The fourth round of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series season brings the series back to Birmingham, Alabama for the 13th Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park. Barber has always been one of the first four races in an IndyCar season since it was first introduced to the schedule in 2010. This will be the fifth time it has been exactly the fourth race on the calendar. Chevrolet has won each of the previous four times Barber has been the fourth race of a season. Chevrolet has won seven of ten Barber race since the American manufacturer rejoined IndyCar in 2012. Through the first three races of 2023, Honda holds a two to one advantage in race victories. In three of the last four seasons, Honda has won at least three of the first four races. Last season, Chevrolet opened with four consecutive victories, two years after Honda opened with fourth consecutive victories.
Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday April 30 with green flag scheduled for 3:15 p.m. ET.
Channel: NBC
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Marty Snider, Kevin Lee and Dave Burns will work pit lane.
Channel: NBC
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Marty Snider, Kevin Lee and Dave Burns will work pit lane.
IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday:
First Practice: 3:40 p.m. ET (75 minutes)
Saturday:
Second Practice: 12:00 p.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 3:00 p.m. ET
Sunday:
Warm-up: 12:00 p.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 3:15 p.m. ET (90 laps)
Qualifying: 3:00 p.m. ET
Sunday:
Warm-up: 12:00 p.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 3:15 p.m. ET (90 laps)
* - All sessions will be available live on Peacock
Scott Dixon's Stupid Great Yet Unfulfilled Record at Barber
Every year we return to Barber Motorsports Park, Dixon's staggering record is mentioned.
In 12 starts, Dixon has nine podium finishes, ten top five finishes and his worst finish is tenth. Yet Dixon has never won on the 2.38-mile road course. He is one of only two drivers with more than five top five finishes at the track. Will Power has nine top five finishes. Dixon is the only driver to reach double figures in top ten finishes at the track, three more than the next two closest driver, Power and Simon Pagenaud, and the only other drivers with at least seven top ten finishes at Barber are Josef Newgarden and James Hinchcliffe.
Among all drivers with at least three Barber starts, Dixon has the best average finish at 3.5. No other qualified driver averages a top five finish. Power is the next closest at 6.3333. Pagenaud and Patricio O'Ward are each averaging a seventh place finish with Newgarden averaging an 8.1.
Qualifying form is another strength for Dixon at Barber. Last year, he started 13th, it was the first time he failed the make the Firestone Fast Six at the track let alone fail to make it out of the first round of qualifying. While his average starting position is 4.916, like victory, pole position has eluded the Kiwi. In fact, he has never started on the front row here.
For greater context of how good Dixon has been at Barber Motorsports Park, the only track where Dixon has more podium finishes is Texas, where he has ten, but he has 25 starts at Texas, more than double his Barber total. He has more podium finishes at Barber than Mid-Ohio, a track he has won at six times.
Barber is one of six circuits where Dixon has at least ten top five finishes. The only other circuit in that batch where he hasn't won is Iowa. At those other four circuits (Texas, Mid-Ohio, Belle Isle, Toronto), he has won at each of them at least three times, combining for 18 of his 53 career victories.
This is one of nine circuits where he has at least ten top ten finishes, however with a 100% batting average, Barber is the best in the lineup. Only four of those other eight tracks does Dixon have a top ten percentage above 80% (Toronto 87.5%, Milwaukee 83.333%, Iowa 82.35%).
While Dixon has regularly been at the front at Barber, he hasn't been a regular leader. Of the 37 tracks where Dixon has led a lap, Barber ranks 25th with the New Zealander having only led 46 of 1,051 laps run around the track. Of those 46 laps, 38 came in the 2012 race when he finished runner-up to Power. He has only led in four other Barber races and has led no more than three laps in any of those four. Dixon ranks 11th in laps led at Barber behind the likes of Takuma Sato, Álex Palou, Marco Andretti and Rinus VeeKay.
Dixon has won at 26 different circuits, tied with Mario Andretti for the most all-time. A Barber victory would move Dixon ahead of Andretti in another category after surpassing the American in victories last year and in top five finishes earlier this season at Texas.
Repeating is Common
Patricio O'Ward has had a few close calls at victory in 2023, but has come up short.
