Photo by Kyle Mcinnes

Team Penske needed a strong showing. Indycar needed a good race. Both got what they needed yesterday afternoon in the Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix.

After a week embroiled in controversy, Team Penske came out strong on Friday as Josef Newgarden led the first practice. Saturday Scott McLaughlin and Will Power swept the front row in qualifying and finished in that order yesterday.

The race behind the leaders was probably the most entertaining race I have seen at Barber. Turn five was the scene of side-by-side action, seldom gentlemanly, but very exciting. The sand trap got quite a workout.

There was some good racing in the middle of the pack. Scott Dixon made a great over and under move to pass Josef Newgarden coming out of turn five. Uncharacteristically, they were racing for fifteenth place.

The cautions were spaced far enough apart to keep things interesting as teams tried different pit strategies. In the end, McLaughlin led 42 laps and beat Power by just over a second.

The star of the race was the third member of the podium, rookie Linus Lundqvist, who earned his first career Indycar podium. It will not be his last this season.

McLaren Follies

At some point, the most popular team in the paddock needs to produce consistent race results. Pato O’Ward qualified well, but went off track trying an optimistic move in turn five, then was penalized for avoidable contact with Pietro Fittipaldi, and finished 23rd after starting fourth.

Alexander Rossi lost a wheel on lap 47 and finished 25th.

Herta to the Top

Colton Herta had a great, if quiet run to eighth place after starting 15th. The finish was enough to give him the points lead by one over Will Power.

Defending champion Alex Palou is third, just three points behind.

Newgarden trails Herta by 53 points, the amount he was docked from St.Pete.

Notes

Barber announced its best crowd in more than 10 years this weekend, 86,000 over the three days. Yhe event has grown since my first time there in 2012. With that that growth has come a creeping corporate presence, which has squeezed some vantage points for fans. A free grandstand on the backstretch is now just two small sections.

I know it’s a way to generate money, but tracks need to consider where they put their suites.

The tram system was the most efficient I have ever seen it. It appeared the track had extra tram s running. After the race yesterday, I had to wait for the third tram to arrive to board, but my wait was less than 10 minutes. I got back to my parking are on the other side of the track in less than 15 minutes.

The scoring pylon worked well for the most part, but the thing that annoyed me was the IndyNXT standing were displayed as positions 28-36. I found it frustrating to follow who was where below 10th.

On to IMS

Wednesday begins the greatest month of the year. Indycar begins wioth theSonsio Grand Prix on the road course May 11, and the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 26th.

Thanks for following along here this past weekend. It was difficult to cover given the limited cell service, but a story like P2P scandal is why I originally wanted to be a journalist.