BIRMINGHAM, AL (March 29, 2026) — Alex Palou returned to victory lane Sunday, winning the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park.

Driving the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, Palou started from pole, led 79 laps, and beat Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard by 13.2775 seconds.

The win was Palou’s second of the 2026 season and his third career victory at the picturesque 2.33-mile, 17-turn road course. It also marked a second consecutive win at Barber for Chip Ganassi Racing. The track was built by the late George Barber, who passed away in February at the age of 85.

“What an amazing car,” said Palou. “Another win here. Love this place, love the fans. What a great day. Today in the race, it was pretty good in the beginning, really good at the end, but we suffered a little bit on the used blacks (Firestone Firehawk primary tires) that we had to use.”

Lundgaard appeared poised to challenge Palou in the closing stages as pit cycles and traffic shuffled the field. Palou made his final stop first but rejoined in traffic among cars fighting to stay on the lead lap.

“Those moments you can lose the race in like nothing,” said Palou. “You can lose five, six seconds with two laps because you’re fighting with cold tires and lap cars.”

“It was coming down to I think like we were three seconds ahead of him when we pitted,” said Julian Robertson, lead engineer on the No. 10 Honda. “We had some pretty decent, once we got through the traffic, started running some decent laps. It was going to be really close.”

Lundgaard pushed to close the gap but saw his chances slip away during a slow final pit stop—more than 17 seconds—due to a right-rear issue.

“I think we had something for him (Palou),” said Lundgaard. “I don’t really know what happened (on pit road). It’s unfortunate because I was told that we would have passed him if we would have had a clean stop. At that point I really just wanted to get back past Graham (Rahal) to get back what we lost because Alex was gone.”

“He (Lundgaard) had two sets (alternate Firestone’s) because he didn’t advance to Fast Six,” explained Palou. “He had two sets of brand-new stickers. When we were on used primaries, which were not very good, he was on brand-new alternates. That’s why he was getting so close.”

Graham Rahal finished third—his best result of 2026—but could not hold off Lundgaard late. Team Penske’s David Malukas came home fourth, just 0.07 seconds behind Rahal after starting on the front row.

“It’s a good reward for the guys and gals,” said Rahal, who earned his first podium finish since August 2023 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. “Everybody has worked so hard to get back here and heard all the noise and b.s. that we get to hear all the time. All weekend the car was in very good shape and very, very competitive and very comfortable.”

Kyle Kirkwood finished fifth in the No. 27 JM Bullion Honda for Andretti Global and now holds a two-point lead over Palou in the championship standings heading into the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Strategy played a major role throughout the race. Palou started on the black sidewall Firestone Firehawk primary tires—harder and more durable but slower—while Malukas opted for the faster, quicker-wearing red sidewall alternates.

A difficult warmup session led Ganassi to adjust its approach and commit to the primary tire strategy.

“This morning with the warm-up, like, tanked,” said Robertson. “We kind of switched strategy somewhat, which meant in the middle of the race we had to put a set of used blacks on. Got pretty sketchy”.

The strategy ultimately paid off, as Palou secured the 21st win of his career and moved firmly back into the championship fight as he pursues a fourth consecutive title and a second Indianapolis 500 victory in May.

The IndyCar Series is off the next two weekends before returning for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday, April 19.

Barber IndyCar Results

BIRMINGHAM, AL (March 28, 2026) The NTT IndyCar Series is back on-track this weekend at the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park. This will be the Series first visit to a natural terrain road course in 2026.

Alex Palou starts on the pole position, is the defending race winner and also scored a win in 2021 with his Chip Ganassi Racing team. Palou is coming off a second place finish at the inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington two weeks ago and a victory at the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Palou dominated the 2025 event, winning by 16-seconds. Palou also won five of the seven road course races in 2025.

Who can challenge Palou?

Look no further than Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global. Kirkwood is coming off a victory at Arlington. Kirkwood and the No. 27 team has shown speed on the street courses the season with his win and a 4-place finish at St. Petersburg. Kirkwood also finished second on the short oval at Phoenix.

Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske scored back-to-back wins at the picturesque 2.38-mile, 17-turn track in 2023 and 2024. McLaughlin showed speed on the street course at St. Petersburg by winning the pole and finishing third, so expect the ‘thirsty three’s’ to be in the mix.

McLaughlin led Friday’s practice with a fast lap of 1 minute, 7.7245 seconds in the No. 3 Odyssey Battery Team Penske Chevrolet but didn’t fare so well during Saturday’s practice, losing control entering Turn 1 and crashing though the fence, which red-flagged the rest of the session. Watch the video here. McLaughlin was not hurt in the incident and will have to go to a backup car.

Penske’s Josef Newgarden leads all active drivers with 3-wins at the circuit, two with Penske (2017-2018) and one with CFH Racing 2015. Will Power, Palou, McLaughlin and Ryan Hunter-Reay, who is running the Indy 500 this year with Arrow McLaren, each have two wins apiece.

Team Penske is by far the most dominant team at Barber, scoring 8-wins in 15-races since IndyCar debuted at the track in 2010. Andretti and Ganassi have 2-wins apiece.

Barber is one of only four tracks on the IndyCar Schedule that 6-time Series Champion Scott Dixon has not won at, the others being St. Pete, Arlington and Portland. Dixon has 8-podium finishes at Barber including 6-second place finishes. If Dixon wants to reach the top step on the podium, Dixon, his engineer Brad Goldberg, and the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda crew need to start qualifying in the Firestone Fast Six, not mid-pack as they have so far in ’26.  Dixon starts 13th today.

Morning practice gets underway at 10 AM ET followed by the race at 1 PM ET on Fox and the IndyCar Radio Network.

BIRMINGHAM, AL (March 28, 2026) –  Alex Palou claimed pole position for Sunday’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park.

Palou’s fast lap of 1:06.2341 in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda marks the four-time series champion’s first pole of the season. He also topped Saturday’s practice session.

“I was very happy with the car this morning in Practice 2 compared to yesterday,” said Palou. “I feel like we were missing a little bit of balance, but today’s conditions helped a ton. We just wanted to start up front, capitalize on a really good car, and see what we can do tomorrow. I’m really happy to get our first pole this year.”

Team Penske’s David Malukas will start alongside Palou on the front row after posting a lap of 1:06.3478 in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet.

“Super happy,” said Malukas. “We had a shot at pole. It was my call to make a big setup change going into the Fast Six, and I overdid it—that’s on me. But starting on the front row for tomorrow is fantastic.”

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal will start third after a lap of 1:06.5181 in the No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Honda.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong qualified fourth at 1:06.5312 in the No. 66 SiriusXM Honda.

Championship points leader Kyle Kirkwood will start fifth in the No. 27 JM Bullion Andretti Global Honda. He set his time without using a set of new Firestone alternate tires, which he will have available for the race.

Romain Grosjean rounded out the Firestone Fast Six with a lap of 1:06.8363 in the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda.

Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammates did not fare as well. Six-time series champion Scott Dixon will start 13th in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda, while Kyffin Simpson qualified 18th in the No. 8 Sunoco Honda.

Scott McLaughlin will start alongside Dixon in 14th after rebounding from a heavy crash in morning practice at Turn 1 that sent his car into the fence.

Andretti’s Will Power suffered brake failure entering the downhill approach to Turn 5 and crashed. He was uninjured and will start 26th in the No. 12 TWG Ai Honda.

Mick Schumacher was the highest-qualifying rookie, starting 20th (1:06.8140) in the No. 45 ENVE Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

Sunday starts with a 30-minute warmup at 10 a.m. ET with the race starting at 1 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX, FOX One, the FOX Sports app and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls.