Scott McLaughlin won pole position for the Grand Prix of Alabama with a lap of 65.9490 seconds in the final round of qualifying. It is the sixth pole position of McLaughlin’s career. After his disqualification from St. Petersburg, McLaughlin has been classified outside the top twenty in two consecutive races. It is the second time in his career he has been outside the top twenty in consecutive races. He was 22nd and 23rd between Nashville and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course race held in August 2021. The New Zealander looks to join Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Josef Newgarden as winner of consecutive races at Barber.
Will Power makes it a Penske sweep of the front row. Power was 0.097 seconds slower than McLaughlin. This is the ninth time in 14 Barber appearances Power has started on the front row. Power has ten top five finishes at Barber Motorsports Park, including three consecutive. Prior to this three-race stretch, Power had failed to finish in the top ten in the prior three Barber races.
Christian Lundgaard was 0.1328 off pole position and Lundgaard will occupy third on the grid. The Dane was 23rd last week at Long Beach, his worst finish on a road/street course in IndyCar competition. Lundgaard has not finished in the top ten in the first two races. The only time he has gone at least three consecutive starts without a top ten result are the first five races of his career.
Patricio O'Ward makes his 75th career start this weekend, and O’Ward will do it from fourth. O’Ward started fifth in debut at Sonoma in 2018. He has finished in the podium every time he has started fourth in his career, including his first career victory at Texas in 2021. O'Ward has finished fourth, first and fourth in the last three Barber races.
Felix Rosenqivst starts fifth, and it is Rosneqvist’s third consecutive top five start this season, and his fourth consecutive top five start going back to las season. Prior to this run, his longest top five starting streak was two races. The Swede enters this race ranked sixth in the championship. This is the highest Rosenqvist has been ranked since he was sixth at the conclusion of the 2019 season finale at Laguna Seca.
Marcus Armstrong takes sixth on the grid. This will be Armstrong’s 15th career start. The most recent driver to have a first career victory come in an 15th career start was Álex Palou at Barber in 2021. Armstrong has finished outside the top ten in his last two starts. The only time he has gone three consecutive races without a top ten result was at Nashville, the August Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course race and Portland last year.
Graham Rahal missed out on the Fast Six by 0.0524 seconds, but this is Rahal’s best starting position of the season. It is the seventh time in 14 Barber appearances he has qualified in the top ten. Rahal has not had a top ten finish in his last five starts. This is Rahal's longest top ten drought since 2014. He has six top ten finishes in his career at Barber.
Josef Newgarden looks for his 30th career victory from eighth on the grid. Newgarden is back down to 29 career victories after his disqualification from St. Petersburg. The only time he has won from eighth starting position was the 2020 St. Petersburg season finale. Newgarden has also now gone seven races without a podium finishes, his longest stretch without a podium since the final seven races of the 2018 season.
Kyle Kirkwood qualified ninth, his second consecutive top ten start. Kirkwood had started outside the top ten in five consecutive races prior to this two-week run. The American is credited with top ten finishes in the first two races this season. Kirkwood has never had three consecutive top ten finishes in his IndyCar career.
Álex Palou has car #10 starting in position #10. This is the fourth time Palou has started tenth in his career, all four have come in car #10, and Palou has two top five finishes in the previous three occasions. The Catalan has four consecutive top fives finishes. Last year, Palou had nine consecutive top five finishes from Texas through Toronto.
Romain Grosjean starts 11th. Grosjean's 57 laps led in last year's Barber race are tied for the third most by a driver that did not win the race. Will Power led 60 laps in 2017 but a late pit stop for a tire puncture knocked Power back to 14th. Marco Andretti led 58 laps in the inaugural Barber race in 2010 only to finish fifth. In 2022, Rinus VeeKay led 57 laps but finished third.
Tom Blomqvist advanced to the second round of qualifying for the first time in his IndyCar career, and Blomqvist will start 12th. This was the first time Meyer Shank Racing has had both cars make the second round of qualifying since the 2022 season finale at Laguna Seca. The team hasn’t had a double top ten finish day since Mid-Ohio 2022, 27 races ago.
Scott Dixon will look for consecutive victories from 13th starting position after he fell 0.1075 seconds off transferring from group one. This matches Dixon’s worst start at Barber. He went from 13th to fifth in 2022. Dixon's average starting position over his last five victories is 12.8, and his victory from eighth last week at Long Beach is the only of those five races where he started in the top ten.
Christian Rasmussen fell 0.0284 seconds shy of advancing to the second round of qualifying for the first time in his career. This will be Rasmussen’s best start in IndyCar after he started 21st in the first two races of the season. The Dane won at Barber Motorsports Park last year in Indy Lights. The only driver to win in IndyCar and Indy Lights at Barber is Patricio O'Ward.
