood for the overall lead (156-154). Lundgaard sits third, 35 points behind.
The Race
Palou, who started on the harder primary tire, brought the field to the green flag and set off ahead of front-row mate Malukas into Turn 1.
The field managed to get through the opening few laps cleanly as battles began to take shape on track. On Lap 5, Lundgaard, who started 10th, made a lunging move to the inside of Marcus Ericsson in Turn 5 to take over seventh, with the pass coming with slight contact.
Lundgaard’s charge, equipped with the harder primary compound, continued four laps later with another pass in Turn 5, this time on Santino Ferrucci to move into sixth.
Ericsson’s continued slide down to 10th led him to pit early on Lap 14, swapping off primaries to the softer alternate tires. It began a trend as other players came in the next few laps, including Armstrong coming in from fifth.
Meanwhile, Malukas slipped up slightly, which allowed Rahal to pull off a pass into Turn 5 to take over second on lap 17. Rahal was able to build a gap quickly by over 3s on Malukas, who pitted on Lap 19 and changed off the alternates to a set of primary tires.
The cycle of stops finally came to an end as Palou – the last one to pit lane – pitted on Lap 27 and changed off the primaries to a set of softs.
The top five running order through the opening 30 laps was Palou, Rahal, Lundgaard, Malukas, and Kirkwood. The top three were on the alternate compound.
A close call for a caution happened on Lap 35 after Rinus VeeKay and Alexander Rossi came together battling for 14th in Turn 5, which led to the former spinning out. However, VeeKay gathered it back up and continued on in his #76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet to keep the race under green.
Palou built up a gap of 7s over Rahal by the halfway point, and dove to pit lane and swapped onto a set of 10-lap old primaries. Rahal pitted the following lap and bolted on a new set of alternates to go opposite of the Spaniard.
As a result, Lundgaard took over the lead and held the spot until pitting on Lap 50. However, he cycled out ahead of Rahal and 5.5s behind Palou, who reassumed the lead.
The gap dwindled down to 5s between Palou and Lundgaard by Lap 60.
The top five running order with 30 laps to go was Palou, Lundgaard, Rahal, Malukas, and Kirkwood. Marcus Armstrong (Meyer Shank Racing), Ericsson, Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing), Santino Ferrucci (AJ Foyt Racing), and Josef Newgarden (Team Penske) made up the rest of the top 10.
Lundgaard cut down Palou’s lead to 3.4s with 27 laps to go.
Palou pitted with 25 laps to go, handing the lead to Lundgaard. On the exit of pit lane, Palou and rookie Mick Schumacher were side-by-side with a tense moment on the warm-up lane before blending out. Palou stayed on primary tires.
The next lap saw Rahal pit and change to a set of primary tires.
Palou’s attempt to push and maintain the lead after the cycle was interrupted by another rookie as he came up on Dale Coyne Racing’s Dennis Hauger, who held him up briefly until he made a lunging move into Turn 12.
Lundgaard dove to pit lane from the lead with 21 laps to go, swapping to a set of harder primary tires. However, it was an error on the right-rear tire that created a longer stop, falling to third and 11s behind Palou.
Palou remained comfortably out front, but the fight for second 12s behind was on as Lundgaard began to apply the pressure on Rahal. Malukas was also starting to stalk the duo, roughly 2s behind.
With three laps to go, Lundgaard made a diving move on Rahal into Turn 5 to take second. Malukas then came into the fray, trailing Rahal by just 0.9s for the final spot on the podium.
Under pressure, Rahal made the back of his #15 Honda wide as Malukas, with 70s of push-to-pass available, was unable to get by on the final lap.
Palou sailed off with the win, with Lundgaard in second.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
– The Motorsport.com Team
