A particular begin to the weekend for Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou as he earns P1 for Sunday’s race at Barber Motorsports Park — the identical observe the place he earned his first win within the sequence again in 2021. The distinction now could be that he is a three-time IndyCar Collection champion, and at the moment main the standings for the 2025 championship.
Whereas it seems as if the weekend’s Kids’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix is about as much as be one other lesson on Palou’s perfection, there have been a number of different surprises to return from the qualifying session at Barber.
First, is Penske’s crew struggling? It is a recurring query each IndyCar weekend of 2025 so far as its three stars, Josef Newgarden (#2), Will Energy (#12), and Scott McLaughlin (#3), have did not dominate the Quick Six this season. Nevertheless, they could have discovered a few of their footing at Barber.
Each McLaughlin (who has made a number of Quick Six appearances by the season) and Energy reached the ultimate stage of qualifying, with McLaughlin beginning P2 on Sunday and Energy P4, in his highest beginning place for the 2025 season. Penske teammate Newgarden did not make it to the Quick Six ultimately, and can line up for the race in P9.
In the meantime within the Arrow-McLaren camp, Pato O’Ward (#5) did not make it into Saturday’s Quick Six.
“I am not displeased with it,” O’Ward mentioned. “Clearly, we wish to be additional up entrance, however I feel it is all to play out tomorrow. Technique’s going to be a giant factor, made in the previous couple of races, however yeah, it is good to see that every one three vehicles obtained into the quick 12. Cool to see Nolan [Siegel] do his first quick six. So let’s have a look at what we will do right here. “
Pato O’Ward, Arrow-McLaren, on observe throughout qualifying on the Kids’s Alabama Indy Grand Prix on Saturday
Photograph by: Penske Leisure – Paul Hurley
Earlier within the day, in the course of the second apply session, O’Ward skilled a small incident that despatched his automobile into the wall at Flip 17. Fortunately, the automobile got here out of the nook with solely minor harm, and was capable of run by itself energy.
O’Ward will begin P8 on Sunday, filling out Row 4 alongside teammate Christian Lundgaard (#7). However as O’Ward talked about, the larger shock of qualifying was Nolan Siegel (#6) making it into the Quick Six for his very first time, with a P6 outcome, beginning proper forward of his teammates.
“I feel it was simply execution to be sincere,” Siegel defined. “Within the Quick Six I simply… every part went easily, we had been calm, collected. Good small adjustments, did not get forward of ourselves, and executed every part very well. And that is what it takes. Everybody else right here is ideal, and should you’re not excellent, it would not come. “
One other first time within the Quick Six, though only for Barber, is Colton Herta, who will begin P3.
The toughest loss by qualifying, although, might have been watching Scott Dixon’s battle together with his automobile after shedding the rear and operating off-track, ruining his quickest lap run, and taking him out of qualifying within the very first spherical.
“Irritating as a result of the automobile was fast. Lap was coming fairly simple. We had been fairly unfastened on the blacks, however our instances appeared to be good. I feel we had third or fourth on the blacks after which simply misplaced the rear there, and sadly you haven’t any time to recuperate. So yeah, fairly irritating.”
Noting Dixon’s remark, this weekend, IndyCar is operating new main (black) tire compound that’s imagined to be a extra sturdy tire and Firestone has mentioned will really feel prefer it has misplaced a few of its grip. Drivers noticeably favored the alternate pink tires for qualifying, with some having pitted mid-session to alternate used for brand new reds to complete out every spherical’s time crunch.
You may watch how tire technique performs out for drivers in the course of the Kids’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber which airs Sunday, Could 4 at 1:30pm EDT on FOX, the FOX Sports activities app and INDYCAR Radio Community.
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