Track Walk: Barber 2021

 

IndyCar's new season sees a return to Barber

After 175 days, the NTT IndyCar Series is back in competition and the first round of the 2021 season will take place at Barber Motorsports Park. There will be 17 rounds this season. This will be the 11th Grand Prix of Alabama after the 2020 race was lost due to the global pandemic. This is the first time Barber has opened an IndyCar season and, incredibly, this is the first time in IndyCar history a season has opened a season on a permanent, natural-terrain road course. There have been only six different winners in the first ten Barber races and of those six winners, four are past IndyCar champions, but in only two seasons has the Barber winner gone on to take the title. 

Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday April 18 with green flag scheduled for 3:42 p.m. ET.
Channel: NBC
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy will be in the booth. Marty Snider, Kelli Stavast and Dave Burns will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule 
Saturday:
First Practice: 10:00 a.m. ET (45 minutes)*

Second Practice: 1:45 p.m. ET (45 minutes)*
Qualifying: 5:55 p.m. ET * (NBCSN will have tape-delayed coverage at 10:00 p.m. ET) 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 11:30 a.m. ET (30 minutes)*
Race: 3:42 p.m. ET (90 laps)

* - All practice and qualifying sessions are available live on Peacock.

Shaking Out the Testing Results

Unlike most seasons, IndyCar did not have a properly sanctioned open test on a road course this preseason. There have been plenty of test sessions but spread out around the country with partial participation. With these being semi-private tests, all times are unofficial.

Through five notable test days, Patricio O'Ward was on top of two of them. He led the Sebring test day February 1 with a time of 51.79 seconds and the test day at Laguna Seca a month later with a time of 71.529 seconds. 

The Sebring test day on February 1 featured 14 cars from six teams. Alexander Rossi was second at that February 1 test, as he set a time of 51.928 seconds. Rossi also topped a test day at Sebring on January 19 that featured only nine cars with just the four Andretti cars, the two Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing cars, Jack Harvey, Max Chilton and Dalton Kellett participating. Rossi's top time on January 19 was 52.272 seconds, 0.106 seconds ahead of Colton Herta with Harvey third, 0.268 back.

 

At the Laguna Seca test, only eight cars participated. Behind O'Ward were the Dale Coyne Racing cars of Ed Jones and Romain Grosjean with Jones 0.236 off O'Ward and Grosjean was only 0.042 seconds off his teammate. New Arrow McLaren SP driver Felix Rosenqvist was just over three-tenths off of O'Ward at Laguna Seca and just over four-tenths off O'Ward at the February 1 Sebring test. 

Noticeably absent from these test days were Chip Ganassi Racing. The defending champions only participated in one multi-team test on January 18 at Sebring, which only featured the four Ganassi cars, the Foyt cars of Kellett and Sébastien Bourdais, and Chilton. Dixon topped that day at 52.32 seconds with Marcus Ericsson in second, less than a tenth off of Dixon with Álex Palou was 0.135 seconds off in third. 

Barber Motorsports Park did host a test day on February 23 with 12 cars participating. Rinus VeeKay topped that day at 66.518 seconds with Bourdais in second at 66.633 second and Graham Rahal was third, 0.203 seconds behind VeeKay.

Team Penske did not top either of the notable tests it participated in. Josef Newgarden was third at the February 1 Sebring test, about a quarter of a second off O'Ward, but his three teammates took three of the bottom four spots. At the Barber test, Power was fourth, nearly four-tenths off of VeeKay. 

For the intimate nature of these tests, they were fairly close. The nine cars at the January 19 Sebring test were covered by 0.861 seconds. On February 1, 0.679 seconds separated O'Ward in first to Scott McLaughlin in 14th at Sebring. At Barber, 0.96 seconds was the difference from VeeKay in first and Grosjean, who was making his first outing in an IndyCar, in 12th. 

There was also an oval test held on March 31 at Texas Motor Speedway, which O'Ward topped at 23.325 seconds, over a tenth quicker than Rossi in second with Harvey about a quarter second slower in third. The Penske cars of Simon Pagenaud and Power rounded out the top five with Rosenqvist in sixth.

