Palou beats Malukas to Barber IndyCar pole

Pole position for the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix was another demonstration of dominance by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou, who followed last year’s pole with another series-leading performance in the No. 10 Honda.

The Spaniard's 1m06.2341s lap, turned on a new set of Firestone’s alternate tires, gave IndyCar its fourth pole winner from four races and featured the rising Team Penske talent David Malukas immediately behind in the No. 12 Chevy, who took a shot at deposing Palou but came up slightly short in the endeavor (1m06.3478s).

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal qualified third for the second time this year in the No. 15 Honda to show RLL’s potential (1m06.5181s) and he was followed by Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong in the No. 66 Honda (1m06.5312s), who continues to shine for the team.

Championship leader Kyle Kirkwood, who stayed on used alternates in the final session, which means he’ll have a set of new alternates for the race, was fifth in the No. 27 Andretti Global Honda (1m06.8326s), and Dale Coyne Racing’s Romain Grosjean, a polesitter at Barber with Andretti in 2023, was fast again in the No. 18 Honda (1m06.8363s) to seal the Firestone Fast Six.

“It was a very close qualifying,” Palou said. “We just wanted to make sure once we're in Fast Six, although we know we're not going to have two sets of brand-new alternates, to try to go for pole, and we did.”

Burning through another new set of alternates to get pole was a choice that Palou knows could come back to bite him in the 90-lap race if those like Kirkwood are able to attack while he’s on old alternates.

“Hopefully future Alex is going to figure out how to balance against new alternates,” Palou added. “Yeah, that's an issue for tomorrow.”

Elsewhere, Arrow McLaren was not a factor as Christian Lundgaard led the team in 10th. Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, who was forced into a backup car for qualifying, came close to transferring into the Firestone Fast 12 and was disappointed to place 14th.

Meyer Shank’s Felix Rosenqvist – normally a Fast Six contender on road courses – was relegated to 18th as the troubled start to the season continued, and Andretti’s Will Power, often luckless in qualifying with his new team, experienced what he described as a rear brake failure and crashed. He’ll start 23rd.

Among the rookies, the race engineering change for Mick Schumacher showed promise as the IndyCar newcomer was fastest of the three in 20th and ahead of RLL teammate Louis Foster in 22nd.

The opening stage of the Firestone Fast 12 qualifying session saw Andretti Global’s Will Power trigger a red flag with 5m57s left and lose any chance of advancing when he crashed at Turn 5. His No. 26 Honda did not appear to slow as normal after cresting the hill at which point Power turned slightly to left, locked the brakes, and fired across the gravel trap at a high rate of speed and hit the tire barrier nose first. The force of the impact was enough to bend the steel barrier behind the tires.

After an extended period passed while the barriers were sorted, the action resumed and the fastest six to transfer were Palou, Lundgaard, Rahal, Armstrong, Alexander Rossi and Santino Ferrucci.

Those who were done for the day were led by Scott Dixon who will start P13, Nolan Siegel (P15), Christian Rasmussen (P17), Kyffin Simpson (P19), Caio Collet (P21), and Power (P23).

The second group had a relatively boring session in which Kirkwood led Malukas, Romain Grosjean, Josef Newgarden, Marcus Ericsson and Pato O’Ward into the Fast 12. Using a backup car he hadn’t sampled before the session, McLaughlin was impressive and only missed the cutoff by a few hundredths of a second, but will start 14th. Behind him, qualifying was over for Rinus VeeKay (P16), Rosenqvist (P18), Schumacher (P20), Louis Foster (P22), Dennis Hauger (P24), and Sting Ray Robb (P25).

The Fast 12 was a lap battle between Palou and Kirkwood which went in Kirkwood’s favor as the fastest to transfer along with Palou, Malukas, Armstrong, Rahal and Grosjean.

The rest of the top 12 was set with Ferrucci (P7), Ericsson (P8), Newgarden (P9), Lundgaard (P10), Rossi (P11) and O’Ward (P12). In the Fast Six, it looked like the Palou vs. Kirkwood battle would continue but it was Malukas who came closest to challenging Palou. The No. 10 Ganassi Honda will start first for the 13th time with the Spaniard at the controls.

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