In the St. Petersburg season opener, O'Ward was leading when his engine suffered an plenum fire exiting the final corner, causing him to lose power a brief moment and allowing Marcus Ericsson to overtake the Mexican driver with four laps to go. O'Ward would hold on to finish second.
O'Ward was the class of the field at Texas Motor Speedway, lapping up to third place and having a seven-second lead over Josef Newgarden in second at one point. The flurry of late cautions brought Newgarden and the rest of the field to O'Ward for the closing stages. O'Ward held off most challenges, but he and Newgarden went back-and-forth over the final ten laps, trading the lead four times, but it was Newgarden ahead on the penultimate lap when the caution came out for Romain Grosjean's accident. O'Ward settled for second again.
Aggressive driving stood out from O'Ward at Long Beach. He and Dixon came together in turn eight, ending Dixon's race. In the laps after the ensuing restart, O'Ward spun into the turn eight barriers, dropping him from contention for a top five finish and leading him to finish 17th, one lap down. The Long Beach result snapped a five-race top ten streak and dropped O'Ward from the championship lead.
If there was ever a time and a place for O'Ward to visit Barber, it is now.
Looking to get back on his high horse, O'Ward heads to Alabama as the most recent winner of this event. On three separate occasions has a driver won consecutive Barber races. Will Power was the first to do it in 2011 and 2012. Ryan Hunter-Reay immediately followed winning in 2013 and 2014. Josef Newgarden became the third repeat winner in 2017 and 2018.
O'Ward has yet to win at the same track twice in his IndyCar career, but Barber is the fourth race of the 2023 season. In each of the previous two seasons O'Ward's first victory of the year came in the fourth race of the season. He has finished on the podium in the fourth race of the season the last three years.
Along with his victory last year, where O'Ward led 27 of 90 laps from second on the grid, he started on pole position in the 2021 Barber race, leading 25 of 90 laps, but fading to fourth in the closing stages. This is the road/street course O'Ward has led the most at. The Mexican driver's top three tracks in laps led are ovals (Gateway, Texas and Iowa). His only other Barber start was driving for Carlin in 2019 and he finished 16th after starting 18th. He did win four times in eight Road to Indy starts at the circuit.
A victory this weekend would likely put O'Ward back on top of the championship, barring Marcus Ericsson does not finish second nor finishes third with at least two bonus points. O'Ward has been ranked in the championship top ten for 18 consecutive races, and he has been in the championship top five after ten of those.
Four-For-Four... Going for Five
While Barber Motorsports Park is known for repeat winners, it has had four different winners from four different teams in the last four races.
Newgarden won the second of his consecutive victories, and his third time overall at Barber, in 2018 while driving for Team Penske. In 2019, Takuma Sato won from pole position in a Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda. After missing 2020 due to the pandemic, Álex Palou won on his Chip Ganassi Racing debut in what was the 2021 season opener. Last year, O'Ward won for Arrow McLaren.
Prior to 2019, only three teams had won in the first nine Barber events. Three different teams have won in the last three Barber races, and none of those teams had won any of the first nine Grand Prix of Alabama.
Andretti Autosport did win twice in the first nine Barber races, but it could extend this streak to five consecutive Barber races with a different team winning. Kyle Kirkwood heads to Barber coming off his first career IndyCar victory at Long Beach two weeks ago. It was Kirkwood's second career top ten finish, one year after his first came at Long Beach. He only made two starts at Barber in Road to Indy competition. He was ninth and fifth in the 2021 Indy Lights races at the track.
Along with Kirkwood, Andretti has Romain Grosjean, Colton Herta and Devlin DeFrancesco as other potential streak extenders. Grosjean made it an Andretti 1-2 at Long Beach while Herta was fourth. It was Andretti's first 1-2 finish since it swept the podium in the second race of the 2020 Mid-Ohio doubleheader, and it was also the first time Andretti had multiple podium finishes since that Mid-Ohio race. It was only the second time in the last 39 races Andretti had three top five finishers.
Andretti Autosport has not had a top five finisher in the last two Barber races. The team had at least one top five finisher in eight of the first ten Barber races.
