Palou rips to Barber pole with a field of surprises behind
Add another point to Alex Palou’s championship lead after the Spaniard, who earned his first IndyCar Series win at Barber (...)
Add another point to Alex Palou’s championship lead after the Spaniard, who earned his first IndyCar Series win at Barber Motorsports Park, took pole on Saturday for the Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix.
Palou wound the No. 10 Honda around the 2.3-mile road course in 1m07.2917s, clearing last year’s polesitter Scott McLaughlin by 0.1469s, who led the Team Penske trio in second with the No. 3 Chevy. Andretti Global’s Colton Herta was the lone representative from his team to have a strong run on Saturday, claiming third with a 1m07.4576s lap. Penske’s Will Power was fourth in the No. 12 Chevy with a 1m07.5616s run, and in fifth, the first of two great surprises were recorded.
Dale Coyne Racing and Rinus VeeKay starred with the No. 18 Honda as the Dutchman captured fifth with a tour of 1m07.9103s in front of Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel, who led the team in qualifying for the first time by claiming the final spot in the Firestone Fast Six with a lap of 1m08.0470s.
“It was great. It was really close,” Palou said. “We didn’t know if it was going to be wet or dry, so we were all I think panicking a little bit. You didn’t want to get caught at the worst moment. Got a pole; we don’t really get many, many poles. Feels good to start up front.”
With rain expected, the skies held and gave the field of 27 drivers nothing but dry running Saturday afternoon. McLaughlin was happy to find pace that was missing, and wasn’t overly bothered by starting next to Palou.
“We definitely left a little bit up on the table,” McLaughlin said. “A lap around here is a lot of fun. Alex did a great job. From our team, done 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.”
Qualifying was full of surprises as Kyle Kirkwood, polesitter and winner of the most recent race at Long Beach, missed making the Firestone Fast 12 and was down in 18th. Teammate Marcus Ericsson, who topped Friday’s activities, was farther back in 23rd. Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist’s magical opening to 2025 met some resistance as a general lack of speed left him 14th on the grid and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon was also among the disappointed as a half spin and trip into the gravel trap ruined his fastest lap, which relegated the six-time champion to 26th.
At the opposite end, a miserable year of qualifying for Team Penske was rectified by all three drivers cracking into the Fast 12 for the first time this season. Beyond McLaughlin and Power, Josef Newgarden rebounded after losing most of the morning session due to a faulty motor generator unit by running ninth.
The opening half of knockout qualifying saw Palou, McLaughlin, Armstrong, Pato O’Ward, Siegel and Power transfer into the Firestone Fast 12. Those who were done on the spot were led by Santino Ferrucci (P13), Alexander Rossi (P15), Christian Rasmussen (P17), Conor Daly (P19), Graham Rahal (P21), Ericsson (P23) and Jacob Abel (P25).
“The car was really good in the heat when the sun was out,” said Ericsson, who hammered the barriers Saturday morning in practice. “My crash didn’t help. Super disappointed with the results.”
For the second half of the first qualifying round, Herta, Newgarden, Christian Lundgaard, Kyffin Simpson, VeeKay, and Louis Foster advanced. Missing out were Rosenqvist (P14), Callum Ilott (P16), Kirkwood (P18), David Malukas (P20), Sting Ray Robb (P22), Robert Shwartzman (P24), Dixon (P26), who went off on his final lap in front of Devlin DeFrancesco, and then DeFrancesco himself (P27).
“I overslowed, then released the brake and lost the rear,” Dixon said. “Frustrating.”
The Firestone Fast 12 was a thrilling affair as IndyCar’s young guns showed out in the final seconds as Power, Palou, Herta, McLaughlin, VeeKay, and Siegel punched their way into the Fast Six.
Lundgaard (P7), O’Ward (P8), Newgarden (P9), Simpson (P10), Armstrong (P11) and Foster (P12) completed the Fast 12.
Palou put in a stellar lap that withstood shots from his closest rivals and earned the seventh IndyCar pole of his career.
