Romain Grosjean won his second pole position of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series season with a 65.8396-second lap around Barber Motorsports Park for the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix. This is Andretti Autosports' third pole position of the season, but only the team's second ever at Barber. Ryan Hunter-Reay was the pole-sitter for the 2013 race and Hunter-Reay went on to win that race. Grosjean has finished in the top ten in both his Barber starts. It is one of six circuits where Grosjean has multiple top ten finishes at. It is one of four tracks where Grosjean has a 100% top ten finish percentage. The others are Road America, Laguna Seca and Iowa. This is Grosjean's 34th career start. Only three drivers have had their first career victory come in their 34th career start: Cliff Woodbury, A.J. Foyt and Mark Dismore.
Álex Palou fell 0.0734 seconds short of taking pole position, but Palou will start second, his best career start at Barber. The Spaniard had started third in his first two starts at the track. This is his first front row start since last year's Indianapolis 500, but it is the eighth time in the last nine races he has started in the top seven. Palou has been on the podium in both his visits to Barber Motorsports Park. The only other tracks where Palou has multiple podium finishes are Road America, Mid-Ohio and Laguna Seca.
Patricio O’Ward was 0.0986 seconds off Grosjean and O'Ward will start third. This is the 11th consecutive race O'Ward has stated in the top seven and he has started in the top seven in 17 of the last 18 races. The Mexican had started first and second in his previous two Barber starts. He has led at least 25 laps in each of the last two Barber races as well. O'Ward has won the race preceding a race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on three consecutive occasions. The next race is the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Scott McLaughlin is the top Team Penske qualifier in fourth, 0.1119 seconds off Grosjean's pole position time. This is the second consecutive year McLaughlin has started fourth at Barber. He went backward last year, finishing sixth. McLaughlin has finished in the top ten in the fourth race of the season the last two years. He has not finished in the top five of his last four starts after have a five-race top five finish streak prior to this stretch.
Scott Dixon ended up fifth on the grid, 0.2327 seconds behind Grosjean. This was the 12th time in 13 Barber races Dixon has made the Fast Six. Dixon was 27th at Long Beach, the worst road/street course finish in his IndyCar career. It was only the third time he has finished outside the top 25, and only the 19th time he has finished outside the top twenty over 371 starts. Dixon has won four times from fifth starting position, most recently at Road America in 2017.
Christian Lundgaard made the Fast Six of the first time this season and Dane was 0.3205 seconds off pole position. This is the first top ten starting position for a Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver this season. Lundgaard was 15th at Barber last year. In seven natural-terrain road course starts, the only time Lundgaard has finished worse than 15th at 21st at Portland last year after stalling on his final pit stop and then he blew the chicane and had to make an additional stop to remove a sponsorship board stuck to his front wing.
Josef Newgarden missed out on making the Fast Six by 0.0617 seconds after his teammate McLaughlin jumped above the cutline on his final lap of the round. The good news for Newgarden is seventh has been Heaven for him. Newgarden has won five times from seventh starting position in his career, including at Barber in 2017. The only starting position he has won from more is second, where he has been victorious from ten times.
Felix Rosenqvist qualified eighth, falling 0.1944 seconds shot of advancing to the final round. This is the six consecutive race Rosenqvist has started inside the top ten, but he has only finished better than his starting psition in two of the previous five races. The Swede has finished outside the top fifteen in his last two Barber starts.
Rinus VeeKay will start ninth, his best start of the season and his first top ten start since Nashville last year. has not had a top ten finish in his last seven starts, one shy of matching his longest drought, which occurred over his final eight starts in the 2021 season. Every time VeeKay has gone five or more races without a top ten finish, the race that ends that drought has been a sixth place finish. This will be VeeKay's 50th career start.
Alexander Rossi rounds out the top ten on the grid, Rossi's fifth consecutive top ten start at Barber. He has finished worse than his starting position in three of the previous four years. He has finished 22nd in the last two races. Last season, Rossi never finished in the same position twice, having finished in 17 different positions over the 17 races. His best finish at Barber is fifth on two occasions.
Will Power will start 11th, his second consecutive time starting outside the top ten at Barber after starting in the top ten for the first 11 Barber race. Power has 212 laps led at Barber, the most all-time, but he has only led four laps over the last four Barber races, all coming in the 2021 race. He has finished in the top five in six of the seven Barber races he has led. The exception is the 2017 race, where Power made a late pit stop for a tire puncture.
Kyle Kirkwood had a spin in the second round of qualifying ruin his chances of advancing to the Fast Six and Kirkwood will accept 12th on the grid as a consolation prize for his effort on Saturday. Kirkwood could become the first driver to have his first two career victories happen in consecutive races since A.J. Allmendinger in 2006, who had his first three career victories happen in consecutive races.
