First Impressions: Barber 2026

1. Is it wrong to think this was the worst victory of Álex Palou's career? Seventy-nine laps led with a 13.2775-second margin of victory at Barber Motorsports Park? It wasn't very good. It isn't so much Palou's performance but more that in now 21 career victories, there aren't many where it feels like Palou took one that didn't feel like it was going his way. 

In the final round of pit stops, Palou was on the cusp of the wrong side of the pit time delta to Christian Lundgaard, who was going four laps longer on the penultimate stint. It was at least going to be close between the two after Lundgaard emerged from the pit lane. However, a bobble on the right rear tire cost Lundgaard everything. What could have been a side-by-side battle on an out lap and a 20-lap battle for the victory turned into a clear victory for Palou. 

Palou didn't put a wheel wrong in this race. There is a good chance he was going to be ahead of Lundgaard after the final pit stop anyway, and he might have had a fight on his hands, but Palou would have still been in prime position to win the race. Instead, this turned into a cakewalk. 

That is no surprise. Everyone expected Palou to win from pole position with 79 laps led before today started. It was up to the competition to defeat him, and they had a real good shot in Lundgaard, but one mistake ended any hope of Palou being defeated, and not just defeated, but beaten in a race he controlled. Palou was the clear #1 driver until the final round of pit stops approached, and with Lundgaard going long, it looked like the Dane was going to swing the race into his favor.

Palou was good and lucky. He likely was always going to win, but in the one race where it appeared someone was going to get the best of him, an unforced error allowed Palou to take a comfortable victory.

2. This is going to sting for Christian Lundgaard and Arrow McLaren. Did this group 100% deserve victory? I don't think anything was stolen with a second place finish, but Lundgaard drove a flawless race and looked set to at least challenge for victory after starting tenth. He was one of the quickest cars on the day, and he was able to make passes and move forward. Even if he did not emerge from the pit lane in the lead after the final pit stop, Lundgaard was going to have Palou in view and slightly fresher tires to make a push toward the checkered flag. 

One bad pit stop erased that. There was no overcoming that deficit, and Lundgaard had to work just to get back to second. He definitely deserved second today, but he wasn't over 13 seconds behind Palou. The speed is there, but every aspect of the team must be on point, and when the pit crew was needed most, it had its worst stop of the season. 

3. Graham Rahal was the third-best driver today, and Rahal held his ground well in this race. It was a real challenge to stay on the podium. The tires were gone in the final stint and he lost second late to Lundgaard, but Rahal was able to fend off David Malukas. It is another case of Rahal having a standout race somewhat out of nowhere, and we cannot believe if it is a change or a one-off. 

Barber has never been a good track for  Rahal, and this isn't the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course where he and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has a magic touch and automatically run at the front. At times, RLLR has good speed on road courses and at other times it doesn't. Rahal drove well all weekend and it would have been a shame if he did not finish on the podium. It was a strong drive.

4. "If only there was another lap" Well, there wasn't, and in a 90-lap affair at Barber, David Malukas was fourth. Malukas struggled on the alternate tire in the first stint and stopped early, but other teams did better on the alternate tire, especially those who put those on after the opening stint. It cost Malukas some time, but it was not devastating. He practically ran third or fourth the entire race. The pace wasn't there to keep up with Palou. It was there to push for the podium though. That is progress, and this is Malukas' first top five finish on a road or street course. 

Though he is driving for Team Penske, there are many milestones Malukas still has to reach. After not finishing in a top five on a road or street course in his first three-and-a-half seasons in IndyCar, no one should have expected Malukas to be winning immediately on this discipline just because he joined Team Penske. He needed to make this step first and just spend an entire race in the top five. Check off that box.

5. Kyle Kirkwood basically spent this entire race staring at David Malukas' gearbox, and despite stopping a lap earlier for his first stop and then going two laps longer before his final stop, Kirkwood could not leapfrog ahead. Hey, it is still a top five finish, and it is enough for Kirkwood to hold onto the championship lead with a two-point edge over Palou, but Kirkwood had fourth within his grasp this entire race and he just couldn't quite grab it. 

6. Talk about another nondescript top ten finish for Marcus Armstrong. Armstrong started fourth, dropped a few spots early, and then basically ran sixth the entire race. At no point was he a threat for something better. At no point was he in danger of finishing worse. For all his consistency, we have yet to see him be a challenger, and one of these days it must happen. 

I don't know if it is the driver or if it is the team. Is this the best Armstrong can do or is the Meyer Shank Racing car good enough to be on the edge of the top five but not manufacture a podium finish or push for victory? It feels a little more like the team is against the ceiling, and it is better than it was a few years ago, but it just isn't enough for victory. 

7. And in a new trend of the season, Scott Dixon started outside the top ten, made up a few spots early, and then ran well enough to make up a few more and finish seventh. Is this the best Dixon can do at age 45 and staring down 46? We have covered his qualifying woes. The pace is not there. He has not been a threat for a while now. Maybe this is the cliff. This is the point where Dixon is still a top ten driver, but victories are becoming too hard to obtain. 

Dating back to last season, it has been seven races since Dixon has finished in the top five. The last time it was this bad he was driving a Panoz-Toyota, and both of those parts were the problem, not the driver back then. The trend has developed. How long will it go?

8. Santino Ferrucci had a good day and finished eighth. Nothing flashy occurred. Starting the race on the primary tire might have helped him because it felt like everyone who started on the alternate tire lost ground, but those who used the alternate tire during the middle of the race held ground. That kept Ferrucci in the top ten discussion and then he finished eighth. 

9. I guess ninth is good for Marcus Ericsson. Ericsson didn't do anything notable. Most drivers did nothing today. Ericsson stopped early to get off the primary tire, but having saved alternate tires for the race didn't really pave dividends. He lost a position from where he started the race. It wasn't the best strategy but it wasn't the worst. It is still a good result and three top ten finishes from four races is more top ten finishes than he had over the entirety of last season. 

10. There was an expectation this would be an alternate tire race and having an extra set would be beneficial. Josef Newgarden had three fresh sets of alternate tires and they made no positive difference as Newgarden ended up losing a spot from where he started and he was tenth at the finish. It was a strategy, but for how bold it was it neither produced a seismically good result or was an utter disaster. Not often do you find a middle ground on such a roll of the dice. 

There was one competitive Team Penske driver today, and outside of Phoenix, Team Penske does not look much better than it was last year. At least its drivers have not been caught in accidents that were not of its making nor seeming to have every mechanical issue imaginable. 

11. Alexander Rossi started 11th and finished 11th. Did anyone notice anything worth mentioning from Rossi?

12. Will Power did drive from 23rd to 12th after his qualifying accident forced Power to start at the rear of the field. It was a good drive, and Power did end the race using three sets of alternate tires. It probably helped, but the tire advantage was not great enough that three stints on new alternate tires was going to be turn the car into a rocket ship through the field. It was the best strategy to choose, and Power made the most of it.

13. There are a number of drivers we can brush through. 

Felix Rosenqvist did move forward from 18th on the grid, but 13th is a bad ceiling to hit. When you see Armstrong's speed, you would have thought Rosenqvist could have been competing for a top ten finish, and he should have been better across the board this weekend. 

Rinus VeeKay did have a spin and still recovered to finish 14th in a caution-free race! It never looked like VeeKay was going to crack the top ten, but to recovered after a lazy turn five spin while battling Alexander Rossi and finish 14th is a good rebound. 

Romain Grosjean dropped from sixth to 15th in this race. Grosjean went the wrong way on every stint, and hopes were high because Dale Coyne Racing started in the top five last year and pushed for the podium at Barber. It felt like Grosjean was in the right spot at the start, but every stint got worse. This one got away. 

14. Who had Scott McLaughlin finishing 16th and Patricio O'Ward finishing 17th? McLaughlin never had the pace today. He was worse than Newgarden and Newgarden wasn't that good. I don't recall anything going wrong. I just don't recall anything going right for McLaughlin. He did 17 laps on his first stint on alternate tires and then decided to run 25 laps on his next stint on alternate tire. That feels like a team grasping for straws and it didn't work. 

O'Ward had a bad day. He lost spots at the very start and was fighting from behind. Right when he made some of those up, he lost ground again. This must be the first time O'Ward was this irrelevant in a race since Barber two years ago when all three Arrow McLaren cars finished outside the top twenty. At least that was a team effort. We know McLaren had some pace today as Christian Lundgaard was in the discussion for victory.

15. Is anyone behind 17th worth mentioning? 

Nolan Siegel was 18th. Fine. At least he didn't hit anything.

Christian Rasmussen was 19th. Rasmussen is such an odd driver. Qualifying is basically always horrible. Sometimes, he has a much better race car and can gain ground and every few ovals he is somehow the driver to beat, but then he will struggle to crack the top fifteen in the next handful of races. There are a few interesting basket cases on the grid at the moment. 

Kyffin Simpson did nothing and finished 20th. That is how it works every now and then for Simpson. 

16. No rookie finished in the top twenty today. Caio Collet was 21st. Dennis Hauger was 23rd and Mick Schumacher was 24th. Outside of Hauger at St. Petersburg, and I guess Collet at Arlington, the rookies have genuinely been uncompetitive, and it is not much different from last year. This could just be a minor thing and a coincidence it has happened two consecutive years, but it is odd that rookie have struggled this much. We are not expecting top five finishes, but just being more competitive for the top ten and running 12th or 13th. How many laps this season have seen multiple rookies running in the top 15? We can dive into that during this extended Easter break. It cannot be many. 

There is a lot of time left in 2026, but this rookie class is shadowing 2025 very closely. That might be a larger IndyCar problem than a talent issue.

17. Sting Ray Robb was 22nd. Eh. 

18. We are likely due a Louis Foster conversation because this was his 21st start, and Foster looked lost today. He was the slowest car on track. He was in the way. He had to make a fourth pit stop. There could have been a problem bigger than Foster, but it is odd his results have been this poor for this long. 

RLLR had a car on the podium and then the worst two finishers. What is the problem at this team? Is it the engineering? Is it the drivers? I don't know if you can just hire Linus Lundqvist and if he is going to be better than Schumacher and Foster. He cannot be any worse but I don't think he is the difference between running 18th and cracking the top ten.