Rinus Veekay was third at Barber last year after leading 57 laps from pole position. It was VeeKay's second consecutive top ten finish at Barber, he was sixth in 2021, and it was the team's best finish since Josef Newgarden was third in 2016. It is Ed Carpenter Racing's most recent podium finish and the team is still looking for its first top ten result of 2023. The last time ECR did not have a top ten finish through the first three races was 2019 when the team opened with four consecutive races without a top ten result.
Meyer Shank Racing has not had a top five finish since Simon Pagenaud was second in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis last year. Pagenaud has finished outside the top ten the last two years at Barber after having nine consecutive top ten results. Hélio Castroneves won the inaugural Grand Prix of Barber in 2010. He had six top ten finishes in his first eight Barber starts. Last year, Castroneves was 21st.
Dale Coyne Racing has top ten finishes in four of the last five Barber races, including a third in 2019 with Sébastien Bourdais. Juncos Hollinger Racing has competed in two Barber races. René Binder was 16th in 2018 and Callum Ilott was 25th last year, two laps down. A.J. Foyt Racing has only two top ten finishes at Barber: seventh with Mike Conway in 2012 and fifth with Bourdais in 2021.
Three-For-Three... Going for Four
While we are looking for a fifth different team to be victorious in as many Barber races, the 2023 season is looking for its fourth different team winning in the first four races.
Ganassi was the first on the board with Ericsson at St. Petersburg. Newgarden got Penske's first victory at Texas. Kirkwood won for Andretti Autosport at Long Beach.
When was the last time an IndyCar season began with four different winners from four different teams?
It was 2015, the first year of the manufacturer specific aero kits, when Juan Pablo Montoya won at St. Petersburg for Penske, James Hinchcliffe won a dismal race at NOLA Motorsports Park with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Scott Dixon won at Barber with Ganassi, and Josef Newgarden scored his first career victory driving for the CFH Racing after Ed Carpenter Racing and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing merged.
That was actually the second consecutive season that saw four different teams win in the first four races after Penske, Ed Carpenter Racing Andretti and SPM split the first four events in 2014. The only other season since reunification to have four different teams win the first four races was 2008, but that included the split Motegi/Long Beach weekend when Indy Racing League teams ran at Motegi and Champ Car teams ran the final race for the Panoz DP01 chassis at Long Beach.
If any of the seven teams that have yet to win were to come out on top this weekend, we could be heading into the Grand Prix of Indianapolis with the possibility of having five different teams win the first five races in a season since 2000 when it happened in both the Indy Racing League and CART.
In CART, the first six races had six different teams win a race. Max Papis won at Homestead with Team Rahal. Paul Tracy won at Long Beach with Team Green. Adrián Fernández was victorious in Rio de Janeiro with Patrick Racing. Newman/Haas Racing was first in Motegi with Michael Andretti. Team Penske picked up its 100th IndyCar victory at Nazareth thanks to Gil de Ferran, which was a week before Juan Pablo Montoya won at Milwaukee with Ganassi.
The first team to repeat was, naturally, Team Penske. Hélio Castroneves scored his first career IndyCar victory at Belle Isle.
The 2000 IRL season started with seven different teams winning in the first seven races! Dreyer & Reinbold Racing won on debut in the first race of the 21st century at Walt Disney World Speedway with Robbie Buhl. Buddy Laizer won at Phoenix with Hemelgarn Racing. At Las Vegas, Al Unser, Jr. scored his first victory in nearly five years driving for Galles Racing, and it was Galles Racing's first victory since Belle Isle 1993. Montoya then won the Indianapolis 500 with Ganassi. Scott Sharp and Kelley Racing won the next race at Texas. Eddie Cheever won with his own team at Pikes Peak. Greg Ray won the seventh race with Team Menard in Atlanta.
Lazier and Hemelgarn Racing was the first, and only, repeat winner that season as he took the championship off the back of victory in the inaugural Kentucky race.
Indy Lights
After nearly two months without any Road to Indy competition, Indy Lights returns for its second of 14 races this season.
At St. Petersburg, Danial Frost scored his second career Indy Lights victory in his 35th start, driving for HMD Motorsports. Frost took the lead with two laps to go from Nolan Siegel. Siegel ended up second.
