Alex Palou ‘struggled quite a lot’ in dominant victory at Barber
- Jeffrey Hrunka
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
Jeffrey Hrunka - INDYCAR Contributor
Alex Palou put on a dominant performance around Barber Motorsports Park for the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix, leading 79 laps en route to his second win of the season on Sunday. His perfect day was cemented by a significant gain in the point standings, as his 21st victory vaulted Palou two points behind championship leader Kyle Kirkwood.
"I'm glad the 13th pole didn't affect the result. That was on my mind. Apart from that, everything was great," Palou said. "Lundgaard was getting very close. Rahal was getting very close. I think we got lucky there with the pit exchange that they lost some pace or some time. I'm glad everything worked out for us in the No.10 car."
Alex Palou, driver of the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, translated his dominant performance from last season's race, in which he finished with a 16-second gap and led 81 laps. In this year’s running, the four-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion put on a similar performance, crossing the line 13 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Christian Lundgaard, driver of the No.7 Arrow-McLaren Chevrolet.
Unlike last year, Palou's win was in jeopardy in the latter portion of the race as tire strategy took several teams by surprise. In Sunday’s warm-up session ahead of the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix, drivers discovered that the primary "hard" tires were the preferred option after an entirely alternate “red” compound dominant race last season.
"It was a very tough race. I guess you guys cannot really see it from the outside, but we struggle quite a lot. We had to run a used set of primaries in our third stint, which we never, ever do that," Palou said. "It's the one that we used in practice two. We just did that because we thought it was going to be a red race."
For other drivers like Lundgaard and Graham Rahal, driver of the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda, red tires accumulated on their cars, with Lundgaard moving from tenth to finish in the runner-up position.
Rahal wasn’t in the fight for the lead, but held off David Malukas, driver of No.12 Team Penske Chevrolet, for a third-place finish, marking his first podium since 2023. Malukas settled for a fourth-place finish.
"It's a great reward for the guys and gals. Everybody has worked so hard to be back here," Rahal said. "t's a good relief this early in the year to have a good result. Now our job is to go analyze and figure out why. What changes did we make to put our car so much further into the window than most other road course races."
Although Lundgaard tied a career-best finish of second, all he could think about was what could have been.
"Everything you just said sounds great except the P2 part. I think we had a race-winning car today," Lundgaard said. "Obviously, it's frustrating. The past many few races, we've produced such great race cars on Sunday."
As Palou came in for his final pit stop, a switch to used primary tires, combined with heavy lap traffic, opened the door for his competitors to gain an advantage. Lundgaard took it, staying out to overcut Palou as he trailed him by three seconds before the final set of stops.
The Arrow-McLaren driver ran several consecutive personal bests when in the lead, erasing his gap to Palou, and was projected to overtake him during his next pit stop. A costly 17.8-second pit stop changed all that, slotting him behind Rahal and putting him in attacking range of Malukas. He retook Rahal for second with two laps to go.
"I basically pulled in around four and a half seconds on him on the stints. On my way up [to the media center], I was told that the traffic that he had as he came out for the last stint, we would have cleared him on a normal pit stop," Lundgaard said. "Obviously, the pace was there to win the race. I think it would have been a fair and square fight on the last stint if that would have been the case. We sit here now and it wasn't the case."
Although Palou put on a dominant performance this year, the win wasn't without issues. A preferred race tire compound switch, combined with navigating heavy lap traffic, made this a significantly stressful race.
"No, I prefer when it's just so easy, you don't have any issues, you can stay up front and everything runs perfectly," Palou said. "It feels good now. I was suffering a lot. There was couple moments where we were in big danger...I feel like if we would start another race now, it would be completely different because everybody learns and does different stuff."
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix Results
Alex Palou #10 - (WINNER)
Christian Lundgaard #7 -13.278s
Graham Rahal #15 -14.288s
David Malukas #12 -14.996s
Kyle Kirkwood #27 -17.797s
Marcus Armstrong #66 -20.797s
Scott Dixon #9 -24.741s
Santino Ferrucci #14 -41.57s
Marcus Ericsson #28 -43.859s
Josef Newgarden #2 -51.898s
Alexander Rossi #20 -52.983s
Will Power #26 -54.048s
Felix Rosenqvist #66 -54.503s
Rinus Veekay #76 -54.923s
Romain Grosjean #18 -58.858s
Scott McLaughlin #3 -1:00.138s
Pato O’Ward #5 -1:01.069s
Nolan Siegel #6 -1:02.407s
Christian Rasmussen #21 -1:03.268s
Kyffin Simpson #7 -1:04.016s
Caio Collett #4 (R) -1:06.303s
Sting Ray Robb #77 -1 lap down
Dennis Hauger #19 (R) -1 lap down
Mick Schumacher #47 (R) -1 lap down
Louis Foster #45 -1 lap down
All eyes shift to the race in three weeks' time as the NTT INDYCAR SERIES returns to action on the Streets of Long Beach for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 19 at 5:30 pm EST on FOX.
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