For Foster, we saw him last year constantly qualify best of the RLLR trio and make the second round of qualifying and even make the final round of qualifying. He even won a pole position. The race pace wasn't there, but some of that was also strategy not going in his favor. A few tweaks and he was going to start scoring respectable results. Things have gone the wrong direction through the first four races in 2026. I don't know what to make of it. Foster isn't a bad driver, but it is pretty inexplicable how poor things have turned.

This is our fifth season with three RLLR cars, and in none of those seasons has it gotten it to click for all three cars. It might be time to consider downsizing this group and focusing on two cars. From 2018 through 2021, when Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato were RLLR's two drivers, neither finished worse than 12th in the championship and in two of those seasons did both drivers finish in the championship top ten. 

I think it is time to consider that discussion, and that means we get to see what an IndyCar charter can do on the open market! All buyers welcome!

19. This is another race where we can have a discussion about the alternate and primary tire compounds because it was again a race where the tires did not matter. It feels like Firestone made a big market correction from last year where we had plenty of races where everyone wanted to get off the alternate tire in two or three laps because it wore out rapidly, but now the difference is minuscule and there is no point in having two tire compounds if the difference is negligible. 

IndyCar and Firestone should not be afraid to have an alternate tire that it knows is not going to last a fuel stint. That is kind of the point of having an alternate tire compound. We know IndyCar and Firestone can hit that happy medium, but it constantly feels like it loses that happy medium. It will have it for a year or two at a track and then we return and there is no difference in the tires. That is frustrating. You had it. How did you lose it? 

Obviously, these conversations have been held because we see the experimentation on street courses with teams mandated to use two alternate tires in those races, but I think it must go further. There must be a goal of having an alternate tire that is not going to last a full fuel stint and also changing the regulation so the minimum lap total on a compound should be higher. There is no reason for the minimum to be two laps. Raise it to ten laps. Make it carry some weight and actually have to be strategized around. 

Firestone has been involved for too long for it to be such a guessing game and having it end up with both compounds end up identical. 

20. This was a typical Barber race. It gets a little spread out. There are periods of action but it is not overwhelming. It was fine. Even with the pit issue for Lundgaard, we still had great battles for the podium positions. This is still a great track to race at. It was tough returning after the passing of track founder George Barber. When you consider this relationship between the track and IndyCar dates back to 2010, this has been a major success. IndyCar found a home in Alabama, a sentence no one could have imagined being possible at the turn of the 21st century. It is a great spring event, and one that is anticipated each year. Let's hope and pray it continues for many more years after the passing of George Barber. 

21. Now the first extended break in the IndyCar season. We get Easter off and then an extra week off for fun. Then we are off to Long Beach. At least we are entering April with four races in the bag instead of only one or two. Folks, it is getting late early.

Morning Warm-Up: Barber 2026

Álex Palou turned the fastest lap in the final round of qualifying yesterday from Barber Motorsports Park at 66.2341 seconds, and that means Palou will start the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix from pole position. It is his 13th career pole position, and his first of the season. Palou could become the fifth driver to win consecutive Barber races. He won last year from pole position and led 81 of 90 laps in the process before taking the checkered flag 16.0035 seconds ahead of the competition. Palou has won from pole position nine times in his career. His victory last year was the fastest Barber race at 116.562 mph. The last five Barber races have averaged over 110 mph after only two of the first ten Barber races averaged at least 110 mph.

David Malukas was 0.1137 seconds behind Palou in qualifying, and this will place Malukas on the front row, his second front row start of the season. He started on pole position and finished third at Phoenix. His only other front row start on a road or street course was last year at Detroit where Malukas started second but finished 14th. Malukas is looking for his third consecutive top ten finish, which would be a first in his IndyCar career. His best Barber finish was 16th. His previous best Barber start was 17th in 2023. This is Malukas' 65th career start. No driver has ever had their first career victory come in their 65th start.

Graham Rahal took a surprise third place in qualifying, matching his best start of the season. Rahal was 0.2840 seconds behind Palou. This is Rahal's best starting position at Barber since he qualifying on the front row for the 2019 race. Rahal has finished outside the top ten in three consecutive Barber races. He has finished outside the top ten in nine of 15 Barber starts. It has been 144 starts since Rahal's most recent victory, the second Belle Isle race in 2017. Rahal currently holds the record for most starts between victory at 124.

Marcus Armstrong joins Rahal on the outside of row two, Armstrong's best starting position of the season, and his best starting position at Barber. His previous best was sixth in 2024. Armstrong led the second-most laps in last year's Barber race, six laps while Álex Palou led 81 of 90 laps, but Armstrong finished 17th after an issue on his final stop refueling the car cost him time, positions and ultimately forced him the New Zealander to save fuel to make it to the finish. This will be Armstrong's 50th career start. The only driver to have their first career victory come in their 50th start was Danica Patrick at Motegi in 2008.

Championship leader Kyle Kirkwood starts fifth, his best start at Barber and the best start of the season. This is Kirkwood's first top five start since he was third at Road America last June. Kirkwood's previous best grid spot here was ninth in 2024. The American was 0.5985 seconds off pole position. Kirkwood has three consecutive top five finishes. He has never had four consecutive top five finishes in his IndyCar career. His best Barber finish is tenth, which came in 2024.

Romain Grosjean rounds out the top six in what was his second Fast Six appearance of the season. Grosjean started sixth at St. Petersburg before finishing eighth. This is his fourth time starting in the top ten in five Barber appearances. His worst start here was 11th in 2024. This will be the 67th start of Grosjean's career. The only driver to have their first career victory come in their 67th start was Maurício Gugelmín at Vancouver in 1997.

Santino Ferrucci snapped a streak of eight consecutive starts outside the top ten, as Ferrucci qualified sevent. He was 0.0117 seconds off advancing to the final round of qualifying. Ferrucci's best Barber finish was seventh in 2024 after starting 17th. In two of the last three seasons, Ferrucci has opened with at least five finishes outside the top ten. 

Marcus Ericsson has his third top ten start in four races as Ericsson takes eighth on the grid. The Swede was 0.0248 seconds from making it to the final round of qualifying. Ericsson's best Barber finish was his first start at the track in 2019, seventh and that was also his first top ten finish in IndyCar. He has finished outside the top ten in three of the last four races here.

Josef Newgarden starts ninth, his second consecutive year starting ninth at Barber. From 2012 through 2019, Newgarden had three Barber victories, four podium finishes, five top five finishes and seven top ten finishes with an average finish of 5.5 in eight starts. In the last five Barber races, his best finish is tenth, which came last year, and his average finish of 15.6.

Christian Lundgaard rounds out the top ten on the grid, his best start of the season. Last year, Lundgaard drove from seventh to second in this race. He has finished better than his grid position in every race this season. Lundgaard has finished on the lead lap in 21 consecutive road/street course races, and only twice in 48 road/street course races has he not finish on the lead lap. Both were at Long Beach in 2022 and in 2024. 

Alexander Rossi qualified 11th after starting in the top ten of the last two races. Rossi has alternated eighth-place finishes in two of the last three Barber races. He was ninth in the 2021 and 2022 Barber races. He has finished on the lead lap in seven consecutive races. Rossi has not had eight consecutive lead lap finishes since 2019 starting at Indianapolis 500 and running through Mid-Ohio. The only time Rossi has won from outside the top ten was the 100th Indianapolis 500, which he won from 11th.

Patricio O'Ward has his worst start of the season in 12th. O'Ward had ten consecutive top ten starts prior to this weekend. O'Ward could become the first Arrow McLaren driver to open a season with four consecutive top five finishes since the organization's return to IndyCar in 2020. Even dating back to the 1970s and McLaren's first foray into IndyCar with Johnny Rutherford as its driver, Rutherford never opened a season with four consecutive top five finishes. Rutherford had three consecutive to start in 1979.

Scott Dixon was 0.0628 seconds off advancing from the first qualifying group in round one, and this places Dixon 13th on the grid. It is his best starting position of the season. It is also his third time starting 13th in the last five Barber races. Dixon has competed in all three previous IndyCar races held on March 29. He won the first in 2008 at Homestead, but he was 18th at St. Petersburg on this day in 2010, and he was 15th at St. Petersburg on this day in 2015.

Despite an accident in second practice, which saw Scott McLaughlin go through the barrier on the exit of turn one, McLaughlin's team repaired the car and he qualified 14th. He was 0.0142 seconds off advancing from the second group in round one. It is his worst Barber start. McLaughlin had made it out of the first round of qualifying in all five of his previous visits. McLaughlin has three consecutive podium finishes here and he has four consecutive top ten results.

Nolan Siegel will start 15th as the McLaren driver was 0.1242 seconds from advancing to round two. Siegel is still looking for his first lead lap finish of the 2026 season. He has not finished in the top ten in his last ten starts, and he has failed to finish on the lead lap in his last five starts. Siegel was ninth last year at Barber but he did start sixth.

Rinus VeeKay will start on the outside of row eight. In five Barber races, VeeKay has three finishes of sixth or better and two finishes outside the top fifteen. The last 14 times the Dutchman has started outside the top fifteen he has finished better than his starting position. He has also finished better than his starting position in three of five Barber starts.

Christian Rasmussen has his second-worst grid spot of the season in 17th. Last year, Rasmussen started 17th at Barber and finished 15th. The year prior to that he started 14th but he finished 24th after spinning and losing a lap. The Dane has never had a top ten finish in one of the first five races in an IndyCar season. At 19.333, Rasmussen has the fourth-worse average finish this season through the first three races.

Felix Rosenqvist takes 18th on the grid, Rosenqvist's worst starting position at Barber since 22nd in 2021, his first race with Arrow McLaren. After a mid-week penalty, Rosenqvist was moved up to 19th in the Arlington results. Twice previously has Rosenqvist started a season with at least four consecutive finishes outside the top ten. Those seasons were 2021 and 2022.

