IndyCar Still Flaunts Parity, But Alex Palou Re-Emerges As One to Beat
Scott McLaughlin Will Power crash hard in Saturday action at Barber Motorsports Park.
IndyCar Still Flaunts Parity, But Palou Re-Emerges Michael L. Levitt - Getty Images In this fourth of 18 races of the year, the NTT IndyCar Series still features parity—with three different winners in as many completed events and seven different teams represented among the top seven qualifiers for Sunday’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix. But it appears Alex Palou, shut out of Victory Lane since the season-opener early this month, has regained his dominating form at Barber Motorsports Park.
The Chip Ganassi Racing star, the winner at Northern Alabama’s Barber Motorsports Park last season by a season-best 16-plus seconds, will lead the field again. Palou covered the 2. 3 permanent road course near Birmingham in 1 minute, 6.
2341 seconds at 125. 011 mph. And he led the morning practice session that was cut four minutes short because of Scott McLachlan’s wicked-looking accident that sent the Team Penske drive backwards through the Turn 1 fencing.
But everything went smoothly for Palou, whose only blemish so far this campaign has been an early-contact elimination at Phoenix. He had a podium finish at the Grand Prix of Arlington, but his No. 10 DHL Honda found its sweet spot again this weekend.