By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer
Another IndyCar race weekend and another victory for Alex Palou. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver won his third race of the season on Sunday at the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park. This marks Palou’s second win at the 2.3 mile road course where he captured his maiden IndyCar victory in 2021.
Palou led 81 laps out of a possible 90 and executed the preferred three pit stop strategy. From the moment the green flag flew, Palou checked out from the field and did not look back.
“It was a perfect day. I would say a perfect weekend,” Palou told Georgia Henneberry of FOX Sports in Victory Lane. “It was the first time rocking our No.10 HRC livery and super proud of everyone that has been working on the No.10 car and Chip Ganassi Racing and HRC as well. The car was amazing, super fast. I was a bit lonely there, but I loved it. It was an amazing day.”
Taking the checkered flag 16.0035 seconds behind Palou was Christian Lundgaard, followed by Scott McLaughlin, Rinus Veekay and Will Power in fifth.
Lundgaard notched his third podium of the season and McLaughlin, his second. Lundgaard’s lowest finish this season was eighth in St. Pete and has proved to be the closest challenger to Palou.
“It’s everything we could have hoped for and much better,” Lundgaard told Kevin Lee of FOX Sports after the race. “In Thermal, we proved we had the pace, the No.10 car still beat us. Put the car in the wall at Long Beach in qualifying and we did a good job on strategy and once again, today, we did so. We knew we could go aggressive and the car hasn’t been as good as when we tested here. It’s just been tough dealing with that mentally. We had to do a lot of changes and made some changes overnight and that’s why we’re on the podium today.”
Veekay notched his best finish of the season, driving for Dale Coyne Racing. DCR, a team not known for being at the front and having struggles over recent years, has steadily improved with Veekay behind the wheel of the No.18. Veekay heads into Indianapolis, two of his best tracks, with momentum on his side.
“It was a great race. I had a lot of fun out there,” Veekay told Kevin Lee of FOX Sports. “Showed a lot of strength in a car that allowed me to be strong.”
Sunday’s contest did not see a yellow flag, making it the third consecutive race without a caution. 1986 was the last time when there were no cautions in three consecutive races. The series has ran 339 green flag laps since the last caution on Lap 1 of St. Petersburg on March 2.
Palou exits Barber with a 60 point gap to Lundgaard in second, over a full race points haul. As the series heads to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Sonsio Grand Prix on the IMS Road Course, drivers will be playing catch-up to Palou until the end of the season.