Kyffin Simpson starts 19th at Barber. Simpson dropped from 19th to 20th in the Arlington race after a penalty was issued during the week for avoidable contact that caused the accident between Nolan Siegel and Romain Grosjean on the final restart. Last season, Simpson picked up two top ten finishes on permanent road courses. He was sixth at Road America after starting 23rd, and tenth at Mid-Ohio, falling from third at the start.

Mick Schumacher was the top rookie qualifier in 20th. Schumacher was ranked 23rd and 19th after the two practice sessions prior to qualifying. Schumacher has finished worse than his starting position in all three races this season. In his three starts, he has lost four spots, 14 spots and five spots respectively. 

Caio Collet is the next best rookie starter in 21st. Collet is coming off his best finish in IndyCar, a 12th at Arlington in his third career start. In each of his first three starts, Collet has respectively gained seven spots, four spots and four spots from his starting position to the race finish. 

Louis Foster joins Collet on row 11. This is Foster's worst starting position of the season. He started three races outside the top twenty last season, but all of those were oval events. His worst road/street course start prior to this was 16th at St. Petersburg last season. Foster enters his 21st start looking for his first top ten finish in IndyCar. Alex Barron took 21 races to get his first top ten finish. Only six drivers took more than 21 starts for their first top ten.

Will Power had a brake failure in the first round of qualifying cause an accident in turn five, and the red flag cost Power his fastest two laps. This dropped the Australian to 23rd on the grid. Power has five consecutive top five finishes at Barber Motorsports Park, including a drive from 19th to fourth in 2022, Power's previous worst starting position at this circuit. This is his second start outside the top twenty in four races this season. Power had three starts outside the top twenty all last season.

Dennis Hauger ended up 24th on the grid, his worst starting position in his brief IndyCar career. Hauger did gain seven spots at Phoenix from 22nd to 15th, and he picked up three spots at Arlington to finish 16th from 19th. Hauger had a grand slam last year in the Indy Lights race at Barber, leading all 35 laps from pole position and taking fastest lap as well.

An interference penalty in the second qualifying group relegated Sting Ray Robb to 25th and last on the grid. Robb has opened the 2026 season with three consecutive finishes of 21st. He has not had four consecutive finishes outside the top twenty in his IndyCar career since a six-race run from Barber through Mid-Ohio in 2023.

Fox's coverage of the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix from Barber Motorsports Park begins at 1:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:17 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 90 laps.

Track Walk: Barber 2026

The fourth round of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season sees an earlier trip to Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. This will be IndyCar's earliest visit to the Yellowhammer State. Barber's previous earliest race was April 1. Kyle Kirkwood holds the championship leader after his victory at the Grand Prix of Arlington. Kirkwood is one of two drivers to have finished in the top five of all three races. He is also one of two drivers with top ten finishes in all three races. This will be the 16th Barber race. Thirteen times has the race been won from inside the top five and eight of those have been from the front row.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 1:00 p.m. ET on Sunday March 29 with green flag scheduled for 1:17 p.m. ET.
Channel: Fox
Announcers: Will Buxton, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Georgia Henneberry and Jack Harvey will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 3:05 p.m. ET (75 minutes)

Saturday:

Second Practice: 11:00 a.m. ET (75 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:30 p.m. ET 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 10:00 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 1:17 p.m. ET (70 laps)

Do We Hear Four Different Championship Leaders?

Three IndyCar races, three different winners and each have led the championship after their victory. 

Álex Palou won the St. Petersburg season opener and picked up right where he left off last season. At Phoenix, Palou was out early due to an accident, and Josef Newgarden swept through for victory, which put Newgarden on top of the standings. Two weeks ago at Arlington, Kyle Kirkwood drove through the top ten to pass Palou with a daring move in the final corner of the couse while Newgarden had a spin. This combination of results lifted Kirkwood to the championship lead for the first time in his career. 

We have seen three different drivers lead the championship this season through three races. When was the last time there have been four different championship leaders through four races? Well, it just happened in 2024. Patricio O'Ward, Scott Dixon, Colton Herta and Palou all held the top spot through the first four races. It was the third time since 1975 there have been four different championship leaders after four races. It first happened in 1988 when Mario Andretti, Raul Boesel, Michael Andretti and Rick Mears each led the championship. The other time was 1995 when Jacques Villeneuve, Bobby Rahal, Paul Tracy and Scott Pruett each shared the championship lead through four races. 

Four drivers could leave Barber Motorsports Park as the fourth championship leader through the first four races of 2026. If Kirkwood starts the Barber race, any driver within 49 points could leave as the championship leader.

One of those is Patricio O'Ward, who sits 33 points off the championship lead. Besides Kirkwood, O'Ward is the only driver to finish in the top five of every race this season. He has nine top five finishes in the last 11 races. This is the first time he has opened a season with three consecutive top five finishes. He has won previously at Barber, back in 2022. O'Ward has not led the championship since after the 2024 St. Petersburg race.

Forty-one points off the championship lead is Scott McLaughlin. While he was second at St. Petersburg, McLaughlin's results have dipped over the last two races, dropping to eighth at Phoenix and 11th at Arlington, which ended a six-race top ten finish streak. McLaughlin has led the championship twice in his career, after the first two races in 2022. 

One point further behind Kirkwood in the championship is David Malukas, a driver who is looking to lead the championship for the first time in his career. Malukas rebounded from 13th at St. Petersburg to finish third and sixth in the last two races. In three Barber starts, Malukas has never finished better than 16th. Currently sixth in the championship, this matches the best Malukas has ever been in the championship. He was sixth after the 2023 Texas race, where he finished fourth, the second race of that season.

Christian Lundgaard has finished third, 13th and seventh over the first three races, giving Lundgaard 80 points. Forty-six points off the championship lead, there is a slim chance Lundgaard leaves Barber with the championship lead. Lundgaard has been ranked in the top ten of the championship after every race he has run with Arrow McLaren. Last year, he left Barber ranked second in the championship. 

Marcus Ericsson is 49 points behind his Andretti Global teammate Kirkwood, meaning the two drivers could leave this weekend tied in points. However, no matter what, Kirkwood will at least hold the tiebreaker. It requires a victory from Ericsson for the two drivers to leave Alabama tied in points, but no matter what Kirkwood would hold the tiebreaker. Each would have a victory, but Kirkwood's next best finish through the first four races would be second to Ericsson's fourth.

Eleven times since 1975 has the championship lead changed after each of the first four races though not always with four different drivers. In the last 51 years, there has never been a case where there have been more than four consecutive different championship leaders to open a season. The most consecutive races with a change in the championship lead to open a season is six, which happened in 2009.

Is This Dixon's Year?

Another year heading to Barber Motorsports Park means asking the long-unanswered question, is this Scott Dixon's year? One of three drivers to run all 15 races held at the circuit, Dixon has the most podium finishes at the track with nine. He has ten top five finishes and 13 top ten finishes and he has the third-best average finish all-time at the circuit at 5.0667, however, Dixon heads to Barber in one of his worst slumps in a long time, and it is a cause for concern.

Through the first three races, Dixon's best finish is seventh, and while he has finished in the top ten of the last two races, he is 12th in the championship. This is the first time he has not had a top five finish in one of the first three races of a season since his infamous 2005 season where he was 13th in the championship. Dating back to last season, he has six consecutive races without a top five result, another low that Dixon has not seen since the timeframe of 2005. It is his longest top five finish drought since a 26-race run from the fourth race of the 2004 season through the 15th race of the 2005 season. 

The only other time in Dixon's career he has gone six races or more without a top five finish were the final two races of his rookie season in 2001 through the first seven races of the 2002 season. The 2002 sesaon is the only other time he has not had a top five finish in one of the first three racaes of a season. 

Things are not trending well for Dixon in general or at Barber. 

While he has such an incredible track record, he has finished outside the top ten in his last two visits to the 2.37-mile road course. In three of the last four years, Dixon has not made it out of the first round of qualifying here. Last year, he started 26th. Dixon's qualifying form has been a cause for concern across the board recently. 

Last year, he started in the top five in only two race, both ovals. He has failed to make it out of the first round of qualifying in four of the last five road or street course and he has not made the Fast Six on a road or street course since the 2025 season opener from St. Petersburg. Dixon has failed to start better than 15th this season, and he has started outside the top ten in six of the last eight races. He has not had a front row start since the 2023 Texas race when he started second, and he has not started on the front row for a road or street course since Toronto in 2022. His most recent pole position was the 2022 Indianapolis 500. 

Going rather unnoticed is earlier this season IndyCar reached 100 races with the aeroscreen, reaching the landmark race at Phoenix with Arlington being the 101st race. 

In the first 50 races with the aeroscreen, Texas 2020 to Long Beach 2023, Dixon had an average starting position of 8.88. During that time he started 19 races in the top five and 31 races in the top ten. Only ten times did he start outside the top fifteen, and only two of those were starts outside the top twenty. 

In the last 50 races, Dixon's average starting position has dropped to 11.72. Only eight times has he started in the top five and only 23 times has he started in the top ten. His starts outside the top fifteen increased to 14 and Dixon has started four times outside the top twenty.

The middle race was coincidentally enough the 2023 Barber race where Dixon started fifth and finished seventh. 

While his starting position has dipped, his finishing position is not far off. In the first 50 aeroscreen races, Dixon's average finish was 6.76 with seven victories, 18 podium finishes, 29 top five results and 42 top ten finishes. In the last 50 races, Dixon's average has only gone down to 7.84, he has won six times in the last 50 races with 13 podium finishes, 23 top five finishes and 38 top ten finishes. 

In recent seasons, Dixon has had a knack of ending long winless streaks, even when it feels like we could be on the verge of the first winless season for the New Zealander in over two decades. He had a 22-race winless streak starting from the second Texas race in 2021 and ending with his victory at Toronto in 2022. He went a full year and five days between victories at Nashville in 2022 to his victory on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in August 2023, which saw kicked off a hot end to that season where Dixon won three of the final four races. 

Dixon's most recent victory at Mid-Ohio last July ended a 19-race winless streak. He enters Barber having not won in his last ten starts. 

Perhaps Someone Else Ends a Drought

Scott Dixon enters on a double-digit winless streak, but he is not the only one. A handful of drivers are looking to end droughts this weekend and would love to do them before getting to the April showers.

