Barber Motorsports Park Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Callum Ilott has shown steady progression through the weekend at Barber Motorsports Park, climbing all the way to the top of the scoring pylon in Saturday’s final practice session for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. With a lap of one minute, 7.0906 seconds, the driver of the No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet beat out defending NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou to close out the day as the fastest driver. The Englishman started the weekend with an eighth place runRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Barber Motorsports Park has never been one of Alexander Rossi’s favorite tracks and Saturday, it seemed the road course was living up to its reputation. After showing promising speed early on in the weekend, Rossi’s No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda skidded off track Turn 17 during practice on Saturday morning, with the rear end of his machine making heavy contact with the barrier. With only two and a half hours before qualifying, the team had a tall task ahead of them, especially withRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – What a day it’s been for Rinus VeeKay. After putting up the fast time in Saturday morning practice at Barber Motorsports Park, the driver of the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Honda kept the momentum rolling in qualifying, streaking around the 17-turn, 2.3-mile road course in one minute, 6.250 seconds to score the pole for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. “It was a great run,” VeeKay said. “Feel great out there. Actually a little bit surprised. My goal was to getRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Rinus VeeKay kicked Saturday morning off at Barber Motorsports Park on a high note by leading practice with a lap of one minute, 5.926 seconds to place his No. 21 Chevrolet at the top of the scoring pylon. “I knew we had potential yesterday. We didn’t know we had potential to be fastest right now,” VeeKay said after improving on his 10th place run in Friday’s lone practice session. “The reds really give us what we need right now. I think there’s aRead More

By INDYCAR BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Andretti Autosport was on the pace Friday at Barber Motorsports Park as Colton Herta led opening practice for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama presented by AmFirst with a best lap of 1 minute, 6.5149 seconds in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda. Defending race winner and reigning NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou followed closely behind in second at 1:06.5657 in the No. 10 The American Legion Honda, just .05 of a second behind Herta’s quick lap. SEE: Practice Results “I was really happy withRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The popular Barber Motorsports Park is the fourth round of the 17-race championship trail which also starts the month of May. After having one race a month since February, the championship trail will kick into ultimate high gear with three races. So far, it’s been Team Penske’s trail with the organization winning all three races with Josef Newgarden scoring the last two victories. Newgarden hopes to put Penske 4-0 for the first time since 2012 when Will Power got it done in São Paulo. Ironically,Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The rookie class for the 2021 NTT IndyCar Season is certainly an unconventional one, with the drivers making their series debuts not being fresh-faced drivers that have been climbing the open-wheel ladder, but decorated veterans from different facets of the motorsports world looking to try their hand at IndyCar. Included in the class is seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, along Romain Grosjean, who brings 10 years of Formula 1 experience with him, and last, but not least, three-time V8 Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin. Sunday’sRead More

By INDYCAR BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – When Alex Palou sits back and soaks in the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama presented by AmFirst, he can take special satisfaction in knowing he took his first career NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory the old-school way. He earned it. Palou held off legends Will Power and Scott Dixon – who have seven series titles and two Indianapolis 500 victories between them – to win Sunday afternoon at Barber Motorsports Park in his debut with reigning series champion Chip Ganassi Racing. Palou held off a chargingRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The past four seasons, Will Power’s Achille’s heel was the start of his IndyCar campaigns. Due to this, it’s played a negative role on the Team Penske racer’s aspirations of being a title contender. Fortunately for the 2014 champion, he finished second in Sunday’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park. Just coming up 0.4016 seconds short of catching race winner Alex Palou. It’s Power’s best season opener finish since getting second at St. Petersburg in 2015. Not only that, it’s justRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Not even 30 seconds into the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series campaign, there was mayhem on Lap 1. A multi-car crash in Turn 4 wiped out title contenders during Sunday’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Two-time series champion Josef Newgarden lost control of his No. 2 Hitachi Chevrolet and spun. What made the episode worse was the fact he spun right in front of the field, creating disastrous outcomes. Newgarden was drilled by last year’s third-place points finisher Colton Herta and Ryan Hunter-Reay. The pileupRead More