Palou Dominates at the Children's of Alabama GP IndyCar race

Alex Palou delivered a masterclass in precision and pace on Sunday, March 29, 2026, at Barber Motorsports Park, winning the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix by a commanding 13.2775 seconds over Christian Lundgaard. The four-time NTT IndyCar Series champion and defending race winner started from pole — his first of the 2026 season and the 13th of his career — and never looked back, leading 79 of the 90 laps in his No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

Palou’s performance echoed his 2025 domination of the field here (a 16-second victory), underscoring his status as the undisputed king of permanent road courses. The Spaniard, who honed his craft in European karting and formula racing, once again showed why he’s the driver everyone else is chasing. “Honestly, one of the best cars I’ve driven,” Palou said after qualifying. “This morning I already felt the car was really, really good, really well balanced.” That balance translated into total race dominance.

Lundgaard, driving the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, provided the day’s most thrilling subplot. Starting 10th, the Dane methodically carved through the field. After leading the race, a bad pit stop on lap 69 put him back to third place. A determined Lundgaard passed Graham Rahal with two laps remaining to steal second place. Rahal, in the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Fifth Third Bank Honda, held on for a hard-earned podium in third, just 1.0102 seconds behind Lundgaard and 14.2877 seconds back of the winner.

David Malukas, who qualified a strong second in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, finished fourth after a solid but unspectacular run, 14.9957 seconds off the lead. Kyle Kirkwood — fresh off his Arlington victory and currently leading the championship standings — rounded out the top five in the No. 27 JM Bullion/Gold.com Andretti Global Honda.

This was the second year in a row that the 90 lap race went caution free.

The alternate tires were the chosen tire for the race until Sunday morning warmup. Alex Palou explained what had to be done after the strategy had to be rethought.

“We had to run a used set of primaries in our third stint, which we never, ever do that. It was the set that we used in Practice 2. We just did that because we thought it was going to be a red tire race. I think that’s the first-ever time we put on used primaries in the race.”

Julian Robertson Photo courtesy of Penske Entertainment: Chris Owens

Julian Robertson, lead engineer on the No 10 car, replied with more insight. “This morning with the warm-up, like, the tires tanked. We kind of switched strategy somewhat, which meant in the middle of the race we had to put a set of used blacks on. Got pretty sketchy.”

“We had a whole bunch of reds ready to go. Once we saw how the race was panning out, we switched to Plan B. Turned out good in the end, but sketchy in the middle. Probably a few other teams in the same situation.”

The race highlighted several standout efforts in a competitive midfield. Scott Dixon charged from 13th to seventh in the No. 9 Honda, while Will Power recovered from 23rd on the grid to finish 12th. Rinus VeeKay, Romain Grosjean, and Marcus Armstrong also turned in respectable results in the top 15.

With the victory, Palou closed the gap to two points in the early-season championship battle (he entered the weekend 26 points behind leader Kyle Kirkwood). The win also extended his remarkable road-course streak and sent a clear message to the rest of the field: when Palou and the No. 10 team click, the rest are simply racing for second.

George W Barber Tribute

GWB Tribute Sticker Photo by Lucille Dust /AR1

A special on-track tribute honoring the legacy of George W. Barber, founder of the 880-acre Barber Motorsports Park, took place just before the NTT INDYCAR Series race today. The tribute lap, “Milestones in Motion: The George Barber Tribute Lap” featured a selection of historic vehicles representing key moment’s In Mr. Barber’s lifelong passion for motorsports. RIP George Barber.

2026 Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix Results

POS	ST	NO.	DRIVER	TEAM	ENGINE	BEHIND	GAP	LAPS
1	1	10	A. Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	0.0000s	0.0000s	90
2	10	7	C. Lundgaard	Arrow McLaren	Chevy	13.2775s	13.2775s	90
3	3	15	G. Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	Honda	14.2877s	1.0102s	90
4	2	12	D. Malukas	Team Penske	Chevy	14.9957s	0.7080s	90
5	5	27	K. Kirkwood	Andretti Global	Honda	17.7970s	2.8013s	90
6	4	66	M. Armstrong	Meyer Shank Racing	Honda	20.7405s	2.9435s	90
7	13	9	S. Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	24.7459s	4.0054s	90
8	7	14	S. Ferrucci	AJ Foyt Racing	Chevy	41.5701s	16.8242s	90
9	8	28	M. Ericsson	Andretti Global	Honda	43.8593s	2.2892s	90
10	9	2	J. Newgarden	Team Penske	Chevy	51.8976s	8.0383s	90
11	11	20	A. Rossi	Ed Carpenter Racing / Chevy	Chevy	52.9829s	1.0853s	90
12	23	26	W. Power	Andretti Global / Honda	Honda	54.0478s	1.0649s	90
13	18	60	F. Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank Racing	Honda	54.5026s	0.4548s	90
14	16	76	R. VeeKay	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevy	54.9226s	0.4200s	90
15	6	18	R. Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	58.8583s	3.9357s	90
16	14	3	S. McLaughlin	Team Penske	Chevy	1m00.1378s	1.2795s	90
17	12	5	P. O’Ward	Arrow McLaren	Chevy	1m01.0692s	0.9314s	90
18	15	6	N. Siegel	Arrow McLaren	Chevy	1m02.4071s	1.3379s	90
19	17	21	C. Rasmussen	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevy	1m03.2683s	0.8612s	90
20	19	8	K. Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	1m04.0156s	0.7473s	90
21	21	4	C. Collet	Dale Coyne Racing	Chevy	1m06.3025s	2.2869s	90
22	25	77	S. Robb	Juncos Hollinger Racing	Chevy	1 lap	1 lap	89
23	24	19	D. Hauger	Dale Coyne Racing / Honda	Honda	0.6922	0.6922	89
24	20	47	M. Schumacher	Andretti Global	Honda	3.9063	3.2141	89
25	22	45	L. Foster	Juncos Hollinger Racing	Honda	28.4837	24.5774	89

Lucille Dust reporting live from Barber Motorsports Park