Two drivers we have already mentioned. 

Scott McLaughlin has gone 21 races since his most recent victory, the penultimate race of the 2024 season at Milwaukee. McLaughlin has not won on a road or street course since his 2024 Barber victory, and his last two road course victories have come at Barber Motorsports Park as he won here in 2023. He was third last year at Barber after starting next to Álex Palou on the front row. McLaughlin was 0.1469 seconds off Palou's pole position time, and then McLaughlin finished 23.4453 seconds behind Palou in the race. McLaughlin's most recent top five finish on a permanent road course was fourth at last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis. 

Christian Lundgaard has been pretty close to victory in his first 20 starts with Arrow McLaren. The problem is close has not been good enough. Lundgaard might have seven podium finishes in the last 20 races, second only behind Palou's 15, but none of those have been trips to the top step for the Dane. Lundgaard's winless streak since his first career victory at Toronto in 2023 is now up to 44 races. Last year, Lundgard was second to Palou at Barber. He has finished in the top six in the last three Barber races.

Marcus Ericsson cannot leave Barber as the championship leader, but Ericsson could end a 53-race winless streak. The Swede has not won since the 2023 St. Petersburg season opener. In that space of time, Ericsson has only three podium finishes and nine top five finishes, but Ericsson is off to his best start since 2023. He picked up his first career pole position at Arlington two weeks ago and finished fourth. Combined with sixth at St. Petersburg, this is the first time he has had at least two top ten finishes in the first three race since 2023 when he opened the season with eight consecutive top ten results. 

Will Power has won fairly recently, his most recent victory was only five races ago, but Andretti Global has gone nearly 12 years since it last won at Barber Motorsports Park. The team's only two victories came in consecutive years, and both at the hands of Ryan Hunter-Reay. Since then, the Andretti Global organization has a combined five top five finishes at Barber. It was second in 2018 with Hunter-Reay and second again in 2023 with Romain Grosjean. Andretti Global has failed to finish better than seventh in four of the last five Barber races.

It has also been a minute since Power has won at Barber. While being one of five drivers to win at the track multiple times, his most recent victory was in 2012, the second race of the DW12 chassis. At that time, Hélio Castroneves was one of Power's Team Penske teammates, Graham Rahal was driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, Rubens Barrichello was eighth driving for KV Racing, and Sébastien Bourdais got Lotus its lone top ten finish with a ninth-place result. It was also Josef Newgarden's second career start. 

Other drivers with notable winless streaks entered this weekend are Rinus VeeKay (81 starts), Félix Rosenqvist (95 starts) and Graham Rahal (144 starts).

Getting Late Early?

The fourth race of the season has been the quarter-pole of sorts in recent IndyCar seasons as there have only been 17 races. An additional race in 2026 does make the fourth race fell a tad earlier, but we have enough history to suggest the fourth race is a good measuring stick for how a season will be. 

Not everyone will get a victory within the first four races of the season, but a fair amount of the field could have a top five finish in that time. With 20 opportunities for top five finishes in such a span, most of the field could have a top five finish within the first four races. That is of course not the case. Scott Dixon is arguably the most notable driver without a top five finish this season, but he is not the only one. 

The only driver in the top ten of the championship who does not have a top five finish this season is Alexander Rossi. Rossi has finished sixth and ninth in the last two races, but for the third consecutive season and the sixth time in the last seven season, Rossi does not have a top five finish within the first three races of the season. Only five times in Rossi's ten IndyCar seasons has he had a top five finish in one of the first four races. His best finish at Barber is fifth, and most recently in 2019. 

Ninety-three of the 94 champions since 1947 have had at least one top five finish within the first four races of the season. Gil de Ferran is the lone exception. De Ferran's first top five result in the 2000 season was his victory at Nazareth, the fifth race of that season. Only one champion since reunification did not finish in the top five in one of the first two races. That would be Dixon in 2015. 

All 94 champions since the 1947 American Automobile Association season had at least one top ten finish within the first four races of the season. Seventy-three of those champions were top ten finishers in the first race of the season. Ninety-three of the 94 champions had at least one top ten finish within the first three races. The only champion that did not get his first top ten finish until the fourth race was Danny Sullivan in 1988. Sullivan cracked the top ten with a runner-up finish at Milwaukee that year.

Only eight drives have not had a top ten finish through the first three races of the season. Felix Rosenqvist had a top ten finish on the road in Arlington before a penalty for jumping the final restart demoted him to 20th. A penalty to Kyffin Simpson for avoidable contact at the end of the Arlington race has lifted Rosenqvist up a position to 19th ten days after the fact while Simpson dropped a spot to 20th in the final results. Rosenqvist had finished 12th in the first two races of the season. 

Caio Collet has yet to finish in the top ten in his rookie season, and he was 12th in the most recent race. Louis Foster has completed 20 IndyCar races and he has yet to finish in the top ten. Santino Ferrucci joins his A.J. Foyt Racing teammate Collet in not having a top ten finish this season. Ferrucci's best finish was 11th at Phoenix. 

Christian Rasmussen is arguably the driver who came the closest to victory this season not to win a race, and despite this he has yet to finish in the top ten this season, and he is 22nd in the championship out of 25th drivers. Rasmussen was 14th at the Phoenix finish after his late race misfortune saw him lose the lead late and bounce off the wall in the process. 

Sting Ray Robb enters having finished 21st in each of the first three races of the season. Nolan Siegel has finished 20th twice and 24th once. Mick Schumacher is last in the championship, and his best finish was surprisingly enough at Phoenix, though only 18th. 

Of the 18 champions since reunification, 11 of them won one of the first three races. Of the seven champions that did not win one of the first three races, five of them did not pick up their first victory until race six or later. In the last 12 seasons, the eventual champion has had his first victory come within the first seven races of the season.

Road to Indy

Indy Lights will be the lone junior series joining IndyCar at Barber, but this is the first of five doubleheader weekends this season. 

At Arlington, Andretti Global's Max Taylor pulled off a daring move into the final corner to take the lead and ultimately the victory from Enzo Fittipaldi. With the victory, Taylor moved into the championship lead on 92 points. He was second in the St. Petersburg season opener. Taylor is ten points clear of Cape Motorsports powered by ECR's Nikita Johnson, who followed his St. Petersburg victory with a sixth-place result in Arlington. 

Tymek Kucharczyk has been the surprise through the first two races as Kucharczyk has a pair of third-place finishes and that puts the Polish driver third on 70 points. He is the top HMD Motorsports driver in the championship. Lochie Hughes' pair of fifth-place results gives Hughes 60 points, and he is 32 points behind his Andretti Global teammate Taylor. Seb Murray makes it three Andretti drivers in the top five. Murray has 58 points. 

Fittipaldi's runner-up finish lifted him to sixth in the championship on 57 points. The Brazilian was 17th at the St. Petersburg opener. Juan Manuel Correa is seventh in the championship with 54 points for Cusick Morgan Motorsports while Myles Rowe is on 50 points for Abel Motorsport with Force Indy.

A.J. Foyt Racing's Alessandro de Tullio took a stunning pole position at Arlington only to go off track on the opening lap. With finishes of tenth and 11th, de Tullio is ninth in the championship on 40 points, four ahead of Abel's Jordan Missig. 

Matteo Nannini and Ricardo Escotto are tied on 35 points. Salvador de Alba will attempt to bounce back from a 20th in Arlington. De Alba is on 34 points as is Jack Beeton and Max Garcia. Josh Pierson sits on 33 points. 

The top Chip Ganassi Racing driver in the championship is Niels Koolen in 17th on 25 points. Koolen's teammate Bryce Aron is 19th on 24 points, James Roe is 21st on 22 pints and Carson Etter has 17 points in 23rd. 

The first Indy Lights race of the weekend will take place at 1:06 p.m. ET on Saturday March 28. Race two on Sunday March 29 will be held at 11:09 a.m. ET.  The first race will be 35 laps with the second scheduled for 30 laps. 

Fast Facts

This will be the fourth race to take place on March 29, and the first since 2015 when Juan Pablo Montoya won at St. Petersburg. 

Every race on March 29 occurred post-reunification. 

The first race post-reunification was held on March 29, 2008 at Homestead. Scott Dixon won that race. The other was at St. Petersburg in 2010 when the race was delayed a day to Monday due to weather, and Will Power took the victory.

This will be IndyCar's fourth race before the month of March has concluded. IndyCar has not had four races run in a single series before the end of March since technically the 1996-97 Indy Racing League season, which started in August 1996 and completed two races before the end of the calendar year before running two more races in the first three months of 1997. 

The last time four races were run before the end of March in a season that started in the same calendar year was 1975, but even that has a technicality as the first two races were qualifying races for the California 500 and each contained only half the field. 

You must go back to 1921 to find a season that had four races completed before the end of March, and that season started with five races at Los Angeles Motor Speedway, a 1.25-mile board oval, on February 27 of that year.

The average starting position for a Barber winner is 2.8667 with a median of second.

The worst starting position for a Barber winner is ninth (Will Power 2012).

Twenty-six consecutive races have been won from inside the top ten.

Forty-three of 45 podium finishers at Barber have started inside the top ten. 

The only two podium finishers to start outside the top ten at Barber have come in two of the last three races. In 2023, Will Power went from 11th to third. In 2024, Linus Lundqvist went from 19th to third.

Two drivers have had their first career victories come at Barber Motorsports Park, Josef Newgarden in 2017 and Álex Palou in 2021.

The average number of lead changes in a Barber race is 6.9333 with a median of seven. 

Eleven of 15 Barber races have had six lead changes or more. 

Ten of 15 Barber winners have led at least half the laps in the race. 

The average number of cautions in a Barber race is 2.1333 with a median of two. The average number of caution laps is 8.1333 with a median of seven. 

Last year was the first caution-free Barber race. Twelve of 15 races have had two cautions or fewer. 

