Alex Palou Takes Third Victory With Flawless Performance at Barber; Remains in Control of INDYCAR Championship Lead
- Jeffrey Hrunka
- May 4
- 4 min read
Jeffrey Hrunka - Staff Writer
One Word.
Untouchable.
Alex Palou led the field to green and never looked back to capture his third win of the season in the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon. He led 81 of 90 laps for his 14th career win, his second at Barber Motorsports Park.
"It was a perfect day today for me,” Palou said. “We tried to open the gap early on. And when I saw that we had a really good car balance, I was just getting happier and happier towards the end of the race.”
This victory marked a significant milestone for Palou, as he led his 1,000th career lap, picked up his third win this season and is in his third championship defense at the site of his first career victory.
“I'm really lucky to be in this position and to have a great team around me that allows me to fight for wins every single weekend and for championships,” Palou said. “My goal was to be an IndyCar driver, and then it was just to be an IndyCar race winner, or a person that could fight for wins and sometimes for championships.”
Off the drop of the green flag, it was clear the three-time champion was the driver to beat. Scott McLaughlin and Colton Herta had to settle in behind Palou after turns one and two, as they looked to be the three to beat off the jump.
On lap 45, an issue in the pit lane took Herta out of contention for the podium for the third time this season. This problem, combined with the difficulty of passing around Barber, forced him to settle for a seventh-place finish.
As for McLaughlin, he stayed inside the top three for the majority of the race to claim his first podium of the season in third.
"At the end of the day, like you can only do as much as you can,” McLaughlin said. "When a guy's at the top of his game, all we can do is try and be at the top of ours. And I felt like we really executed today."
The last podium position didn’t come without a fight. Rinus Veekay continued his impressive weekend, shrinking a seven-second gap through the final 20 laps, to finish the race on the Kiwi’s gearbox in fourth.
Veekay presented the most dramatic moment of the weekend. To stay ahead of competitors Pato O’Ward and Will Power, the Dutchman held it three-wide into turns five and six to stay ahead. He provided Dale Coyne Racing with their first top 10 in the last two years.
While McLaughlin and Palou started the race on used red (alternate) tires, most of the top 10 elected for fresh black (primary) tires. The primary tire strategy paid dividends, as seven of the top ten spots comprised those who got off the harder tires first.
Lundgaard finished the highest of any driver who started on the primary tires. He gained five spots through the race's 90 laps, for his third podium of the season via a second-place finish.
"It's keeping things very simple, focus on what you can control and master the basics," Lundgaard said. "I think that the car is purely faster than what I've been doing for the past three years, and I think we've seen that just purely from the results across the last three years."
Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi elected the latter strategy and ended the weekend as the race’s biggest movers. Both drivers combined for 21 passes to finish 8th and 12th, respectively, after starting 15th and 26th.
"I prefer to be in the position we are now than in anybody else's position,” Palou said. “[It’s the] best start of my career, not [solely] in IndyCar, I would say everything that I've done in my life.”
With the victory, Palou has a full-race points gap over the rest of the field. Lundgaard is his closest adversary in second, 60 points back. Kirkwood (-69), O’Ward (-88), McLaughlin (-91) and Rosenqvist (-91) round out the top six points positions.
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Results:
Alex Palou #10 - (LEADER)
Christian Lundgaard #7 -16.004s
Scott McLaughlin #3 -23.445s
Rinus Veekay #18 -23.778s
Will Power #12 -32.772s
Pato O’Ward #5-33.256s
Colton Herta #26 -34.022s
Alexander Rossi #20 -45.756s
Nolan Siegel #6 -46.225s
Josef Newgarden #2 -48.048s
Kyle Kirkwood #27 -57.991s
Scott Dixon #9 -58.697s
Felix Rosenqvist #60 -59.351s
Graham Rahal #15 -68.259s
Christian Rasmussen #21 -69.226s
David Malukas #4 -70.113s
Marcus Armstrong #66 - 1 lap down
Santino Ferrucci #14 - 1 lap down
Conor Daly #76 - 1 lap down
Marcus Ericsson #28 - 1 lap down
Kyffin Simpson #8 - 1 lap down
Sting Ray Robb # - 1 lap down
Callum Ilott #90 - 1 lap down
Delvin DeFranesco #30 - 1 lap down
Robert Swartzman #83 (R) - 1 lap down
Louis Foster #45 (R)- 2 laps down
Jacob Abel #51 (R) - 2 laps down
NTT INDYCAR SERIES action returns at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Sonsio Grand Prix around the IMS Road Course on Saturday, May 10, on FOX.
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