Winners and Losers: Grand Prix of Alabama
- Morgan Holiday
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
Álex Palou is back to winning ways after conquering the field at Barber to win the 2026 Grand Prix of Alabama.
Christian Lundgaard and Graham Rahal both secured their first podiums of the year in a weekend that was full of action. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest winners and losers from IndyCar’s trip to Barber Motorsports Park.
Winner - Graham Rahal
A surprising addition to the frontrunners of the weekend was Rahal of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL).
Rahal finished in the top six in Practice 2 on Saturday morning before going on to set the third-fastest time in the first group out on track for qualifying. In the second qualifying session he finished fifth to secure a spot in the Fast 6, where he finished less than two tenths slower than David Malukas and only three tenths down on Palou, setting a lap time fast enough for third place.
In Sunday’s race, Rahal ran in a comfortable third and even challenged for second place towards the end before getting overtaken by Christian Lundgaard. A mistake towards the end of the lap in the closing stages ultimately allowed the Arrow McLaren driver to pass him, but the third place finish that Rahal secured gave him his first podium since 2023 and RLL’s first podium since early 2024.
RLL is a team that sits comfortably in the midfield most races, but they’re also a team you can always count on for an excellent result at a few tracks each year. If this was Rahal’s big moment for the season, it’s certainly one worth celebrating.
Winner - David Malukas
In 2026 so far, one Team Penske driver (Josef Newgarden) has won a race, and two (Scott McLaughlin and Malukas) have been on pole position. Despite Newgarden’s race win, it’s Malukas who leads the three in the standings after Barber.
Malukas, who took his first career pole position in Phoenix a few weeks ago, has consistently finished higher than his more experienced teammates so far, even just a few races into his tenure with Penske. After a 13th place in his debut with the team, the young American driver finished third, sixth and now fourth in the past three races, putting him fourth overall in the standings.
Malukas took second place in qualifying at Barber, marking his fourth appearance in the top six in qualifying this year (the only Team Penske driver to make that distinction in every race weekend so far).
While a maiden IndyCar win has thus far eluded him, Malukas’ fourth place finish in Alabama and his performance so far with Penske is proving that it’s only a matter of time before he makes it to the top step of the podium with his new team.
Loser - Will Power
Power’s performance in Arlington helped Andretti Global to a spot in the winners’ column for that weekend, but his first podium with the team has been his only real “win” so far in 2026.
Coming into Barber after a third place finish in Texas, things seemed to be looking up for Power, who before that point hadn’t cracked the top 15 in a race. But on Saturday he crashed in qualifying due to an issue with the car, marking the third time in four races that Power has suffered a major crash in qualifying.
As a result of the accident, Power started Sunday’s race from 23rd on the grid. It was clear on the day that his pace was there, as he moved forward quickly and picked up the Biggest Mover Award on his way to 12th place finish.
As always, the Biggest Mover Award proved bittersweet, because as much as a driver loves gaining places, they never want to be in the position to gain many places (the back of the grid). Where could Power have finished without Saturday’s crash? We’ll never know, but that will be the question he’s asking himself as he looks forward to the next race.
Loser - Pato O’Ward
The typically confident and competent O’Ward had an off-weekend at Barber where he qualified outside the top 10 and dropped down in the race.
O’Ward has had a solid if somewhat anonymous start to 2026, with two fifth place finishes and one fourth place finish to his name. It was one of the best combined results of any driver so far this season, until he struggled this past weekend in Alabama.
The Mexican driver got through the first section of qualifying, only to finish last in the Fast 12, putting him 12th for the start of the race.
While his teammate Lundgaard, who qualified just two places ahead of him, surged forward to grab second place in the race, O’Ward’s race went in the opposite direction and he dropped down to an eventual 17th place finish. It was a puzzling result for O’Ward and the team, who didn’t have an explanation for the poor performance of the car or driver.
As a result of the weekend, O’Ward has dropped to sixth in the championship, a major hit even this early on in the season, making his weekend at Barber one to forget and hopefully move forward from as soon as possible.
Loser - Rookies
In a not necessarily surprising turn of events, it was a tough weekend for this season’s rookie crop.
Dennis Hauger with Dale Coyne Racing, Caio Collet with AJ Foyt and Mick Schumacher with RLL, all qualified and finished at the very bottom of the pack. Schumacher’s 20th place qualifying result was the highest any of them would sit in the results over the course of the weekend.
It was Collet who finished highest in the race with 21st place, Hauger with his worst result of the season so far coming in 23rd, with Schumacher behind him in 24th.
It’s very common to see rookies struggling, especially as they usually come in with teams that aren’t prepared to regularly contend at the front. But we’ve seen some good performances from all three drivers so far in 2026, just not this weekend.
Hauger still leads the rookie standings by six points over Collet, Schumacher now sitting in last place in both the rookie standings and the full championship order.