Testing tells us something is brewing in the AMSP camp and O'Ward remains a threat for his first career victory. While Rosenqvist showed strength, it appears O'Ward has a firm grasp on the top spot in the AMSP organization. Rossi appears set to have put his sluggish 2020 season behind him. Penske was not lighting up the charts, but we cannot overlook them, and Harvey and Meyer Shank Racing could turn some heads. Of course, we can never rule out Scott Dixon and the Ganassi drivers.

It is difficult to tell which teams appear to be caught on the back foot in testing. With the largest test being 14 cars, we don't have a great barometer of where every team shakes out. On top of that, in the tests we had, every team had at least one good outing. Barber first practice will be the first true indicator of where everyone stands.

Who Benefits From a Barber Season Opener?

It has to be the three-time Barber winner Josef Newgarden. 

The Tennessean has the most Barber victories and he has five consecutive top five finishes at the track with seven consecutive top ten finishes. The one thing riding against Newgarden is the only times he has led laps at Barber happen to be the three races he has won. 

While Newgarden has taken top honors in three of the last five Barber trips, Scott Dixon has been incredible in Alabama. In ten starts, the 2020 champion has six runner-up finishes, eight podium finishes and his worst finish is tenth. Dixon has started in the top six in every Barber start, but he has never started on the front row and he has only led 46 of 871 laps with 38 of those laps coming in 2012. He has led three laps or fewer on five occasions. 

Team Penske is happy pretty much anywhere IndyCar goes, but the team has won six of ten Barber races. Will Power won at the track in 2011 and 2012 while Simon Pagenaud won there in 2016. Pagenaud has never finished worse than ninth. Power has seven top ten finishes, but he has not finished in the top ten in his last three Barber appearances. 

Ryan Hunter-Reay won consecutive Barber races in 2013 and 2014. He has four top five finishes in ten starts and he has completed all 871 laps run at the track. However, his 93 laps led have all come in his two victories and his qualifying form is a little suspect. Hunter-Reay has started outside the top ten on six occasions. The good news is in the other four races he has qualified in the top five and he has finished on the podium in three of those four starts. 

From the looks of testing, Rinus VeeKay and his Ed Carpenter Racing teammate Conor Daly should feel confident about where this season opens. Daly was fifth on that February 23 test day. However, VeeKay only had one podium finish in four Road to Indy starts at the track and Daly has finishes of 20th and 18th in IndyCar in his previous two starts. 

New A.J. Foyt Racing driver Sébastien Bourdais was second on that February 23 test day and he has three consecutive top ten finishes at Barber, including third in the most recent race in 2019. 

Let's not forget the most recent Barber winner, Takuma Sato and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. RLLR swept the front row for the 2019 race and Graham Rahal was keeping pace with his teammate before an electrical problem took him out of the race. Rahal had back-to-back runner-up finishes at Barber in 2015 and 2016. Sato has three consecutive top ten finishes after failing to finish better than 13th in his first seven Barber starts.

Who Wishes the Season Opened Elsewhere?

Arrow McLaren SP might have led testing at a handful of tracks, but it might have wished the season began on a street course such as St. Petersburg or Long Beach over Barber. Patricio O'Ward and Felix Rosenqvist each have only one start at Barber, both ran the 2019 race. Rosenqvist started well but struggled with tire degradation and held on for a tenth-place finish. O'Ward started 18th and finished 16th driving for Carlin. 

While he has two fifth-place finishes in four trips to Barber, Alexander Rossi is vocally not a big fan of this track. His best starting position at the track is eighth and he has only led three laps there. Rossi has completed every possible lap in his four starts. 

Ed Jones is back with Dale Coyne Racing, but he probably would have hoped to have started the 2021 season at St. Petersburg or somewhere else. In three Barber starts, Jones' best finish is 16th. He has made it out of the first round of qualifying on two of his three appearances, but he has only finished better than his starting position once and that was in 2019 when he stared 21st and finished 19th, one lap down. 

