Today’s schedule: Eastern times

2:30-3:15p: INDY NXT Practice

3:40-4:55p: INDYCAR Practice Peacock

After a turbulent couple of days, IndyCar will get back to the track this afternoon. The Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix could not happen at a better time. We need a diversion from the P2P scandal, but it will be difficult to put that completely out of our minds.Josef Newgarden has scheduled a press conference this morning at 10 am Eastern at the track.

Before Wednesday, I was trying to decide whether to pick Scott Dixon or Pato O’Ward to win Sunday. Dixon has never won at Barber, despite nine podium finishes in the 13 Indycar races here.

O’Ward has one victory, a pole, and a couple of podiums. I think being awarded first place at St. Pete makes Pato eager to actually win on track.

While I still think they will be factors, I think Team Penske may dominate the on track headlines. Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, and Will Power have combined for six wins at Barber. Newgarden is by no means out of the championship picture yet, despite effectively missing a race.

Pourchaire Returns

Theo Pourchaire impressed everyone at Long Beach subbing for David Malukas. He now gets to try Indcar on a road course. Barber is a physical track, and we will see how he does here. I think he will be fine.

Dale Coyne Racing has hired F2 and ELMS driver Luca Ghiotto as the pilot for car 51 for this weekend and the road course race at IMS on May 11. Coyne’s lineups are now set for three consecutive races.

Programming Notes

“100 days to Indy” season 2 premieres tonight on CW at 9 pm Eastern. I don’t think they will touch on the Penske P2P issue until the third episode, which will cover this weekend, but we will see.

I will be covering the Newgarden conference and have a brief report on it before I head to the track.

After that, let’s focus on the racing.