Predictions

Álex Palou, but if it isn't Palou, it will be Scott Dixon even though everything from recent history says there is no way it will be Scott Dixon and it will more likely be Christian Lundgaard or Scott McLaughlin, but not an Andretti Global driver. Mick Schumacher gets his best finish in IndyCar and he is also the best finishing Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver. Sting Ray Robb does not finish 21st. Both top five finish streaks end. At least three drivers get their first top ten finishes of the season. No Team Penske cars make contact with one another. Sleeper: Marcus Armstrong. 

First Impressions: Barber 2025

1. Everyone is in trouble. The season is effectively over. Three victories in four races, and this one being a smackdown mentally clinches the 2025 IndyCar Series championship for Álex Palou. This is over, especially after this race. Palou put a beating on the field. Win, from pole position, with 81 of 90 laps led, and the margin of victory was over 16 seconds. 

Another victory at Barber Motorsports Park demoralized the competition and to bring down the competition even more, Palou's worst finish through four races is second. 

Good luck, everyone else. 

There is not much else to say. We have not seen many races where a driver checks out from the drop of the green flag. Outside of the opening stint, no one came close to Palou today. He was gone. 

Palou doesn't make mistakes. The crew doesn't make mistakes. Barry Wanser never makes a mistake on strategy. The one possible thing that could have tripped Palou up today was starting on the alternate tire, which was the preferred tire today. Could one stint on the primary tire mid-race cost Palou time and allow someone else to sweep through? We saw such a strategy cost Scott McLaughlin victory at St. Petersburg. Would it derail Palou's drive to victory?

Nope! Palou still pulled away. Once he was through with the primary compound, this race was over. 

There aren't even tracks that trip Palou up. Next up is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Palou has won the last two Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The Indianapolis 500? He has run well in that race before. He is a past winner at Detroit. Gateway might be his worst track, but he doesn't struggle on ovals, and his advantage will likely be great enough that he can settle to finish eighth or ninth or even 12th and not suffer. 

Someone will need to beat Palou to win this 2025 championship, and beat him at all the remaining 13 races. That isn't going to happen.

2. The closest challenger to Palou in the championship was the closest car at the checkered flag, and Christian Lundgaard still finished 16.0035 seconds the Catalan driver. For Lundgaard, it is three consecutive podium finishes and it places him second in the championship, but 60 points back. It could be worse but this is far from great. 

Lundgaard was extraordinary today, especially mid-race. He went from seventh to second and made a hat trick of stellar passes on Patricio O'Ward, Will Power and Scott McLaughlin to get up to second. 

For a tense environment at McLaren, Lundgaard could not have asked for a better start. Many previous hires have already been in trouble four races into their McLaren tenure. Lundgaard is doing just fine. Palou isn't going to win 16 races. Lundgaard is due to have a standout day and get a victory of his own. He might win a few. The Grand Prix of Indianapolis is one of Lundgaard's favorite races. Let's not be surprised if Lundgaard keeps up the form in six day's time.

3. Scott McLaughlin had some work to hold onto third. Dale Coyne Racing's Rinus VeeKay gave Team Penske's McLaughlin a scrap in the final laps, but McLaughlin had enough to get the podium position. 

McLaughlin also started on the alternate tire and took on the primary tire in the second stint, like Palou. Unlike Palou, McLaughlin could not run at a blistering pace, and he was struggling at the end of that run. It is what cost him second. It actually cost him the spot to Colton Herta. It allowed Lundgaard to be close after the next round of pit stops and Lundgaard could slip through when McLaughlin was still on cold tires. 

Outside of the final charge from VeeKay, McLaughlin wasn't really in much of a battle. Lundgaard was gone once cleared, and McLaughlin was on his own until the closing laps. Good car, good day, still miles away.

4. If this wasn't a bludgeoning from Palou, Rinus VeeKay would be driver of the day. Going from fifth on the grid to fourth doesn't sound that impressive, but VeeKay had two out-laps of legend. On the first, VeeKay came out ahead of Colton Herta after Herta's poor pit stop and then he had Will Power and Patricio O'Ward breathing fire down his neck on warm tires.

If it wasn't for O'Ward and Power being equal and battling each other, VeeKay might have lost the spots, but the battle behind allowed VeeKay to stay ahead, and he opened up some breathing room on the next stint. 

For the final pit stop, a slow change of the right front put him in danger of losing spots. Instead, he came out ahead of Power, but again with the two-time champion on his tail. However, VeeKay held off Power and kept the position. Then VeeKay chased down McLaughlin. Traffic ahead of McLaughlin assisted VeeKay in closing in for third, but I think that same traffic hurt once VeeKay got there because all he had in his face was turbulent air on older tires. 

VeeKay was 0.3330 seconds from third, but nobody likely expected Dale Coyne Racing to finish in the top five on speed this season, and VeeKay was one of the best five cars all weekend. 

5. Will Power had been running fourth until the third stint. Power was a little upset he didn't get ahead of McLaughlin and the team could have run a little longer in the middle of the race. Power let his frustrations be known over the radio. This has been a good recovery after not completing a lap at St. Petersburg. Sixth, fifth and fifth. They are good results, but not great results.

6. Sixth place doesn't look as good when your teammate is finishing on the podium in nearly every race. Patricio O'Ward has become used to his perch as McLaren's lead driver. It is hard to say that spot is not in danger after Lundgaard's start. There is a lot of season to go and Lundgaard still has to show it on ovals, but O'Ward has been in Lundgaard's shadow the entire season. Not a bad place to be if you are finishing sixth, but O'Ward must string together some results. If O'Ward wants to remain McLaren's #1 driver, at some point he must beat his teammate.

7. Colton Herta's biggest rival is pit stops. On the second stop, Herta stalled after entering the pit lane in second. He wasn't going to chase down and beat Palou, but Herta was poised for another podium finish and another pit stop error took it away. Lundgaard's pace might have taken second away from Herta, but Herta should have at least finished third.

The good news is this wasn't a 16th-place disaster like St. Petersburg. Herta still finished seventh, but it is points lost at a time when no one can lose points. It is going to take perfection to come close to Palou, and we know Herta's team cannot be perfect. It gets in its own way more than most on the grid. It is better this happened in the first race of May than the last race of May. The #26 crew and driver should be on notice.

  

8. Alexander Rossi had to blow through the alternate tires to get positions early in the race. The tax Rossi paid at the end was running his final stint on the primary tire. Rossi actually came out of the pit lane ahead of Herta on the final stop, but Herta overtook Rossi shortly after that. It is a surprise that is the only spot Rossi lost. 

Rossi did 22 laps on that final stint. I think Nolan Siegel was on Rossi's rear wing for about 17 laps. Somehow, Rossi hung on. Starting 15th is a tough spot to be in. I think the team did the best it could with the hand it was dealt. Three top ten finishes through four races is a good start.

9. Nolan Siegel needed a good day and he had a good day. Being the best McLaren starter in sixth meant he had to produce a respectable result. Being the worst McLaren finisher isn't likely what Siegel had in mind, but it is a ninth-place result. He is still 20 years old. Siegel held his own while put toward the front of the grid. We had not seen Siegel this solidly in the top ten at the start of a race. He didn't make any errors and could have a decent day.

Last year, McLaren had all three of its cars finish outside the top twenty. Having all three of its cars in the top ten is a 180º turn the team will celebrate. Siegel made a step today. 

10. Josef Newgarden did nothing and finished tenth. Newgarden didn't have the greatest start and he could not make up any ground in this race. It was mostly a recovery drive considering Newgarden started ninth. It wasn't a bad day. Newgarden didn't make any mistakes. He just wasn't competitive. His two teammates at least were running in the top five. 

In a way, Newgarden is like Siegel. He needed to make a step today. It wasn't another 26th-place finish. That is at least an improvement. 

11. Kyle Kirkwood started 18th and climbed to 11th. With the depth of IndyCar, there are always two or three names you are surprised don't make it out of the first round of qualifying. Kirkwood was one this weekend. That can be a big difference in what kind of race you have. 

If Kirkwood gets out of the first round of qualifying, he is going to finish in the top ten. Perhaps he is right with his teammate Herta and fighting for a top five result. Caught in the middle of the field, Kirkwood had some extra work to do and after all he accomplished, it still wasn't enough for a top ten. In some ways, exiting Barber only 69 points behind Palou is a small miracle.

12. Scott Dixon went from 26th to 12th, and he didn't even look that good through the first stint. I think Dixon was 21st and behind Marcus Ericsson after the first round of pit stops. All the ground was made in the middle of the race. This was a three-stop race for everyone. Seeing the pace Palou had, Dixon surely had good speed, especially at the end of stints. Good in-laps and out-laps can get you a lot of spots. It certainly helped today. 

13. Meyer Shank Racing tried to go alternate-alternate-primary-alternate in this race on both its cars, and it didn't quite work out. Felix Rosenqvist went from 14th to 13th. Better than where he started but no one outside of second on the grid is devising a strategy to gain one spot. 

Marcus Armstrong might have been on his way to a top ten finish, but on his final stop, Armstrong's crew had issues getting the fuel hose out of the car and that cost him everything. Seeing how Armstrong's final lap was a 72.4676, I would guess that fuel issue also meant the car didn't get entirely full. What could have been a top ten was 17th for Armstrong. 

It is a shame because Meyer Shank Racing looked competitive today. I have a good feeling about this group at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis next week.

14. It is hard to celebrate a 14th-place finish. It is hard to think that is the best Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing can do, but Graham Rahal did go from 21st to 14th. It is a minor victory but it shows the work this team must do. 

Devlin DeFrancesco was 24th and I don't know if he ever ran a lap better than 24th all race. Louis Foster spent a good percentage of the race as the top RLLR driver, but Foster had a moment exiting the final corner and went off course. Keeping it out of the barrier and keeping it from being stuck in mud, Foster lost a lap and then he lost another and finished 26th. 

15. While Alexander Rossi was eighth, Christian Rasmussen was 15th. Rasmussen attempted to run long on his penultimate stint and set up a 17-lap sprint to the finish. If it wasn't for that strategy, which put Rasmussen into the top ten for a few laps, I don't think we would have heard his name all race.

16. David Malukas was 16th and was pretty much non-existent in this race. I don't understand how anyone believes Malukas is going to Team Penske anytime soon. Really look at his results. Seriously. 