Also not helping Jones is that he and his Coyne teammate Romain Grosjean were two of the bottom three cars on the February 23 test at Barber. 

There will be a handful of drivers making their Barber debut this weekend, as the track was not on the 2020 calendar. Álex Palou has tested at the track, but Palou has not had the privilege of competing in a race yet. The Spaniard ended 2020 with only one top ten finish in the final ten races. 

In ten Road to Indy starts, Dalton Kellett never finished better than sixth at Barber. Kellett's average finish was 23rd in 2020 and he has finished outside the top twenty in five consecutive starts.

Max Chilton has failed to finish on the lead lap in three of his four Barber starts. Those three finishes off the lead lap have been 21st, 22nd and 22nd. Chilton was 12th in 2017 after starting ninth. He has not had a top ten finish since Watkins Glen in 2017. He has made 38 starts with Carlin and has yet to finish in the top ten.

Class of 2021?

With the pandemic cancelling the 2020 Indy Lights season, we do not have any drivers moving up from the Road to Indy into IndyCar this season, but the 2021 rookie class features three accomplished drivers from three different motorsports disciplines. 

Scott McLaughlin is the only rookie slated to compete in all the races and the three-time Supercars champion will contest the #3 Chevrolet for Team Penske. McLaughlin made his debut at St. Petersburg last year. He was caught out in qualifying and ended up 21st. In the race, McLaughlin made up a few spots before contact with Rinus VeeKay ended his race and dropped him to 22nd in the results. McLaughlin had won at least eight races in his last four Supercars seasons and his 56 victories in 252 starts ranks him tied for fourth all-time in victories. 

Romain Grosjean will drive in 13 of 17 races in the #51 Dale Coyne Racing w/ Rick Ware Racing Honda. Grosjean's Formula One career ended with ten podium finishes in 179 starts, but his last podium result was third in the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix. His last top five finish was fourth at Austria in 2018. Last year, the Frenchman picked up two points with a ninth at the Nürburgring.

Jimmie Johnson will run an identical schedule to Grosjean, contesting only the road and street course races in the #48 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing. Johnson wrapped up a 20-year NASCAR Cup Series career, which saw him win a record-tying seven championships and 83 races, tied for sixth all-time. Johnson failed to win a race in his final three Cup seasons. His last victory was on June 4, 2017 at Dover. Johnson will make his IndyCar debut at 45 years, seven months and one day old, making him the 11th oldest driver to make an IndyCar debut.

McLaughlin has the benefit of more seat time, dating back to preseason testing ahead of the 2020 season and his outing at St. Petersburg. While the New Zealander was not on top, he had competitive times compared to his teammates and other top drivers in testing. Grosjean got his footing at the Barber test and he showed greater speed at Laguna Seca, albeit against fewer competitors. 

Johnson was 1.371 seconds off his teammate Scott Dixon at the January 18 Sebring test and over six-tenths off of Dalton Kellett, the next slowest driver. Ganassi has tested at Barber over the winter and Johnson has made additional testing runs in Formula Regional Americas cars at Barber. Next to Sebring, Barber might be the track Johnson has the most open-wheel experience at.  

Rookie of the Year honors will likely go to McLaughlin as he is contesting all the races and it appears only the Indianapolis 500 will be worth double points. There is a chance Grosjean could contest the Gateway round later in the season, but his participation in that race is still tentative. Johnson has made it clear he will not be attempting any oval races in 2021. It should be noted that Team Penske has never had a driver win IndyCar Rookie of the Year honors.

McLaughlin and Johnson both have multi-year contracts, meaning this rookie year will be a chance to build for something in the future, while Grosjean has this one year in IndyCar but could be looking elsewhere in the future, specifically sports cars.

Road to Indy

All three Road to Indy series will be in competition this weekend and each series will run a doubleheader to open their respective 2021 seasons. 

