Another round of Alex Palou perfection as he snags…

A special start to the weekend for Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou as he earns P1 for Sunday's race at Barber Motorsports Park — the same track where he earned his first win in the series back in 2021. The difference now is that he's a three-time IndyCar Series champion, and currently leading the standings for the 2025 championship.

While it looks as though the weekend's Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix is set up to be another lesson on Palou's perfection, there were a few other surprises to come from the qualifying session at Barber.

First, is Penske's team struggling? It's a recurring question every IndyCar weekend of 2025 thus far as its three stars, Josef Newgarden (#2), Will Power (#12), and Scott McLaughlin (#3), have failed to dominate the Fast Six this season. However, they may have found some of their footing at Barber.

Both McLaughlin (who has made a few Fast Six appearances through the season) and Power reached the final stage of qualifying, with McLaughlin starting P2 on Sunday and Power P4, in his highest starting position for the 2025 season. Penske teammate Newgarden didn't make it to the Fast Six in the end, and will line up for the race in P9.

Meanwhile in the Arrow-McLaren camp, Pato O'Ward (#5) failed to make it into Saturday's Fast Six.

"I'm not displeased with it," O'Ward said. "Obviously, we want to be further up front, but I think it's all to play out tomorrow. Strategy is going to be important like it's been the last few races. It's good to see all three cars got into the top 12 and cool to see Nolan [Siegel] get into his first Firestone Fast 6. We can work from here."

Pato O'Ward, Arrow-McLaren, on track during qualifying at the Children's Alabama Indy Grand Prix on Saturday (Photo by: Penske Entertainment - Paul Hurley)

Earlier in the day, during the second practice session, O'Ward experienced a small incident that sent his car into the wall at Turn 17. Thankfully, the car came out of the corner with only minor damage, and was able to run on its own power.

O'Ward will start P8 on Sunday, filling out Row 4 alongside teammate Christian Lundgaard (#7). But as O'Ward mentioned, the bigger surprise of qualifying was Nolan Siegel (#6) making it into the Fast Six for his very first time, with a P6 result, starting right ahead of his teammates.

"I think it was just execution to be honest," Siegel explained. "In the Fast Six I think everything went smoothly. We were calm, collected, and made good small changes, didn't get ahead of ourselves, and executed everything really well. And that's what it takes. Everyone else here is perfect, and if you're not perfect, it doesn't come. "

Another first time in the Fast Six, although just for Barber, is Colton Herta, who will start P3.

The hardest loss through qualifying, though, may have been watching Scott Dixon's struggle with his car after losing the rear and running off-track, ruining his fastest lap run, and taking him out of qualifying in the very first round.

"Frustrating because the car was quick. Lap was coming pretty easy. We were pretty loose on the blacks, but our times seemed to be good. I think we had third or fourth on the blacks and then just lost the rear there, and unfortunately you have no time to recover. So yeah, pretty frustrating."

Noting Dixon's comment, this weekend, IndyCar is running new primary (black) tire compound that is supposed to be a more durable tire and Firestone has said will feel like it has lost some of its grip. Drivers noticeably favored the alternate red tires for qualifying, with some having pitted mid-session to exchange used for new reds to finish out each round's time crunch.

You can watch how tire strategy plays out for drivers during the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber which airs Sunday, May 4 at 1:30pm EDT on FOX, the FOX Sports app and INDYCAR Radio Network.

Photos from Barber Motorsports Park - Practice & Qualifying


Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph
1	A. Palou Chip Ganassi Racing	10	5	1'07.2918		123.046
2	S. McLaughlin Team Penske	3	3	+0.1469 1'07.4387	0.1469	122.778
3	C. Herta Andretti Global	26	5	+0.1658 1'07.4576	0.0189	122.744
4	W. Power Team Penske	12	5	+0.2698 1'07.5616	0.1040	122.555
5	R. van Kalmthout Dale Coyne Racing	18	5	+0.6185 1'07.9103	0.3487	121.926
6	N. Siegel Arrow McLaren	6	5	+0.7552 1'08.0470	0.1367	121.681
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