Santino Ferrucci's car was not filled after the first stop and it put Ferrucci on a four-stop strategy. Ferrucci did run hard the rest of the way and was mixing it up in the top ten but that fourth stop was always going to be costly. He started 13th. If the car had been filled with fuel after the first stop, I don't know if Ferrucci sneaks into the top ten. He certainly finishes better than 18th. It is points unnecessarily lost though. 

17. Where else do we go? 

Juncos Hollinger Racing was not seen once. Conor Daly was 19th, exactly where he started, and Sting Ray Robb was 22nd, exactly where he started. How often does that happen? That is a dangerous rabbit hole to consider exploring. The team played the right strategy at Long Beach and had a good reward. When it came to pace, it just wasn't there for JHR this weekend. 

18. Marcus Ericsson had a whale of a weekend. Practice accident, knocked out in the first round of qualifying, and then Ericsson never ran better than 20th in the race. He had some front wing damage to boot. It has been a trying season-and-a-quarter at Andretti Global. It has had some high points, but Ericsson has face regular struggles as well. 

Kyffin Simpson kept up his darling run when he qualified tenth. The clock struck midnight on his first pit stop when his crew was slow on the left rear. That torpedoed Simpson's day and he was not seen again until he was lapped. Twenty-first is rather cruel.

19. The remaining cars to acknowledge are Prema's drivers, who were 23rd (Callum Ilott) and 25th (Robert Shwartzman) and Jacob Abel, who was last, two laps down and for the fourth consecutive race.

I do wonder if the hybrid-era of IndyCar has made it rather unforgiving for rookies, drivers and teams included. 

The three rookie drivers were the bottom three drivers in this race. If it wasn't for Devlin DeFrancesco, the bottom four would have been the three rookies and both cars from the only new team on the grid.

Abel hasn't been close anywhere. I don't know if we saw anything go wrong for Abel today. He just hasn't been making strides. Rinus VeeKay is a good driver, and he is likely pulling more out of that Dale Coyne Racing car than it has, but and if VeeKay is finishing in the top five, the Dale Coyne Racing car must be good, not necessarily great, but at least good. 

I don't think Abel is a terrible driver. I just don't know if Abel has had enough time with the hybrid and if that lack of testing with the smallest team has hung him out to dry. 

Foster made his own mistake. If Foster doesn't go off, he probably finishes 18th or 19th. He is in the top twenty. This result wasn't entire because Foster has a lack of experience with the car. Rookie mistake. 

We know Callum Ilott can be quick in an IndyCar. Prema hasn't been awful, but it hasn't been good. The team is able to put two cars on track and in four races Prema has gotten both its cars to the checkered flag. Both cars were on the lead lap at St. Petersburg. Shwartzman was on the lead lap at Long Beach. The pace just isn't there for something notable for the right reasons. 

All the rookies are behind on the competition, and one organized preseason test plus two or three tests on their own is not going to be enough for a young driver to pick up enough to be relatively competitively, especially for one with an entirely new team. 

It feels like this is going to be the norm this season. These three or four drivers are going to be stuck and never finish better than 20th unless many other drivers have issues. 

20. For the first time since the Portland, Meadowlands and Cleveland races in 1986, there have been three consecutive caution-free races in IndyCar. After Long Beach, Alexander Rossi said on his podcast the reason there had been no cautions is because no one was pushing beyond 80-90% because every driver is saving tire or saving fuel. 

If this was 80-90%, it was damn impressive. It didn't look like anyone was holding back in this race. It was a three-stopper. Everyone knew to stick to the alternate tire. The battle wasn't for the lead, but there were battles everywhere else. From the podium to the top five to the top ten to even the final cars on the lead lap. There was action everywhere. In some cases, it is because the drivers are not pushing the limit. It should also be acknowledged when the drivers are professionals and not doing anything stupid. 

There was plenty of side-by-side racing today that someone could have gone over the edge and taken someone else out. No one did. Foster had an off. Ferrucci nearly lost it. Ericsson had some damage. These guys weren't just palling around this afternoon. 

We will wait until Thursday to see if Rossi says anything different. Probably not. What will be different is next week at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, when every team will be required to use both tire compounds twice in the race. Everyone will be on a three-stop strategy, but it will not be as simple as getting one stint out of the way. 

If the worst of the two compounds is a dog, teams will have to suffer on it twice, and that is not as easy as running three laps and getting it off the car. That will shake up strategy, and this regulation change is one I welcome trying because I have pitched it as an option for some of these races. 

There is a greater dynamic if a tire compound must be used twice. Imagine today's race if everyone had to use the primary compound twice. The primary compound wasn't terrible. Rossi used it on the final stint and only lost one spot, but if teams have to use it twice, it will shake things up. We will have to wait and see how that turns out. 

21. Overall, not a bad race, and we are just getting started. Six days until the next one and soon we will have nearly daily competition from Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Morning Warm-Up: Barber 2025

Álex Palou took his first pole position of the season yesterday at Barber Motorsports Park, as Palou ran a 67.291-second lap in the final round of qualifying to take the first on the grid for the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix. It is the Catalan's seventh pole position of his career. He has won four times from pole position and he has never finished worse than fourth when starting in the first position. After winning the first two races and finishing second at Long Beach, Palou is attempting to become the first driver with four consecutive podium finishes to open a season since Simon Pagenaud in 2016, who had two runner-up finishes and three victories in the first five races.

Scott McLaughlin seeks his third consecutive Barber victory from second starting position. McLaughlin was 0.1469 seconds off Palou's fastest lap. McLaughlin won here from fourth in 2023 and from first last year. Three of his seven carer victories have come from second on the grid. No driver has won three consecutive Barber races. McLaughlin is the fourth driver to attempt a third consecutive Barber victory. In the previous three attempts, the drivers finished fifth (Will Power in 2013), fifth (Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2015) and fourth (Josef Newgarden in 2019).

Colton Herta starts third as Herta came 0.1658 seconds short of pole position. This is Herta's best starting position at Barber Motorsports Park, his previous best was ninth, and it is his fourth consecutive race starting on one of the first two rows. Last year was the first time Herta had finished better than his starting position at Barber. In the previous two years, he had finished where he started after finishing worse than his starting position in his first two visits to Barber.

Will Power has his best starting position of the season in fourth. Power was 0.2698 seconds off pole position. Entering this weekend, Power had failed to make it out of the first round of qualifying in three consecutive road and street course races for the first time since 2022 when he had a four-race slump. Power is 11 starts removed since his most recent Barber victory. He has four consecutive top five finishes here.

Rinus VeeKay was the surprise of qualifying, ending up fifth on the grid, falling 0.6185 seconds off Palou. This is VeeKay's first top five starting position since he started second in the 2023 Indianapolis 500. This is his first top five start on a road or street course since his pole position at Barber in 2022. VeeKay has finished outside the top fifteen in the last two races. Prior to that, he had nine consecutive finishes inside the top fifteen.

Nolan Siegel has a career-best starting position of sixth. Siegel was 0.7552 seconds from pole position. This was his first time making the Fast Six. The American was also the top McLaren qualifier and he leads a train of three consecutive McLaren cars on the grid. The bad news for Siegel is six consecutive Barber races have been won from a top five starting position, and sixth has never produced a winner at Barber. Siegel was runner-up in both his Barber Motorsports Park starts in Indy Lights.

Christian Lundgaard leads an all-Arrow McLaren row four. The Dane was 0.0787 seconds from making the final round of qualifying. With third-place finishes in each of the last two races, this is the first time Lundgaard has had multiple podium finishes in a season. He has never had three consecutive top five finishes in his career. His only other time having consecutive top five finishes were in 2023 when he was fourth at Mid-Ohio and first at Toronto.

Despite hitting the barrier in Saturday morning practice and missing part of the session, Patricio O'Ward made the second round of qualifying and O'Ward rounds out the all-McLaren row four starting eighth. O'Ward fell 0.0893 seconds short of the Fast Six. In his last nine starts, O'Ward has a victory and two runner-up finishes, but the other six results have all been outside the top ten.

Josef Newgarden takes ninth on the grid. In his previous four trips to Barber, Newgarden started eighth, seventh, seventh and eighth. In all four of those races, Newgarden finished 14th or worse. Newgarden has finished outside the top ten in the fourth race of the season the last three years. In 2022 and 2023, those were 14th and 15th-place finishes at Barber. Last year, it was an 17th-place result in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

After scoring his best career finish of tenth in the most recent race at Long Beach, Kyffin Simpson picks his the best starting position of his career, as Simpson took tenth in qualifying. Not only did Simpson pick up his first career top ten finish in the most recent race, he also scored fastest lap, the second of his IndyCar career.

Marcus Armstrong had started in the top ten in the first three races of 2025, but he fell a spot short of making it four consecutive races as Armstrong ended up 11th in the second round of qualifying. He has altered finishes top ten finishes and finishes outside the top ten over his last four starts. Armstrong was 14th at Long Beach a few weeks ago.

For the second time this season, Louis Foster made the second round of qualifying and Foster will start 12th. Foster's finishing position has improved in each of his first three races. After being an innocent bystander in the opening lap accident at St. Petersburg and finishing last, Foster stepped forward into 24th at Thermal Club and he jumped up to 16th at Long Beach.

Santino Ferrucci has his best starting position of the season in 13th. Ferrucci was 0.0517 seconds off advancing to round two in qualifying. Ferrucci was seventh in last year's Barber race. It was the third time an A.J. Foyt Racing car has finished in the top ten at Barber. Sébastien Bourdais was fifth in 2021 and Mike Conway was seventh in 2012.

Felix Rosenqvist was 0.0155 seconds off making it out of round one in group two, and Rosenqvist will start 14th. He had started in the top ten in six consecutive races dating back to last season. This weekend marks the 100th start for Rosenqvist's IndyCar career. He comes the third Swede to reach 100 starts, joining Kenny Bräck and Marcus Ericsson, who hit the century mark at Long Beach last time out.

