IndyCar
Who can challenge Alex Palou at Barber Motorsports Park
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. Â 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.
LONG BEACH, CA (April 19, 2026) – A great pit stop helped Alex Palou pass Felix Rosenqvist in the pits and Palou did the rest, winning Sunday’s NTT IndyCar Series Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
“Incredible,” said Palou, who picked up his third win of the season and 22nd of his IndyCar career. “Feel so, so lucky with the opportunity I had to win the 500 last year, the Long Beach GP this year, it just feels like I’m living on this amazing cloud of happiness.”
Rosenqvist was out front when the caution flag flew on Lap 57 for debris in turn four, which set up the showdown between the Meyer Shank Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing pit crews.
“This full-course yellow put everything on that pit stop,” said Palou. “The guys did an incredible job once again.”
“Having the pit location and the pit crew we have, it certainly was on the top of our minds coming down pit lane knowing we have a shot at getting the win here,” said Barry Wanser, No. 10 Team Manager. “Again, the guys came through.”
“That last pit cycle was kind of the defining moment,” said Rosenqvist, who led a race-high 51-laps. “I don’t even think we had that bad of a stop. We had to come around the 14. I don’t know if Alex had an open in. Details like that matter. It didn’t seem like a super slow stop, but he probably nailed it or his crew.”
Despite falling short of a win, Rosenqvist said there were plenty of positives to take away from the team’s trip to the West Coast.
“I think all in all we got to be happy as a weekend for us at Meyer Shank Racing. We had a win yesterday with Nick in IMSA. We had a pole there as well, then a pole here and a P2. We just fell short of a grand slam.”
Scott Dixon finished third in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda, giving team owner Chip Ganassi two cars on the podium and the 6-time series Champion his best finish of the season
“Huge weekend for the Ganassi cars,” said Dixon. “I think probably one of the best for qualifying between all us, which was really good. It was nice just to have a clean weekend, no major issues, no damage, no mess-ups or anything like that. That was a lot of fun.”
Palou and Dixon’s teammate Kyffin Simpson brought the No. 8 Sunoco Honda home in tenth place, so all three CGR cars finished in the Top 10.
Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood finished fourth after starting third and gave up the Championship lead to Palou. Kirkwood now trails the four-time Series Champion by 17-points.
Pato O’Ward rounded out the Top 5 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
Next up for the IndyCar Series is two days of testing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on April 28-29 as teams get ready for the Indianapolis 500.
The next race is the Sonsio Grand Prix on Saturday, May 9, on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course at IMS, which kicks off the Month of May.
LONG BEACH, CA (April 18,, 2026) – Felix Rosenqvist is on the pole position for Sunday’s NTT IndyCar Series Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach after turning a fast lap of of 1 minute, 7.4635 seconds in the No. 60 SiriusXM/Acura Honda.
The pole capped a great day for Meyer Shank Racing who on the IMSA race on Saturday.
“So great to put it on pole here and it’s been a long time, so it feels good,” said Rosenqvist. “But what a day for Meyer Shank Racing with the win in the IMSA race today and now the pole for the IndyCar race.”
Pato O’Ward, Rosenqvist’s good friend and former teammate, will start from the front row after qualifying a season-best second at 1:07.5076 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
“That was nerve-wracking to watch my ole buddy Pato do his run, and I wasn’t sure if we’d get it,” said Rosenqvist. “But the SiriusXM Green Day Acura has been great and hope we can have a good day tomorrow.”
“This is by far the best qualifying day I’ve had,” said O’Ward. “I’ve been happy with the car I’ve been given from practice one. Hats off to Arrow McLaren and Team Chevy. I know we’re leading their pack.”
Four-time Series Champion Alex Palou will start from the third position in the No. 10 OpenAI Chip Ganassi Racing Honda with 2026 Championship points leader Kyle Kirkwood right beside in the No. 27 JM Bullion/Gold.com Andretti Global Honda.
David Malukas will start fifth in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet, the best qualifying car for Team Penske.
Six-time Series Champion Scott Dixon will start sixth in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Â The qualifying effort was Dixon’s best of 2026.
Next up is a 30-minute warmup Sunday at 1 p.m. ET (FS1, FOX One, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls).
The 90-lap race around the 11-turn, 1.968-mile iconic temporary street circuit starts at 5:30 p.m. ET (FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX One, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls).
LONG BEACH, CA (April 18, 2026) Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood is picking up right where he left off at Long Beach. Â The 2025 winner of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach was quickest in the second NTT IndyCar Series practice session at the iconic street circuit.
Kirkwood’s fast lap of 1-minute, 7.5417-seconds was 0.2333-seconds quicker than Team Penske’s David Malukas.
Saturday’s practice session was sort of similar to Friday’s session as Andretti Global and Team Penske were 1-2 on the timing chart, except Friday’s session was led by Will Power, who beat out Scott McLaughlin for the top spot.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou was fourth quickest on both days in the No. 10 OpenAI Honda.
Knockout style qualifying takes place at 6:30 p.m. ET with the Firestone Fast Six shifting to single car attempts.
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