Jacob Abel led 27 laps before Siegel overtook him on lap 35 of the 40-lap race. Christian Rasmussen was fourth with Hunter McElrea the top Andretti Autosport finisher in fifth. Ernie Francis, Jr. scored his best career Indy Lights finish in sixth with Josh Green and Reece Gold following him. Rasmus Lindh and Kyffin Simpson rounded out the top ten.
Louis Foster started on pole position at St. Petersburg and led the first seven laps. Foster was on Abel's heels for most of the race before Foster brushed the barrier and lost two laps for repairs, dropping him down to 14th.
HMD Motorsports has won the last three Barber races in Indy Lights. Prior to this streak, Andretti Autosport had won four consecutive Barber races and the team has won six times at the track in Indy Lights.
One notable change to the entry list this weekend is Toby Sowery will drive the #14 HMD Motorsports Dallara. Sowery steps in for Josh Pierson, as Pierson will compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship's 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps this weekend. Sowery made 32 starts over two Indy Lights seasons. He won at Portland in 2019 and he had ten podium finishes over the two seasons. Sowery was third in the 2019 championship behind Oliver Askew and Rinus VeeKay. Sowery was fourth in both Barber races in 2021.
Siegel and Gold split the Indy Pro 2000 races at Barber last year while Foster was fourth and third in those races.
In six of 11 seasons Barber has been on the Indy Lights schedule has one of the Barber winners gone on to win the Indy Lights championship, including Linus Lundqvist last season.
Indy Lights will compete at 12:55 p.m. ET on Sunday April 30. The race is scheduled for 35 laps.
Fast Facts
This will be the seventh IndyCar race to take place on April 30 and the first since Dan Wheldon won at Motegi in 2005.
Only once has the Barber winner went on to win the IndyCar championship. That was Josef Newgarden in 2017.
In seven of 12 Barber races has that year's champion finished on the podium. In ten of those 12 races that year's championship finished on the podium. In 11 of those 12 races that year's champion finished in the top six. The only time the champions finished outside the top six at Barber that season was Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2012, who finished 12th.
Every Barber podium finisher has started in the top ten, and 28 of 36 podium finishes have started in the top five. Every Barber podium has had at least two drivers start in the top five, including the last four races which have seen all three podium finishers start in the top five.
Only seven out of 60 top five finishers at Barber have started outside the top ten. Six of those drivers started outside the top fifteen. Last year, Will Power went from 19th to fourth and Scott Dixon went from 13th to fifth.
In three of the last six Barber races every car has finished, including last year. The other two races were in 2016 and 2017.
The average starting position for a Barber winner is 3.0833 with a median of 2.5.
The worst starting position for a Barber winner is ninth (Will Power 2012).
Ten of 12 Barber races have been won from inside the top five (Josef Newgarden won from seventh in 2017).
The pole-sitter has won five of 12 Barber races.
Last year, Patricio O'Ward became the first Barber winner to start in second position. O'Ward also became the first driver to win at Barber from an even-numbered starting position.
Fourth starting position is the only one in the top five not to produce a Barber winner. The fourth place start has finished second in four Barber races, most recently in 2021 with Will Power. The fourth place starter has finished in the top ten of every Barber race and has an average finish of fifth.
The average number of lead changes in a Barber race is 6.75 with a median of seven.
Eight of 12 Barber races have had six lead changes or more.
Eight of 12 Barber winners have led at least half the laps in the race.
The average number of cautions in a Barber race is 2.25 with a median of two. The average number of caution laps is 8.667 with a median of 7.5.
There has never been a caution-free Barber race, but ten of 12 races have had two cautions or fewer. The 2016 race had only one caution for one lap when the initial start was waved off.
The most cautions in a Barber race was six in 2011, which was also the only Barber race not to feature a lead change.
Predictions
At one of his least favorite racetracks, Alexander Rossi gets his first victory for Arrow McLaren while McLaren put all three cars in the top ten. Andretti Autosport will have at least one top five finisher and have the best finishing Honda driver. Scott Dixon will be the second best Honda driver. Ed Carpenter Racing has at least one car start in the top 16 and one car finish in the top 12. Graham Rahal improves at least six spots from his starting position. A caution will not happen in the first 24 laps of the race. The last finishing car will be Benjamin Pedersen. No more than 21 cars finish on the lead lap. There will be a new championship leader after this race. Sleeper: Marcus Armstrong.