Championship leader Marcus Ericsson missed out on advancing from group one in the first round of qualifying by 0.1399 seconds, and the Swede takes 13th on the grid. Ericsson has opened the 2023 season with three consecutive top ten finishes, his longest top ten streak to open a season in his IndyCar career. Dating back to last year, he has four consecutive top ten results. In each of the last two seasons he has had a top ten streak last at least eight consecutive races.
Colton Herta was 0.2082 seconds off making it out of group two, and Herta will start 14th. This is the first time Herta has failed to start in the top ten at Barber. He was tenth at the finish in last year's Barber race after finishing outside the top twenty in his first two visits to the track, retiring on both occasions. Herta was fourth at Long Beach. He has not had consecutive top five finishes since he ended 2021 with a pair of victories and started 2022 with a fourth in St. Petersburg.
Callum Ilott takes 15th on the grid. Ilott has won three times in the month of April in his career. On April 2, 2016, Ilott won the second Formula Three race from Circuit Paul Ricard ahead of Nick Cassidy and Guanyu Zhou. On April 16, 2017, he won the third Formula Three race from Silverstone ahead of Joel Eriksson and Lando Norris. Six years ago today, Ilott was victorious at Monza with Norris in second and Maximilian Günther in third.
Simon Pagenaud finds himself 16th on the grid, the 11th time in the last 12 races Pagenaud has started outside the top ten. He enters Barber on a six-race top ten finish drought. He also has finished outside the top ten in the last two Barber races after having six consecutive top ten results at the facility. Pagenaud has finished better than or equal to his starting position in the last six Barber races and in ten of his 11 Barber starts.
David Malukas improves on his 2022 Barber qualifying performance by a position, as Malukas will start 17th for this year's race. However, this is the third time in the first four races Malukas has qualified outside the top fifteen. He had started inside the top fifteen in 12 consecutive races prior to this stretch. Malukas won the second race of the Indy Lights doubleheader at Barber in 2021.
Devlin DeFrancesco joins Malukas on row eight. DeFrancesco was 16th in the most recent race at Long Beach, the best street course finish of his IndyCar career. DeFrancesco's only top fifteen finish on a road course was 15th at Laguna Seca last year.
Graham Rahal will start 19th, the 29th time in the 37 races since the start of the 2021 season Rahal has started outside the top ten. He has started outside the top fifteen in 19 of those 29 races. However, in the previous 36 races, Rahal has 22 top ten finishes, including seven when starting outside the top fifteen. Rahal has five top ten finishes in the last seven Barber events.
Conor Daly gets his best starting position of the season in 20th, making it an all-American row ten. Daly has yet to finish in the top fifteen in his first four Barber starts. He was 16th in 2021. At 18.25, this is Daly's fourth worst track on average finish with a minimum of three starts. He has made at least three starts at 14 tracks.
Hélio Castroneves qualified 21st, matching his worst starting position of the season. Castroneves has four top five finishes in nine Barber starts. Castroneves not had a top five finish in his last 25 starts. He has not finished in the top five after starting outside the top twenty since Milwaukee 2015 when he started 24th and finished second to Sébastien Bourdais. This is only the tenth time since that Milwaukee race Castroneves will be starting outside the top twenty.
Agustín Canapino shares row 11 with his fellow South American competitor. Canapino is coming off the worst finish of his IndyCar career. Damage after brushing the barrier left him to finish 25th at Long Beach. The Argentine was the slowest car over the combined practice session times.
Sting Ray Robb will start 23rd for the third time in the first four races of the 2023 season. The 23rd starting position has produced two winners in IndyCar history, Scott Dixon at Nazareth in 2001 and Simon Pagenaud in the first race of the 2020 Iowa doubleheader. In five Road to Indy starts at Barber, Robb had one podium finish, a third last year in Indy Lights, and his average finish over those five races was 7.6 but with an average field size of 14 cars.
Jack Harvey takes the outside of row 12. Twenty-fourth is Harvey's worst starting position at Barber. It is his ninth consecutive time starting outside the top ten. Harvey has never finished in the top ten at Barber in two starts. His best result was 13th in the 2019 race. This will be his 69th career start. The only driver to have a first career victory come in a 69th career start was Scott Pruett at Michigan in 1995.
Benjamin Pedersen will start 25th. Pedersen has started outside the top twenty in each of the three road/street course races this season. He did not finish on the lead lap in either of the first two road/street course races this season. Pedersen was runner-up in two of his three Indy Lights starts at Barber.
An interference penalty nullified Marcus Armstrong's fastest two laps in the first round of qualifying and Armstrong will start 26th. This race falls on the final day of April. The only time Armstrong has won in April in his career was the Formula Two sprint race at Imola last year, one year and seven days ago.
A transmission problem prevented Santino Ferrucci from completing a competitive lap in qualifying and Ferrucci will start 27th. This matches his worst starting position, which came last year at Texas when he was a last-minute substitution for an injured Jack Harvey. Ferrucci drove to ninth in that race. He was 15th in his lone Barber start back in 2019. He started tenth that day.
NBC’s coverage of the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix begins at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:15 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 90 laps.
