Friday debrief: McLaughlin sets early IndyCar pace at Barber

Credit: Sydney Redden

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin has set the early benchmark at Barber Motorsports Park, leading IndyCar’s opening practice session ahead of Andretti Global’s championship leader Kyle Kirkwood.

The New Zealander, who won the Grand Prix of Alabama in 2023 and 2024 and finished third last year, continues his record of leading Friday practice in each of the opening three road-and-street rounds of 2026. 

DIVEBOMB debriefs the first day of road-course running in 2026…

Times tight in Practice 1

Less than one second split 22 of the 25 drivers in the overall practice times on the 2.3-mile circuit to kick off this weekend, with fewer than fourth-tenths of a second covering the top 10 drivers.

McLaughlin led the way with a 01:07.3840 quickest lap, set in the second of the 12-minute group segments after also leading the initial all-car running. Only 0.0288s behind was the most recent race winner, Kirkwood, who is yet to record a road-course podium in IndyCar. 

The Arrow McLaren duo of Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard - the latter leading Group A - were third and fourth, though teammate Nolan Siegel struggled for pace in 19th. David Malukas, who was second in the full-field session, and Josef Newgarden rounded out the top six in a strong showing from Penske.

“We were all strong, which is a good sign for the team,” McLaughlin said. “We’ve done a lot of hard work in the off-season to figure out where we can be better. We’ve still got a lot to learn and be better and stronger. Overall, a pretty good start for us. Bring on tomorrow.”

Credit: Sydney Redden

Defending winner Álex Palou was seventh for Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR), having finished behind Lundgaard and Malukas in Group A. Juncos Hollinger Racing (JHR)’s Rinus VeeKay, Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong, Andretti’s Will Power, Dale Coyne Racing (DCR)’s Romain Grosjean and AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci completed the top 12.

It was a tougher day for the rookies, with Foyt’s Caio Collet, DCR’s Dennis Hauger and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Mick Schumacher finishing 21st through 23rd. JHR’s Sting Ray Robb and CGR’s Kyffin Simpson were the slowest two drivers.

The sole stoppage came in the first 15 minutes, when Alexander Rossi’s No.20 Ed Carpenter Racing machine stopped with a fuel-related issue. He was later able to continue. 

Lundgaard “positively surprised”

For much of 2025, with his five podiums on road courses, Lundgaard was second-in-command to Palou in the discipline. That included a runner-up finish at Barber, where despite early struggles, the Dane has hit the ground running again this year.

“I didn’t really think that pace was in the car throughout our entire primary [harder tyre] run,” he said after finishing fourth, behind teammate O’Ward, in practice. “Pretty positively surprised. It looks like the [softer] alternates are a little stronger than I anticipated.

“We weren’t fast on the primaries; Pato was a lot faster than we were. Every time I’d come into the box, I’d be like: ’I don’t know where I’m going to find half-a-second.’ Put on the alternates and there it was. On outright pace, we’re right there on the alternates. We need to find a little bit for the race.”

Credit: Sydney Redden

Finding outright speed is a positive for Lundgaard, who has qualified 12th, 17th and 18th so far this season. A third-place finish in St. Petersburg and recovery to seventh in Arlington have him seventh in the standings, but he wants to make his life easier on race day.

“We were pretty competitive [at Barber] last year,” he said. “The No.10 [Palou] car had some race pace on the field; the No.3 [McLaughlin] car has always been strong here in the past. That’s the pace that we’re trying to find. 

“The one focus on the No.7 car for this weekend is execution. Qualifying has been a struggle this year. We’ve been good on Sundays. For us, it’s see if we can get into the Firestone Fast Six. That’s really where we need to gain some ground to be able to fight for the win.”

Power’s first road-course foray

The Barber weekend is set to be telling for Andretti’s prospects this season, given they have not won on a road course since 2022. And it was a relatively strong start to the weekend, with Kirkwood second, Power also inside the top 10 and Marcus Ericsson 13th.

“Pretty good balance,” Power said of his exploits. “Not quite fast enough. I think we found some good stuff. We all ran different stuff so it was quite a test. We’ve got to pick and choose what is good from those pieces from each car. 

“You could just go to a teammate’s setup completely because he’s fast. That doesn’t always work out. We could work on what we’ve got, which is also a good balance. We’ll go back and review everything. You’re a lot smarter once you look at data, video, analyse the sectors.”

Credit: Sydney Redden

For Power, this was a first outing for Andretti on a road course. Compared to what he has experienced particularly on the street courses, where he most recently finished third in Arlington, there are not such marked differences to what he was used to at Penske.

“I was apprehensive driving out of the pits. ‘How is this going to feel?’” he said. “At smooth tracks, the cars generally feel the same. The one thing you can change is dampers. On the street courses, bumpy, that’s where the biggest differences are between cars. 

“I think on the street courses, the [Andretti] car’s harder to drive but has pace in it. Here, it’s pretty similar to what I experienced last year. They all kind of feel similar here. 

“When you get to the road course, [dampers] just don’t matter as much. There’s just not as many bumps. The cars do generally feel similar if you’ve got a good balance. If a team spent a lot of money on dampers, they’re not going to get a big gain here. It’s just too smooth.”

The remainder of the weekend

IndyCar is back on track on Saturday at 10:00 CT (15:00 GMT) for Practice 2, with qualifying at 13:30 CT (18:30 GMT), returning to usual Fast Six proceedings rather than the single-car pole shootout from Arlington. On Sunday, warmup begins at 9:05 CT (15:05 BST) before the race broadcast kicks off at 12:00 CT (18:00 BST) for a 12:17 CT (18:17 BST) green flag.

Indy NXT qualifies at 9:00 CT (14:00 GMT) on Saturday ahead of a doubleheader, racing at 12:00 CT (17:00 GMT) on Saturday and 10:00 CT (16:00 BST) on Sunday. Abel Motorsports’ Myles Rowe led Cusick Morgan Motorsports’ JM Correa by 0.0007s in practice.