IndyCar Preview: Grand Prix of Alabama
- Dan Jones
- May 1
- 7 min read
Written by Dan Jones
'Sweeeeeet home Alabamaaaaa, where the skies are so blueeeee.' insert guitar riff here
Yes, it's that time of year, where the IndyCar show hits Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, as the 'Augusta National of Motorsports' plays host to round four of 17 in the 2025 season, and commences the on-track activity in the 'Month of May,' which will ultimately conclude in the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500.
What happened in Long Beach?
Everybody knew that it would take some sort of brilliance to stop Álex Palou's victory spree at the start of 2025 heading into Long Beach, and Kyle Kirkwood was the one who stepped up to the plate. The Floridian took pole ahead of Andretti Global teammate, Colton Herta and did not look back from there, being the lead car on his strategy all day as he held off Palou to take his first win since Nashville in 2023.
Palou would certainly ask questions of Kirkwood, but the American was assured out in front, and Palou would ultimately have to settle for second, but still keeps his firm grip on the championship lead. Christian Lundgaard would claim yet another third place finish, being the lead car on the alternate strategy, which ultimately ended with a superb move on Felix Rosenqvist for the final spot on the rostrum.
There were also career-best days for Sting Ray Robb and Kyffin Simpson in ninth and 10th respectively.
The race also marked the second consecutive with no caution, the first time this has happened since 2020. The full course yellow has not in fact waived since the opening lap of St. Petersburg, an unusually clean start to the season by IndyCar's standards.
You can read the full race report here, my post-race gradebook here and the DIVEBOMB IndyCar Podcast's race review here.
Palou's dominant start to the season leaves him with a remarkable 34 point gap at the top of the points table, despite Kirkwood reducing his lead post-Long Beach. Top 10 are as follows:
Palou - 142
Kirkwood - 108
Lundgaard - 96
Rosenqvist - 88
Dixon - 86
O'Ward - 80
Herta - 73
McLaughlin - 69
Power - 63
Newgarden - 58
What can we expect from Barber?
Barber is truly a 'drivers track,' with grass and gravel on either edge of the track, plenty of elevation changes, many fast and sweeping sections of track, as well as technical sections too. It's greenery and landscaping is also of note too, being quite possibly the most aesthetically pleasing venue of the season.
It's also decorated with some rather unusual objects. A massive spider overlooks the hairpin in Turn 5, there's a dragonfly monument towards the end of the lap and there's also a pair of lions.
Most notably though, attached underneath the bridge on the entry to Turn 7 lies 'Georgina,' a mannequin who infamously collapsed from her perch mid-way through last year's race, who's hand would be obliterated by Luca Ghiotto. Georgina's crazy day ended in a photoshoot with Scott McLaughlin in the media centre. Event organisers have confirmed that Georgina will be back in her usual spot this year.
Drivers will plunge downhill to the medium-speed left-hander of Turn 1 before going down the gears through the endless right-hander of Turns 2 and 3 before they progressively rises uphill until over the high-speed crest at Turn 4. The best overtaking opportunity on the track comes downhill into the left-hand hairpin at Turn 5, nicknamed 'Charlotte's Web,' due to the spider.
Turns 7 and 8 are a tricky downhill chicane complex before rising back uphill for the left-right chicane and Turns 9 and 10. Another high speed chicane takes place at Turns 11 and 12 before drivers gradually decrease their speed into the ever-narrowing right-hander at Turns 13 and 14, which is a good surprise overtaking opportunity, before a medium-speed left-hander brings drivers back onto start/finish.
Team Penske have had an abysmal start to the season. Their drivers lie eighth, ninth and 10th in points, with all three having effectively a non-score thus far in 2025. Long Beach was a slightly better weekend, but IndyCar's most prestigious team only has one podium thus far in three races.
What will fill Penske with hope though is their record at Barber. Scott McLaughlin is the double-defending race winner and dominated from pole here last year ahead of Will Power in second. Power himself has won in consecutive years at Barber, in 2011 and 2012, and has finished in the top four on his last four visits to the circuit. In fact, Power has finished in the top five at Barber on 10 of 14 visits.
In addition to this, Josef Newgarden has the most wins of any driver at Barber since it joined the calendar in 2010, victorious in 2015, 2017 and 2018. However, his last four visits read 23rd, 14th, 15th and 16th respectively. Penske also have wins here with Hélio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud in 2010 and 2016 respectively.