Thirteen cars are entered for the Indy Lights weekend. Andretti Autosport will have four cars on the grid. The 2019 Indy Pro 2000 champion Kyle Kirkwood and returning Indy Lights race winner Robert Megennis lead the way. Danial Frost and Devlin DeFrancesco won races in Indy Pro 2000 last season and they round out the Andretti lineup. Andretti Autosport has won the last four Indy Lights races at Barber.

Sting Ray Robb moves up off of his Indy Pro 2000 championship and will drive for Juncos Racing with Toby Sowery. Sowery was third in the 2019 Indy Lights championship and he won at Portland. Juncos Racing has produced two Indy Lights champions in Spencer Pigot and Kyle Kaiser.

Past champion Carlin is back in the series and it will have former Formula Three driver Alex Peroni paired with Christian Bogle. This is Carlin's first Indy Lights weekend since the 2017 season finale at Watkins Glen. Carlin won 12 races in its three previous Indy Lights seasons. 

David Malukas won pole position at St. Petersburg last year before the weekend was interrupted due to the pandemic. Malukas is back with HMD Motorsports and Nikita Lastochkin will be his teammate. HMD will also field two cars in partnership with Global Racing Group for Benjamin Pedersen and Linus Lundqvist. Antonio Serravalle rounds out the grid with Pserra Racing/AS Promotions. 

Indy Lights will race at 1:15 p.m. ET on Saturday April 17 with the second race scheduled for 1:20 p.m. ET on Sunday April 18. 

Indy Pro 2000 has 17 cars for its season opener and this is the first time Indy Pro 2000 has competed at Barber since 2018. 

Christian Rasmussen moves up off of his U.S. F2000 championship and he will continue with Jay Howard Driver Development, which expands into the next rung of the Road to Indy ladder system. Wyatt Brichacek will be Rasmussen's teammate at JHDD.

Juncos Racing won the title last year and it will have a three-car lineup. Manuel Sulaimán joins the team after winning two races last year. Sulaimán will have rookie teammates in Kyffin Simpson and Reece Gold. 

Artem Petrov and Hunter McElrea are the top two returning drivers from the 2020 championship. Petrov will drive for Exclusive Autosport with teammate Braden Eves. Petrov won two races last year while Eves had one victory. Eves returns to competition after a broken neck prematurely ended his 2020 season. McElrea is the most recent race winner in Indy Pro 2000 and he remains at Pabst Racing with Colin Kaminsky as his teammate. 

After missing the 2020 season, RP Motorsports is back with Enzo Fittipaldi and Enaam Ahmed on the grid. Cameron Shields is the only DEForce Racing entry for Barber. Jacob Abel is back after running a partial season last year. James Roe, Hunter Yeany, Flinn Lazier and Jack William Miller will all be making their Indy Pro 2000 debuts.

Indy Pro 2000 will race at 12:10 p.m. ET on Saturday April 17 and at 10:15 a.m. ET on Sunday April 18.

Twenty-six cars have entered the U.S. F2000 season opener in what is U.S. F2000's first trip to Barber since 2017. 

Jay Howard Driver Development ended Cape Motorsports' nine-year run of producing the U.S. F2000 champion last year when Christian Rasmussen took the title. JHDD is back with three drivers, but all three are rookies. Team USA Scholarship winner Jackson Lee will lead the way with Bijoy Garg and New Zealander Peter Vodanovich. 

Cape Motorsports has four cars entered. Michael d'Orlando is the elder statesman with rookies Thomas Nepveu, Evan Stamer and Spike Kohlbecker around him. 

Christian Brooks led testing with Exclusive Autosport and Matt Round-Garrido has joined the team, giving Exclusive Autosport two drivers who were in the top six of the championship last year. 

Prescott Campbell will look to improve in year two and he will drive for DEForce Racing, alongside Kiko Porto, who won at St. Petersburg last year. Josh Green has joined Turn 3 Motorsport. Legacy Autosport was not present at testing but has entered Andre Castro and Simon Sikes for the Barber round. 