Alexander Rossi takes 15th on the grid as he was 0.1096 seconds off making the second round. Rossi had four consecutive top ten finishes at Barber before last year's race when an unsecured tire after a pit stop caused him to finish 25th. It has been 40 races since Rossi's most recent victory. The only time Rossi has won a race when starting outside the top ten was from 11th in the 100th Indianapolis 500, his first career victory nearly nine years ago.

Callum Ilott has his best qualifying effort of the season in 16th, only 0.0407 seconds from making it out of the first round. Ilott had yet to start better than 22nd this season. In his three full seasons in IndyCar, this is his worst start through three races with an average finish of 22nd. In 41 career starts, Ilott has only six top ten finishes.

Christian Rasmussen starts directly behind his Ed Carpenter Racing teammate Rossi in 17th. This is Rasmussen's best starting spot of the season after starting 19th and 18th in the previous two races. The Dane enters this weekend having not finished in the top ten in his last eight starts. His only top ten finish was ninth at Mid-Ohio last July.

Kyle Kirkwood has his worst starting position on a road/street course since the 2024 St. Petersburg race as Kirkwood will start 18th at Barber, matching that St. Petersburg grid spot. The Floridian was only 0.09211 seconds from making it to round two. He had started in the top ten in four consecutive races. Only three IndyCar races have been won from 18th starting position: Jim McElreath at Ontario in 1970, Bobby Unser at Michigan in 1979 and Marcus Ericsson at Nashville in 2021.

Conor Daly will start 19th. Daly has yet to start better than 15th this season. In five Barber starts, Daly has never finished better 16th. He has not had a top ten finish in his last 18 road/street course starts. That would be a fifth place finish in the 2022 Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He has finished on the lead lap of four consecutive Barber starts.

David Malukas makes its an all-American row ten as Malukas rounds out the top twenty. Twentieth is Malukas' worst grid position of the season. Of his ten career top ten finishes, only one came from a starting spot outside the top fifteen. He went from 23rd to eighth at Portland in 2023. Barber was the location of Malukas' first Indy Lights victory in 2021.

Graham Rahal finds himself in 21st, matching his worst starting position of the season and his worst starting position at Barber Motorsports Park. Since Rahal was runner-up in consecutive Barber races in 2015 and 2016, his best finish at the track has been seventh. It has been 23 races since Rahal's most recent top five result in IndyCar competition.

Sting Ray Robb makes it row 11 the second consecutive all-American row as Robb starts to Rahal's outside. Coming off a ninth-place finish at Long Beach, matching his career-best result, Robb is heading a one of his least fortunate tracks. He has finished 27th and 26th in two starts here, and on both occasions he has retired from the race.

After an accident in the Saturday morning practice Marcus Ericsson was only able to qualify 23rd. Ericsson had started in the top ten in the first three races of the season. Ericsson has had a top five finish in one of the first four races of the year in four of his first six seasons in IndyCar. The exceptions are 2019, his rookie season, and 2021. Ericsson's best finish in 2025 was sixth at St. Petersburg.

Robert Shwartzman takes the outside of row 12. This is Shwartzman's second consecutive race starting in 24th position. He has been the best Prema finisher in each of the last two races, and he only finished a spot behind his teammate Callum Ilott at the St. Petersburg season opener.

Jacob Abel starts outside the top twenty for the fourth time this season. The Kentucky-native rolls off from 25th. On debut at St. Petersburg he started 25th and finished 23rd. At Thermal, he dropped from 23rd to 25th. At Long Beach, Abel started and finished 26th. He has yet to finish on the lead lap in his career. Abel scored his first career Indy Lights victory last year at Barber Motorsports Park.

Scott Dixon went off course on his final lap of qualifying and that cost him a promising starting position. This means Dixon will start 26th. This is the fourth round of the season, and Scott Dixon has never won the fourth race of the season. His first victory at Nazareth in 2001 was scheduled as the fourth round of the CART season, but it was the third race to take place after the cancelled Texas event. Dixon won that Nazareth race from 23rd on the grid, the worst starting position Dixon has won from in his career.

Devlin DeFrancesco was the slowest in the second qualifying group, and DeFrancesco will start 27th on his return to Barber Motorsports Park. DeFrancesco has finished outside the top fifteen in 11 consecutive starts. 

Fox's coverage of the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix begins at 1:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:47 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 90 laps.

Track Walk: Barber 2025

The fourth round of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season will be the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix from Barber Motorsports Park. After running three races over a span of 62 days, the Barber Motorsports Park round kicks off a stretch seven-races over the next 63 days, ending at Mid-Ohio on July 6. This will be the first of five consecutive weekends of competition for the NTT IndyCar Series. Next week will be the Grand Prix of Indianapolis before Indianapolis 500 qualifying the weekend after that. Then comes the Indianapolis 500 on May 25 and the Detroit Grand Prix caps it all off on June 1.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday May 4 with green flag scheduled for 1:47 p.m. ET.
Channel: Fox
Announcers: Will Buxton, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Georgia Henneberry and Jack Harvey will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 3:30 p.m. ET (75 minutes)

Saturday:

Second Practice: 11:30 a.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:30 p.m. ET 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 10:02 a.m. ET (25 minutes)
Race: 1:47 p.m. ET (90 laps)

* - FS2 will have coverage of first practice. FS1 will have coverage of all action on Saturday and the morning warm-up. 

Honda's Hot Start

For the first time since 2021, Honda has opened the season with three consecutive victories, and it looks for four consecutive victories to open a season for the first time since 2020. Not only has Honda won the first three races, it has four of the top five in the championship and five of the top seven.

Leading the way is Álex Palou, who has won two races and finished second in the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Palou has scored 142 points out of a maximum of 162 points from the first three races. His three-race podium streak is his longest since 2023 when he won three consecutive races and also had a runner-up finish at Toronto cap off a four-race podium streak. At Barber Motorsports Park, Palou has never finished worse than fifth. He won on debut at the circuit in 2021, and he has led a lap in three of his four visits to Alabama. 

Kyle Kirkwood was the only one standing in the way of Palou going three-for-three to start the 2025 season. Kirkwood won from pole position at Long Beach and he led 46 of 90 laps. It was the first time Honda has led the most laps in a race this season. Kirkwood is second in the championship as he has finished fifth and eighth in the first two races, but he is 34 points behind Palou. Kirkwood does have five consecutive top ten finishes dating back to last season. Last year, he was tenth at Barber, his best result at the circuit in three appearances.

Quietly in fourth in the championship is Felix Rosenqvist on 88 points. Rosenqvist has finished in the top five of the last two races, the first time he has had consecutive top five finishes since the final two races of the 2019 season. For the second consecutive season, the Swede has opened with three top ten finishes from the first three events. That included a fourth-place finish at Barber. This weekend marks Rosenqvist's 100th start in IndyCar.

Rounding out the top five in the championship is Scott Dixon. On 86 points, Dixon opened the season with a runner-up finish at St. Petersburg and he has followed that with a pair of top ten finishes in California. Dating back to last season, he has two runner-up finishes and five top ten results in the last six races. Dixon's track record at Barber Motorsports Park is well-known. Six runner-up finishes, nine podium finishes and 13 top ten finishes in 14 starts. Dixon is returning after his worst results at the track. He was 15th last year. In two of the last three years, Dixon has failed to make it out of the first round of qualifying. In the other 12 years, Dixon has made the final round of qualifying. 

This likely has not been the start to the season Colton Herta was hoping for, but there are worse places to be than seventh in the championship. Herta is trailing Palou by 69 points through three races. Herta has started no worse than fourth in the first three races, and he has finished fourth and seventh in the last two events after pit lane issues cost him a promising result at St. Petersburg. Herta has never finished better than eighth at Barber, which came last year. He has never started better than ninth and he has never led a lap in five starts.

For Honda's hot start to continue, it must flip a three-year slump on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama. Its most recent victory at Barber was Palou's triumph in 2021. Honda has had one podium finisher in each of the last three Barber races. Since the return of engine competition in 2012, Honda has won three of 12 Barber races. 

Andretti Global has not won since a wet race in 2013 with Ryan Hunter-Reay. Takuma Sato is responsible for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's only victory at the track in 2019.

Team Penske's Slow Getaway

While Honda will be looking to buck a trend, Team Penske will hope it is business as usual at Barber Motorsports Park. Team Penske has won the last two Barber races, and it has won eight of 14 races all-time at the 2.3-mile course. 

Scott McLaughlin is responsible for those last two victories. McLaughlin leaped from fourth to first after a strong battle with Romain Grosjean in 2023. Last year, McLaughlin won from pole position with 56 laps led. The New Zealander became the fourth driver to win consecutive Barber races. 

It has not been a bad start to the 2025 season for McLaughlin. Tire strategy is what foiled his St. Petersburg race. He led the first 40 laps from pole position, but he could not overcome a mid-race stint on the alternate tire compound. This dropped him to fourth. Mechanical issues were a mercy blow after a bad qualifying performance at Thermal Club, but McLaughlin bounced back to finish sixth in Long Beach. 

Will Power had the poor start to the season with an opening lap accident at St. Petersburg, but Power has rebounded, and in the last two races he has had to fight from behind for results. At Thermal Club, Power started 21st and drove to sixth. At Long Beach, Power went from 13th to fifth. Through the first three events, Power's average starting position is 15.667.

Power has an incredible record at Barber Motorsports Park. Two victories, five podium finishes and 11 top five finishes in 14 starts. He has finished fourth or better in the last four races. However, he has only led eight laps over the last six visits to Barber, including one-lap last year. His most recent victory at the circuit was in 2012.

The 2025 season started on a good note for Josef Newgarden, but the song quickly turned sour. Newgarden was third at St. Petersburg but was stuck in the middle at Thermal Club and finished 13th. Everything sunk to rock bottom at Long Beach when seat belt issues forced Newgarden to make two extra pit stops and derailed a possible top five finish. He ended up two laps down in 27th. Dating back to last season, Newgarden has finished 26th or worse in three of the last six races. 

Barber is a positive location for Newgarden. It is the site of his first career victory in 2015. His first Team Penske victory was at Barber in 2017 and he won for the third time in 2018. However, in the last four races, he has finished 13th or worse. He has not made the final round of qualifying at Barber since he won pole position for the 2018 race. 