Pato O'Ward claimed his first win on a road course at Barber in 2022, and this also has traditionally been a good venue for the Mexican, barring a particularly clumsy race he had here last year.
And it's no surprise to anybody that Álex Palou is on the winners list here, as he took his maiden IndyCar victory at the circuit in 2021, in his first outing for Chip Ganassi Racing. It could be said about many venues, but this could well be Palou's best circuit on the schedule, never once finishing outside the top five.
Scott Dixon is the glaring emission from the list, despite him podiuming in his first six visits to Barber with a further three trips to the rostrum. His only time outside the top ten in his last 14 visits was last season.
Sunday's race around the 2.3 mile (3.7 km) circuit will consist of 90 laps. Drivers will have access to 200 seconds of push-to-pass for a maximum duration of 20 seconds. This will also mark the first Barber weekend with the hybrid, which has been under scrutiny in the early races this season due to it's additional weight which has consequentially reduced overtaking figures.
Firestone will supply five sets of the primary and five sets of the alternate tyres throughout the weekend. The series held a test at the circuit on March 11th which featured a heavy accident for Felix Rosenqvist.
Barber will mark the 100th career race for Felix Rosenqvist, and has he noted to DIVEBOMB pre-weekend on the feat: "I think it's impressive the guys have made it really long in the series, like 10-plus years.
It's definitely tough to compete with the young guns coming into the series, all the challenges that the series throws at you every weekend. In that sense I feel proud about it. I'm also planning to stay for another hundred."
Who to watch this weekend?
He may have had his winning streak ended in Long Beach, but Álex Palou firmly remains the man to beat heading into Alabama. His points lead is still sizeable and he comes to a venue where he has been mighty in recent seasons. It's still early days, but it rather feels that another Palou victory could quash any true title fight, even this early on in the season, and it's on his opposition to stop him.
Penske's start to the season has been poor, and this was a similar case last year, at least for McLaughlin, who rebounded with a mightily impressive victory last season. McLaughlin, who become an American citizen this week, was deemed as one of the championship favourites pre-season, and needs a strong weekend to put himself in the mix.
The team overall has only had one podium in three races so far in 2025, and qualifying has really been a struggle. Power had two strong recovery drives in both Thermal and Long Beach, but the best qualifier in the series' history is yet to reach the second stage of qualifying this season. Power has four poles at Barber, is it time to bounce back?
Andretti Global's record at Barber is certainly not one to shout home about. Their only victories came courtesy of Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2013 and 2014 but since only have had two podium finishes at the circuit, with more team finishes outside the top ten than in the top ten.
They've proved to be the team second to Palou and Chip Ganassi Racing early doors in 2025, and with their previous Barber record, is it a case of damage limitation for Kirkwood, Herta and Marcus Ericsson this weekend, or can they leave with something more substantial?
Lundgaard has had the upper hand on O'Ward during their small tenure as Arrow McLaren teammates so far, but that was particularly on show at Long Beach. It's a big weekend for O'Ward at a circuit he has traditionally gone better at to prove he is still the top dog at the team.
I'd also keep an eye out for Rosenqvist this weekend. He's started the season superbly once again, and ran well here last year, qualifying fifth and finishing fourth. He's yet to get a podium for Meyer Shank Racing but this poses an excellent chance. His teammate, Marcus Armstrong reached the Fast Six for the first time here last season too before finishing ninth, and could be an outside bet for the weekend.
It's worth giving a mention to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing too, with Barber being one of their better venues on the calendar. Graham Rahal is a Barber runner-up, twice, and Lundgaard ran really well for the team here last season. Sato also won for the team in 2019. It's been the team's worst ever start to the season by courtesy of top 10 finishes, but this poses a great chance to bounce back.
Timings:
Practice 1: 15:35 ET, 14:35 Local Friday
Practice 2: 11:30 ET, 10:30 Local Saturday
Qualifying: 14:35 ET, 13:35 Local Saturday
Warmup: 10:02 ET, 09:02 Local Sunday
Race: 13:47 ET, 12:47 Local Sunday
This will mark the first weekend with Georgia Henneberry on pit road for FOX Sports, after taking paternity leave at the start of the season.
DIVEBOMB will bring you all the news and updates throughout the weekend as well as post-race analysis. 2025 has been all about Álex Palou thus far, can he continue to mount his championship charge or can the likes of Team Penske find their form and put the pressure on?
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