Palou takes first pole of the year in IndyCar Barber Qualifying

Written by Morgan Holiday

Credit: James Black

It was Álex Palou who secured his first pole position of 2025 in Qualifying for the IndyCar Grand Prix of Alabama. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver will start tomorrow's race ahead of Scott McLaughlin and Colton Herta.

Group 1

After on and off rain throughout the weekend thus far, the track was dry for the start of Qualifying at Barber Motorsports Park. 13 drivers took the the track for the first session, inlcuding Andretti Global's Marcus Ericsson in his newly repaired No.28 car after an accident in Practice 2.

Palou and McLaughlin traded the top spot back and forth in the first minutes, as McLaughlin's Penske teammate Will Power spun going into Turn 5 but avoided a major incident.

Over halfway through the session, Alex Rossi, Jacob Abel, Power and Pato O'Ward sat in the top six alongside Palou and McLaughlin. Santino Ferrucci and Nolan Siegel sat just on the wrong side of the elimination zone.

With one and a half minutes to go, O'Ward went to the top of the timing sheets and displaced Palou. But further down the grid almost everyone was improving. Next it was Meyer Shank Racing's Marcus Armstrong who went fastest overall before McLaughlin and Palou both improved ahead of him.

Ferrucci and Siegel both jumped into the top six as the clock ran out, with Power being the only driver improving enough to knock one of them out. And it was enough for the Penske driver in the end, as Power pipped Ferrucci for sixth place on his final lap.

Palou was ahead of McLaughlin, with Armstrong and O'Ward ahead of Siegel and Power making up the six drivers from Group 1 who would advance to the Fast 12.

Ferrucci was the top driver knocked out by his seventh place finish, with Rossi, Christian Rasmussen, Conor Daly, Graham Rahal, Ericsson and Abel all done for the day.

Group 2

Credit: Joe Skibinski

A competitive Group 2 came out on track to decide which final six drivers would advance to the next round.

Chip Ganassi Racing's Kyffin Simpson topped the timing sheets early on with a lap time of 1:08.169 and held onto the top spot ahead of Colton Herta and rookie Louis Foster.

With just two minutes to go, only more drivers began to improve. Christian Lundgaard, the only Arrow McLaren in Group 2, sat down in 11th and attempted to not be the only driver on his team to not advance.

Josef Newgarden jumped from sixth to first before Herta went faster still. Scott Dixon went off track and into the gravel in the final moments, bringing out a brief yellow flag.

Herta maintained the top spot as everyone finished their final laps, ahead of Newgarden, Lundgaard, and Simpson. Rinus VeeKay and Foster were the final two drivers to squeeze through into the Fast 12.

Felix Rosenqvist was the top driver eliminated, followed by Callum Ilott. While his teammate was fastest in the session, Kyle Kirkwood didn't do enough to make it through and finished the session in ninth. David Malukas, who topped Practice 2 earlier in the day was followed by Sting Ray Robb, Robert Shwartzman, Dixon and Devlin Defrancesco were also eliminated.

Fast 12

Credit: Joe Skibinski

Arrow McLaren and Team Penske were both in good places coming into the penultimate qualifying session, as both teams had all three of their drivers amongst the top 12. But it was Andretti's Herta who spent the first few minutes at the top of the timing sheets ahead of Palou as everyone set their first laps.

The only rookie to make it through to the Fast 12, Foster, jumped into the top six with two minutes still to go. He was bumped down from fifth to sixth as Newgarden improved, and then was bumped out of the top six as O'Ward and Siegel improved.

McLaughlin improved as well and Power went fastest overall. The two McLarens of Siegel and Lundgaard sat in seventh and eighth on the bubble before Lundgaard squeezed into sixth. His happiness only lasted a few moments, however, as his teammate Siegel improved to bump him out.

And so it was Power, Palou, Herta, McLaughlin, VeeKay and Siegel who advanced to the final session of the day to fight for pole position.

Fast 6

Credit: Joe Skibinski

Strategy dominated the first part of the hunt for pole position, as McLaughlin opted not to go out at the beginning of the session to set a banker lap.

VeeKay topped the session early on ahead of Herta with Siegel, the sole McLaren left in Qualifying, behind them.

With one minute left to go, all six drivers were on track for their final laps. McLaughlin jumped to the top on his first lap, but was overtaken as Herta went faster still. The clock ran out as McLaughlin improved again, beating out Herta for provisional pole.

Herta couldn't improve on second place, but was soon dropped down to third as Palou grabbed his first pole position of the year ahead of McLaughlin at the last moment.

Power finished fourth behind Herta, followed by VeeKay, and Siegel's sixth place finish marks his best start in an IndyCar race so far.

Those six drivers will lead the field to green tomorrow for the IndyCar Grand Prix of Alabama.