Colton Herta takes 15th on the grid, his worst start position ever at Barber. Herta enters this race with consecutive podium finishes for the first time since he won the final two races of the 2021 season at Laguna Seca and Long Beach. Herta is trying for three consecutive podium finishes for the first time in his IndyCar career.
Alexander Rossi will start 16th, snapping a streak of five consecutive top ten starts at Barber. This is the fourth consecutive race Rossi has started outside the top ten. He has finished in the top ten in the previous three races. Only twice in Rossi's career has he opened a season with three consecutive top ten finishes. He did it in 2018 and he had four consecutive top ten finishes to start the 2019 season.
Santino Ferrucci’s average starting position at Barber entering this race was 17.5, and Ferrucci will improve that slightly with a 17th place qualifying effort. After the Team Penske penalties were issued for the infractions at St. Petersburg, Ferrucci was elevated to ninth in the season opener. This is his first top ten result since he was third in last year's Indianapolis 500. It is his first top ten in a road or street course race since he was ninth at Mid-Ohio in 2021.
For the fourth time in five Barber appearances, Marcus Ericsson starts outside the top ten, and he will be 18th at the green flag today. Ericsson's fifth place finish at Long Beach was his first top five finish on a road/street course since he was third at Long Beach last year. One twice has Ericsson had consecutive top five finishes in his career. He was second and first at Mid-Ohio and Nashville in 2021, and he was fourth and first between the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis 500 in 2022.
Linus Lundqvist makes it two consecutive Swedes on the grid in 19th. Lundqvist won on his Indy Lights debut at Barber Motorsports Park in 2021 and he also won here in 2022. Lundqvist is one of three drivers with multiple Barber victories in Indy Lights. Spencer Pigot and Patricio O'Ward are the others. Lundqvist is the only driver to win in multiple years in Indy Lights at Barber.
Agustín Canapino rounds out the top twenty. Canapino has opened the season with consecutive top twenty finishes, and he has three consecutive top twenty finishes dating back to last season. The Argentine driver had a pair of 12th place finishes to open the 2023 season. He was 26th at Barber last yea, which remains tied for his worst finish in IndyCar.
Luca Ghiotto makes his IndyCar debut in the #51 Honda for Dale Coyne Racing in 21st starting position. Ghiotto won seven races over his GP2/Formula Two career. He was also second to Esteban Ocon in the 2015 GP3 Series championship. Ghiotto becomes the first Italian to enter an IndyCar race since Luca Filippi raced for Dale Coyne Racing at Toronto in 2016. Ghiotto is the third debutant driver for Coyne in three rounds.
Jack Harvey sweeps row 11 for Dale Coyne Racing. In the first two races of the season, Dale Coyne Racing did not have a car start better than 23rd, and a DCR driver had started last in each of the first two races. Harvey has gone 18 starts without a top ten finish. His best finish at barber was 11th in 2021.
Kyffin Simpson takes 23rd on the grid. Simpson will be credited with fastest lap for the St. Petersburg race after the Team Penske penalties. Simpson becomes the seventh driver since 1993 to be credited with fastest lap on debut joining Nigel Mansell, Buzz Calkins, Greg Moore, Sébastien Bourdais, Hideki Mutoh and Linus Lundqvist.
Théo Pourchaire will make his second IndyCar start from 24th on the grid, two positions worse than last week. At Long Beach, Pourchaire made up the most positions from the start of the race, going from 22nd to 11th. Last year, Marcus Armstrong made up the most positions at Barber as Armstrong went from 26th to 11th.
For the 20th consecutive race, Sting Ray Robb is starting outside the top twenty, as Robb wound up 25th in qualifying for the Grand Prix of Alabama. Robb retired from last year's Barber race with a mechanical issue after completing 36 laps. He has three lead lap finishes in his IndyCar career.
Pietro Fittipaldi lost his fastest two laps in qualifying and the Brazilian will start 26th. Fittipaldi also had an accident in the Saturday morning practice after a steering rack failure. This is the second time he has started 26th this season. This is the fourth time in 12 starts Fittipaldi has started outside the top twenty.
Rinus VeeKay had an engine issue prevent him from posting a respectable lap in qualifying, and VeeKay will start 27th due to that issue. The Dutchman was fastest in the Saturday morning practice session before this issue emerged. VeeKay has never finished in the top ten in the third race of the season. His best result was 13th in 2020 at Road America and in 2022 at Long Beach.
NBC's coverage of the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix begins at 1:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:40 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 90 laps.
