Tag: Children's of Alabama Grand Prix

Good morning from a coolish Barber Motorsports Park. The forecast looks sunny and dry for the start of the race, with temperature of 68 degrees at the green flag.

Today’s schedule: Times are Central

Gates and all fan activities open at 8:00am

• 8:00am – 8:40am Porsche Sprint Challenge North America – Cayman (Race #2)
• 8:55am – 9:35am Porsche Sprint Challenge North America – GT3 (Race #2)
• 11:00am – 11:30am NTT INDYCAR SERIES Warmup Peacock, Indycar Radio
• 12:00pm – 12:55pm INDY NXT (Race) Peacock
• 2:00 pm – 5:00pm NTT INDYCAR SERIES (Race) NBC, Peacock, Indycar radio
• The green flag will fall at 2:30 Central time.

The big question today is: Can Romain Grosjean put a complete race together?Grosjean has yet to convert a pole into a victory. St.Pete was his best chance, and today will be another great opportunity for him.

The Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix is traditionally a low incident race. Few yellows occur during the race, and generally they come early. Pit strategy and starting positon are the keys to the race outcome.

I still like Pato O’Ward to win from third. The winner usually comes from the first five starting positions.

I expect another podium from Scott Dixon. It would be nice to see him finally win at this track.

Keep an eye on Christian Lundgaard today. He starts sixth, the best for a Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver this season. Can he maintain or improve his position. Will we see another charge through the field from Graham Rahal?

The last two Barber winners, Alex Palou and Pato O’Ward, start second and third.

I’ll be back with starting tire choices. Enjoy the race.

Today’s schedule

Times listed are Central Time

Gates open at 8:00am

• All Fan Zone Activities
• 7:50am – 8:10am Porsche Sprint Challenge – Cayman (Qualifier)
• 8:25am – 8:45am Porsche Spring Challenge – GT3 (Qualifier)
• 9:00am – 9:45am Blue Marble Radical Cup (Race #2)
• 10:00am – 10:45am INDY NXT (Practice #2)
• 11:00am – 12:00pm NTT INDYCAR SERIES (Practice #2) Peacock
• 12:20pm – 1:00pm Porsche Sprint Challenge North America – Cayman (Race #1)
• 1:20pm – 1:40pm INDY NXT (Qualifier)
• 2:00pm – 3:15pm NTT INDYCAR SERIES (Qualifier) Peacock
• 3:30pm – 4:00pm INDY NXT autograph session
• 3:35pm – 4:20pm Blue Marble Radical Cup (Race #3)
• 4:35pm – 5:15pm Porsche Sprint Challenge North America – GT3 (Race #1)

Good morning from Barber Motorsports Park. The weather forecast call for 73 degrees and partly cloudy when practice begins and 77 degrees and cloudy with a 15% chance of rain for qualifying.

Starting position is key to success in the nrace at Barber. Qualifying will be interesting. In yesterday’s practice, the top six were separated by 0.36 seconds and the top twelve had a gap of 0.65 seconds.

Notes

Romain Grosjean will get a new engine for the number 28.

Yesterday afternoon Inidnapolis Motor Speedway announced its May schedule and Indianapolsi 500 qualifying format. There are a couple of tweaks to qualifying. I will talk about May in my next post in a bit.

Perhaps it’s the timing of this race, but it seems odd to step on another race’s weekend with an announcement like this.

I will be back with practice results, qualifying groups, and qualifying results later.

Today’s schedule:

Friday, April 28 Times Eastern

Indycar

3:40-4:55 Practice 1 Peacock

Indy NXT

2:40-3:25

Barber Mtorsports Park had produced some good racing, but more often than not, it’s pit strategy that is the key to victory. In the rain drenched 2018 race, Josef Newgarden took rain tires long before anyone else . he was was slow until the rains came, then ended upmin the lead when the rest of the field had to pit.

A;ex Palou used a two stop strategy to win in 2021. In 2022, while it wasn’t pit strategy that determined the race, it was Rinus VeeKay’s mistake on his out lap after hisfinal stopthat allowed Pato O’Ward to pass the pole sitter and go on to win.

Youth Movement

Before the pandemic, barber was a track for veterans. The last two years, the younger drivers have dominated. In 2021 Pato O’Ward won the pole, but an early pit stop cost hiom the race. Alex Palou won the race.

Last year Rinus VeeKay sat on the pole. O’Ward won the race, Palou was second, and VeeKay third.

Will Kyle Kirkwood be in the mix in 2023? Coming off his dominant victory in Long Beach, it is possible.

The Big Four

Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske, and Andretti Autosport have each won a race this year. I think the fourth member of the Big Four, Arrow McLaren, jpoins them this weekend.O’Ward won last year, and the te team has been strong here for the last two races, with a pole in 2021 and a victory last year.

O’Ward could win again. The track has had several drivers win multiple times. Ryan Hunter-Reay, hwon twice, Josef Newgarden has three victories, and Will Power has two wins.

O’Ward’s biggest competiton could come from teammate Alexander Rossi. Rossi does well on natural road courses.

I think O’Ward gets nhis first win of the season Sunday.

Weather

Weather is always a potential factor at Barber, although it appears the chances for a dry weekend are increasing. Rain looks more likely to affect qualifying than the race as of this moment.

Barber is a track where qualifying determines your race. The entire podium generally starts in the top 5.

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Spreading the Wealth

In 12 previous races, six teams , Penske, Ganassi, Andretti, Rahal, Carpenter, and Arrow McLaren have won at Barber. Penske has won six times, SAndretti has won twice.

The oddity in the list of winners is that Scott Dixon’s name is missing. Dixcon has five podiums at Barber, but has yet to reach the top step.

2023 will be one of the most competitve weekends we have seen in Alabama. Andretti is having a strong resurgence, Team Penske looks to be back to full strength, Arrow McLaren cannot be dismissed, and Ganassi boasts a former winner and the current points leader.

Rinus VeeKay won the pole for Ed Carpenter Racing, and he is eager to finsih what he started last year.

Is this the weekend Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing finds themselves?