Another round of Alex Palou perfection as he snags...

A particular begin to the weekend for Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou as he earns P1 for Sunday’s race at Barber Motorsports Park — the same track where he earned his first win in the series back in 2021. The distinction now’s that he’s a three-time IndyCar Series champion, and presently main the standings for the 2025 championship.

Whereas it appears to be like as if the weekend’s Kids’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix is about as much as be one other lesson on Palou’s perfection, there have been just a few different surprises to come back from the qualifying session at Barber. 

First, is Penske’s crew struggling? It is a recurring query each IndyCar weekend of 2025 so far as its three stars, Josef Newgarden (#2), Will Power (#12), and Scott McLaughlin (#3), have did not dominate the Quick Six this season. Nevertheless, they might have discovered a few of their footing at Barber.

Each McLaughlin (who has made just a few Quick Six appearances via the season) and Energy reached the ultimate stage of qualifying, with McLaughlin beginning P2 on Sunday and Energy P4, in his highest beginning place for the 2025 season. Penske teammate Newgarden did not make it to the Quick Six ultimately, and can line up for the race in P9.

In the meantime within the Arrow-McLaren camp, Pato O’Ward (#5) did not make it into Saturday’s Quick Six.

“I am not displeased with it,” O’Ward stated. “Clearly, we need to be additional up entrance, however I feel it is all to play out tomorrow. Technique’s going to be an enormous factor, made in the previous few races, however yeah, it is good to see that every one three automobiles obtained into the quick 12. Cool to see Nolan [Siegel] do his first quick six. So let’s examine what we will do right here. “

Earlier within the day, through the second apply session, O’Ward skilled a small incident that despatched his automotive into the wall at Flip 17. Fortunately, the automotive got here out of the nook with solely minor harm, and was capable of run by itself energy.

O’Ward will begin P8 on Sunday, filling out Row 4 alongside teammate Christian Lundgaard (#7). However as O’Ward talked about, the larger shock of qualifying was Nolan Siegel (#6) making it into the Quick Six for his very first time, with a P6 consequence, beginning proper forward of his teammates.

“I feel it was simply execution to be trustworthy,” Siegel defined. “Within the Quick Six I simply… every part went easily, we had been calm, collected. Good small adjustments, did not get forward of ourselves, and executed every part rather well. And that is what it takes. Everybody else right here is ideal, and if you happen to’re not good, it would not come. “

One other first time within the Quick Six, though only for Barber, is Colton Herta, who will begin P3.

The toughest loss via qualifying, although, might have been watching Scott Dixon‘s battle together with his automotive after shedding the rear and operating off-track, ruining his quickest lap run, and taking him out of qualifying within the very first spherical.

“Irritating as a result of the automotive was fast. Lap was coming fairly straightforward. We had been fairly free on the blacks, however our occasions appeared to be good. I feel we had third or fourth on the blacks after which simply misplaced the rear there, and sadly you don’t have any time to get well. So yeah, fairly irritating.”

Noting Dixon’s remark, this weekend, IndyCar is running new primary (black) tire compound that’s speculated to be a extra sturdy tire and Firestone has stated will really feel prefer it has misplaced a few of its grip. Drivers noticeably favored the alternate crimson tires for qualifying, with some having pitted mid-session to alternate used for brand new reds to complete out every spherical’s time crunch.

You may watch how tire technique performs out for drivers through the Kids’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber which airs Sunday, Might 4 at 1:30pm EDT on FOX, the FOX Sports activities app and INDYCAR Radio Community. 

Remaining beginning grid for Sunday’s race shall be added shortly.