Team Penske is looking to avoid going winless through the first three races of a season for the first time since 2021. The bad news for Penske is only once has it won three consecutive Barber races. That was from 2016 through 2018 when combining Simon Pagenaud's victory with Newgarden's pair. Penske's three drivers occupy eighth, ninth and tenth in the championship with McLaughlin leading the way on 69 points, Power sits on 63 points and Newgarden is on 58 points.

Some Surprises

Though there is nothing stunning about Álex Palou winning two of the first three races and Kyle Kirkwood manufacturing a dominant drive in Long Beach, there have been some surprises through the first three races of the season. 

Two came at Long Beach. Sting Ray Robb ended up finishing ninth and Kyffin Simpson was tenth. For Robb, it matches his career-best finish and it was his best result on a road/street course. For Simpson, it was his first career top ten finish in the 20th race of his career. 

Simpson has improved his finishing position in each of the first three races. After finishing 15th and tenth in the two California races, Simpson has consecutive top fifteen finishes for only the second time in his career. He was 14th at Barber and 15th in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis last year. 

Not only did Robb match his career-best finish at Long Beach, he also picked up his best starting position in his IndyCar career. Robb qualified 19th, and it was only the second time he has started in the top twenty in his career. Along with his top ten finish and career-best qualifying effort, Robb is also the top Juncos Hollinger Racing driver in the championship through three races. Robb sits on 39 points in 20th while Conor Daly has 32 points in 21st. 

Expectations were high for Christian Lundgaard as he moved to Arrow McLaren, but I do not think anyone expected Lundgaard to start this well. He has finished eighth, third and third over the first three races. This has the Dane as the best Chevrolet driver in the championship in third on 96 points. Lundgaard is responsible for three of McLaren's four top ten finishes. 

Meanwhile, Patricio O'Ward was second at Thermal Club, but he has finished outside of the top ten in the other two races. This is actually the second consecutive season O'Ward has finished on the podium and outside the top ten in the other two races of the first three to open a season. 

Worst of all for McLaren is it has a driver outside the top twenty in the championship. After a taste of IndyCar to close 2024, Nolan Siegel's first full season has not gotten off to the best start. Classified as 25th at St. Petersburg after Will Power ran into the back of him on the opening lap, Siegel followed that result with a 19th-place finish at Thermal Club and he battled food poisoning at Long Beach on his way to finishing 20th.

The results might not be spectacular for Prema through its first three IndyCar events, but Robert Shwartzman has done some wonders despite facing some adversity. After mechanical issues limited his participation at St. Petersburg and Thermal, Shwartzman was still 20th in the season opener, a spot behind senior teammate Callum Ilott. At Thermal Club, Shwartzman was the top Prema finisher, though in 22nd. 

At Long Beach, Shwartzman started on the primary tire and he used that strategy to get Prema its best finish in IndyCar, an 18th and it was three spots ahead of Ilott. Meanwhile, Ilott is three from the bottom in the championship, 25th on 25 points and only ahead of Devlin DeFrancesco and Jacob Abel. 

Barber Motorsports Park might not be the place to expect a surprise, but it is a place that has kept us on our toes. In 2022, Rinus VeeKay took pole position for Ed Carpenter Racing, and he led 57 laps before finishing third. Along with Sato's victory in 2019, Sébastien Bourdais was on the podium with Dale Coyne Racing. 

The Quarter Pole

With a 17-race calendar, the fourth race is essentially the quarter pole for the season, and the fourth race of the year is a good benchmark for how the championship will play out.

All 93 champions since the 1947 American Automobile Association season had at least one top ten finish within the first four races of the season. Seventy-two of those champions were top ten finishers in the first race of the season. Ninety-one of the 92 champions had at least one top ten finish within the first three races. The only champion that did not get his first top ten finish until the fourth race was Danny Sullivan in 1988. Sullivan cracked the top ten with a runner-up finish at Milwaukee that year.

Eleven drivers entered this weekend are still looking for their first top ten result this season, starting with Santino Ferrucci, who is 13th in the championship. The others are Graham Rahal, David Malukas, Christian Rasmussen, Conor Daly, Robert Shwartzman, Nolan Siegel, Louis Foster, Callum Ilott, Devlin DeFrancesco and Jacob Abel.

Going a step farther, 92 of the 93 champions since 1947 have had at least one top five finish within the first four races of the season. Gil de Ferran is the lone exception. De Ferran's first top five result in the 2000 season was his victory at Nazareth, the fifth race of that season. Only one champion since reunification did not finish in the top five in one of the first two races. That would be Dixon in 2015. 

Alexander Rossi, Marcus Ericsson, Marcus Armstrong, Kyffin Simpson, Rinus VeeKay and Sting Ray Robb are the additional drivers without a top five finish through the first three events.

Eighty-eight of 93 champions since 1947 stood on the podium after one of the first four races that season. Jimmy Bryan went the longest before standing on a podium in an eventual championship season. Bryan's first podium result in his 1956 championship year was in the sixth race, a victory in Springfield. The other four drivers, Chuck Stevenson in 1952, Al Unser in 1985, de Ferran in 2000 and Dixon in 2018, all didn't get on the podium until the fifth race of the season. 

Felix Rosenqvist, Colton Herta, Scott McLaughlin and Will Power have all finished in the top five this season but have yet to stand on a podium. 

Sixty-four of 93 champions won one of the first four races that year. Ten champions did not win until the fifth race with three not winning until race six, seven not winning until race seven, two not winning until race eight, and one not winning until race ten. Three champions did not win for the first time until after the tenth race of that season. There have also been three winless champions.

Last year, Álex Palou's first victory came in the fourth race of the season. Christian Lundgaard, Scott Dixon, Patricio O'Ward and Josef Newgarden have all been on the podium this season, but none have been on the top step yet.

Of the 17 champions since reunification, ten of them won one of the first three races. Of the seven champions that did not win one of the first three races, five of them did not pick up their first victory until race six or later. In the last 11 seasons, the eventual champion has had his first victory come within the first seven races of the season.

Indy Lights

After 63 days, Indy Lights is back for its second round of the season. 

Dennis Hauger won the season opener from St. Petersburg and the Norwegian driver has 54 points and a 14-point lead over Lochie Hughes. Caio Collet rounded out the podium and Collet is 19 points behind Hauger. Myles Rowe was fourth with Salvador de Alba finishing fifth. Rowe and de Alba are 22 points and 24 points back respectively. Jordan Missig was sixth and he is 26 points off Hauger.

While there has been two months since the last Indy Lights races, there have been some changes to the driver lineup.

Chip Ganassi Racing has brought in Bryce Aron to take over the #9 Dallara from Jonathan Browne. Browne had funding issues that led to the announcement earlier this week that the Irishman would not return for the remainder of the season. Browne was seventh at St. Petersburg. Aron had finished 13th in the season opener driving for HMD Motorsports.

Aron exiting isn't the only change for HMD. Sophia Flörsch will not return after finishing 12th at St. Petersburg. The #24 Dallara will remain on the grid and Evagoras Papasavvas will make his debut. Papasavvas had already committed to running three races at Gateway, Road America and Mid-Ohio with HMD prior to the start of this season. Papasavvas was fourth in the U.S. F2000 championship the previous two years.

Max Taylor will also make his Indy Lights debut this weekend as Taylor and Nikita Johnson were scheduled to split the #18 Dallara from the start of the season. Taylor is also competing the USF Pro 2000 championship full-time this season, and he is third in the championship through the first six races.

Since 2021, HMD Motorsports has won four of five Indy Lights races at Barber Motorsports Park. Jacob Abel won last year's race for his family's team.

The Indy Lights race is scheduled for 11:36 a.m. ET on Sunday May 4. The race is scheduled for 35 laps.

Fast Facts

This will be the fourth IndyCar race to take place on May 4, but the first since 1912 when three races were run in Santa Monica, California. George Joerimann won the Chanslor & Lyon Trophy Race, Ralph DePalma won the Jepsen Trophy Race, and Teddy Tetzlaff won the Dick Ferris Trophy Race.

This will be the second Barber Motorsports Park race to run in the month of May. Patricio O'Ward won the 2022 race on May 1.

Four drivers won a race in the month of May prior to winning the Indianapolis 500 (Jimmy Murphy in 1922 at Cotati Speedway in Santa Rosa, California, Johnny Rutherford in 1976 at Trenton, Will Power in 2018 at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Simon Pagenaud in 2019 at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

Only three times has the Barber race winner gone on to win the championship that season (Simon Pagenaud 2016, Josef Newgarden 2017, Álex Palou 2021). 

The average starting position for a Barber winner is third with a median of 2.5.

The worst starting position for a Barber winner is ninth (Will Power 2012).

The pole-sitter has won six of 14 Barber races.

Forty of 42 podium finishes have started inside the top ten. 

The only two podium finishers to start outside the top ten at Barber have come in the last two races. In 2023, Will Power went from 11th to third. Last year, Linus Lundqvist went from 19th to third.

In ten of 14 Barber races has at least one of the podium finishes started outside the top five. In zero Barber races have multiple podium finishes started outside the top five.

The average number of lead changes in a Barber race is seven with a median of seven. 

Ten of 14 Barber races have had six lead changes or more. 

Nine of 14 Barber winners have led at least half the laps in the race. 

The average number of cautions in a Barber race is 2.2857 with a median of two. The average number of caution laps is 8.714 with a median of 7.5. 

There has never been a caution-free Barber race, but 11 of 14 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.

Last year's Barber race had four cautions, the third-most in event history.

Predictions

Christian Lundgaard continues his tear at McLaren and not only will he be the best finisher for the team at Barber, Lundgaard will be the first-place finisher, and he will kick-off a frenetic four-hour period for McLaren as it will win the Miami Grand Prix as well. Penske does have a representative on the podium. Álex Palou is not on the podium, but he has a top five finish. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has its first top ten finish of the season. Nothing falls on the circuit. A rookie does finish in the top fifteen. Will Power will have his best qualifying run of the season. At least two Andretti Global drivers score their best Barber finish. Sleeper: Marcus Ericsson.