Myles Rowe will make his debut with Force Indy, a new team created with assistance from Team Penske as part of IndyCar's Race for Equality & Change initiative.

Both U.S. F2000 races will be on Saturday April 17 with race one at 9:00 a.m. ET and race two at 4:50 p.m. ET.

Fast Facts

This will be the fifth IndyCar race held on April 18 and first since Ryan Hunter-Reay won at Long Beach in 2010. 

All previous races held on April 18 were at Long Beach and all of these races had a driver from the Americas win the race. Paul Tracy won at Long Beach in 1993 and 2004. Juan Pablo Montoya won at Long Beach in 1999.

The average starting position for a Barber winner is 3.444 with a median of third. 

Four of ten Barber races have been won from pole position. 

The worst starting position for a Barber winner was ninth in 2012 with Will Power. 

Every Barber podium finisher has started in the top ten.

In the last two Barber races the podium finishers have all started in the top five. 

The third-place starter has finished on the podium in eight of ten Barber races and the worst finish for the third-place starter is tenth. 

The average number of lead changes at Barber is 6.6 with a median of seven. 

The 2019 Barber race had a record 11 lead changes. Only three Barber races have had fewer than five lead changes. 

The average number of cautions at Barber is 2.4 with a median of two. The average number of caution laps is 9.3 with a median of eight.

Eight Barber races have had two cautions or fewer. There has never been a caution-free race at Barber. 

Scott Dixon could become the first defending champion to win a season opener since Dario Franchitti won at St. Petersburg in 2011. 

Josef Newgarden is the only driver to pick up a first career victory at Barber. 

The last time there was a first-time winner in the season opener was James Hinchcliffe at St. Petersburg in 2013. Hinchcliffe's victory was also the last time Andretti Autosport won a season opener. 

Team Penske has won eight of 14 season openers since reunification. Chip Ganassi Racing has won three of those season openers. Dale Coyne Racing has won two of them and then there was the aforementioned Andretti victory.

Barber is the 25th different track to host an IndyCar season opener. 

Due to the pandemic-affected seasons, this is third different venue to host the season opener in the last three seasons. The last time IndyCar had three different season opening venues in three seasons was from 2008 to 2010 when Homestead, St. Petersburg and São Paulo were the openers in those respective years. 

Possible Milestones:

If Scott Dixon wins this race, he will become the first driver in IndyCar history to win a race in 19 different seasons. 

If Scott Dixon wins this race, he will tie Mario Andretti's record of 26 different tracks with a race victory

Will Power is one victory away from becoming the fifth driver to win 40 IndyCar races. Power would also break a tie with Al Unser for fifth all-time in IndyCar victories.

Will Power is one podium finish away from moving into sole possession of tenth all-time in podium finishes with 82.

Scott Dixon needs to lead 58 laps to become the fifth driver to reach the 6,000 laps led milestone. 

Sébastien Bourdais needs to lead 47 laps to reach the 2,700 laps led milestone.

Josef Newgarden needs to lead one lap to become the 23rd driver to reach the 2,500 laps led milestone. 

Ryan Hunter-Reay needs to lead 51 laps to reach the 1,600 laps led milestone.

James Hinchcliffe needs to lead 19 laps to reach the 800 laps led milestone.

Predictions

Scott Dixon will open the season with his 51st IndyCar victory. Alexander Rossi gets his career best finish at Barber. There will be a podium finisher that starts outside the top ten. Arrow McLaren SP will have at least one driver in the top five. Sébastien Bourdais will be the top finishing Frenchman. Romain Grosjean will be the top finishing rookie. Conor Daly will finish ahead of Rinus VeeKay for the first time as Ed Carpenter Racing teammates. Scott McLaughlin will finish ahead of one of his teammates. Jimmie Johnson will not finish ahead of one of his teammates. There will not be an accident entering the pit lane. Graham Rahal will not have a mechanical failure. Dalton Kellett will improve on his career average finish. Sleeper: Álex Palou.