By David Morgan, Associate Editor
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Alex Palou has been nearly unstoppable thus far in the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season and once again, he’ll have the best seat in the house once the green flag drops after winning the pole for Sunday’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park.
The three-time and defending IndyCar champion, who comes into the weekend as the points leader having already amassed two wins in the first three races of the year, piloted his No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda around the 17-turn, 2.3-mile road course in one minute, 7.291 seconds to secure the top spot.
Palou’s pole-winning lap earned him his seventh career pole in IndyCar and first at Barber. He scored his first career win at this track back in 2021.
ALEX PALOU ON THE POLE AT BARBER! #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/aPSi8chcHQ
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 3, 2025
“It was great. It was really close. We didn’t know if it was going to be wet or dry, so we were all I think panicking a little bit. You didn’t want to get caught at the worst moment,” said Palou.
“Yeah, car has been really good all weekend honestly. Especially at the Fast Six, I got the balance I wanted, the balance we’re looking for.
“Really happy with the lap, as well. Got a pole that we don’t really get many, many poles. Feels good to start up front.”
Scott McLaughlin, who has won at Barber the last two times out, will join him on the front row. During his qualifying run in the Firestone Fast Six, the driver of the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet elected to wait a few minutes before heading out on track, putting all of his chips on the one run being the ticket to winning the pole.
And it nearly paid off.
“Keeping laps off our red tires. Didn’t want a false read off blacks. I said to the guys, I’d rather go out and do it one time,” McLaughlin said of the strategy.
“We were prepping a lap anyway. I could feel the track on that lap. Then it was just a matter of putting it down.
“First lap wasn’t great. Sounds like Alex had the same thing. Second lap was where it was.
“We definitely left a little bit up on the table. A lap around there is a lot of fun. Alex did a great job. From our team, done a really good job just coming back because I feel like we had a bad test here, we sort of went the wrong way a little bit. Fixed it yesterday, massaged it today and got it going.”
Colton Herta timed in third fastest, with Will Power posting his best qualifying effort of the season with a fourth-place result.
Power was the fastest in the Fast 12, but didn’t quite have the speed in the final round to add another pole to his resume. He explained the relief of being able to finally make it past the first round of qualifying this year to put his team in position to contend on Sunday.
“Definitely excited to have my first appearance in the top 12, actually, let alone the top-six,” said Power. “We’ve had very strong race days. That Palou guy, he makes it hard, man. Really happy to be fourth. You can definitely do something from there.”
Rinus Veekay and Nolan Siegel rounded out the Fast Six in their best qualifying efforts of the season for Dale Coyne Racing and Arrow McLaren, respectively.
The remainder of the top-10 starters will be Christian Lundgaard, Pato O’Ward, Josef Newgarden, and Kyffin Simpson.
For O’Ward, it was a welcome result after crashing in practice earlier in the day.
“In P2, I had that mishap in 17 that we didn’t really get a lot of running in, so we were playing a bit of a guessing game going into qualifying. Just missed it there by a little bit,” said O’Ward.
“Considering the fact that we didn’t have a lot of running in, I’m not displeased with it. Obviously, we want to be further up front, but I think it’s a lot to play for tomorrow. Strategy is going to be a big thing, like it’s been the last few races.
“It’s cool to see all three cars got into the Fast 12, cool to see Nolan do his first Fast Six. Let’s see what he can do here. But yeah, we can work from here.”
A Long Way to Go on Sunday
Marcus Ericsson, who also had an incident in second practice, forcing his team into overdrive to get his car repaired in time to get him on the grid for qualifying, only managed the 23rd fastest time on the day.
After posting the fastest time in Friday’s opening practice, Ericsson will have his work cut out to come back through the field on race day.
“We lost some grip overnight. Yesterday, obviously, we were fastest, so the car was really good in the heat when the sun was out. And today, this morning, we were just struggling for grip. Then obviously, my crash didn’t help,” said Ericsson.
“The guys, the 28 crew and everybody from Andretti really, everyone came together and put the car together in a really good shape. Super thankful for that, but obviously super disappointed with the result.”
Scott Dixon, likewise, will have a long way to go if he is to finally get the monkey off his back and score a win at Barber after an off-track excursion during his qualifying session relegated him to a 26th place start for Sunday.
The six-time series champion explained what happened during the run that led to his trip through the gravel trap.
“I didn’t feel like I went into [Turn] 8 that hard. Kind of over slowed, then kind of released the brake and when I did, that’s when I lost the rear. Then tried to correct and the way I hit the curb sent me off,” Dixon said.
“Frustrating because the car was quick. The lap was coming pretty easy. We were pretty loose on the blacks, but our times seemed pretty good. I think we were third or fourth on the blacks and then just lost the rear there. And unfortunately, you have no time to recover. Pretty frustrating.
“It makes it so tough,” Dixon added of the disadvantage of having to start so far back. “The competition is so good. You may get lucky on a caution, but straight-out speed will be tough. Feel so bad for everybody on the PNC Bank No. 9. The car definitely had good speed…
“We’ve got some work to do.”
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