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Motorsport
Motorsport
Sport
David Malsher-Lopez

IndyCar at Barber Motorsports Park – facts, schedule, entry list

Event date: Friday, April 29 – Sunday, May 1

Track: 2.366-mile, 17-turn road course in Birmingham, AL.

Race distance: 90 laps (212.94 miles)

Firestone tire allotment: Six sets primary, four sets alternate, and one additional set of primaries available to rookies for use in first practice.

Push-to-pass parameters: 200 seconds of total time with a maximum single duration of 20 seconds.

IndyCar schedule (local/Central Time) and broadcast details

Friday, April 29
3.00-4.00pm – First practice Peacock Premium

Saturday, April 30
9.00-10.00am – Second practice – Peacock Premium
12.00-1.15pm – Qualifying Peacock Premium
4.20-4.50pm
– Third practice - Peacock Premium

Sunday, May 01
12.00pm – Pre-race build-up NBC
12.08pm –
“Drivers, start your engines”
12.15pm – Green flag: Honda Indy GP of Alabama (90 laps / 212.94 miles) – NBC and Peacock Premium

Leigh Diffey is the announcer alongside analysts Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe. All NTT IndyCar Series practice sessions and qualifying stream live on Peacock Premium, NBC’s direct-to-consumer livestreaming product, while Peacock Premium’s exclusive post-race show will be streamed following the race.

IndyCar Radio Network broadcasts: Mark Jaynes is the chief announcer alongside analyst Davey Hamilton. Nick Yeoman, Jake Query and Michael Young are the turn announcers, while Ryan Myrehn and Alex Wollf are pit reporters. All IndyCar races, practices and qualifying sessions air live on network affiliates, SiriusXM 160, racecontrol.indycar.com and the IndyCar app powered by NTT DATA.

Race Notes

2021 race winner: Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda).

2021 NTT P1 Award winner: Pato O’Ward (Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet), 65.8479sec, 125.744mph. 

Qualifying lap record: Pato O’Ward (Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet) 65.5019sec, 126.409mph, 2021 during Q2

This will be the 12th Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama dating back to 2011. Josef Newgarden has won the event three times, Team Penske-Chevrolet teammate Will Power has won it twice, while other event winners in this weekend’s edition include, Alex Palou, Takuma Sato, Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves.

In terms of teams Penske has won six of the 11 races at Barber, while the remaining five were clinched by Andretti Autosport (twice), Chip Ganassi Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

Power has scored four pole positions here, Castroneves two, while Pato O’Ward, Sato, Newgarden and Pagenaud have each led the field to green once.

Ganassi’s six-time champion Scott Dixon has a bizarre stat in this event, having finished on the podium in nine of the 11 Grands Prix held at Barber but never winning. He will also be making his 292nd consecutive start, the second longest streak in Indy car history.

As rookies, Tatiana Calderon, Devlin DeFrancesco, Callum Ilott, Kyle Kirkwood, Christian Lundgaard and David Malukas will all be making their first IndyCar starts at Barber Motorsports Park. However, Malukas, Kirkwood and DeFrancesco have all raced at the track in junior formulas. DeFrancesco took a pair of podium finishes here in Indy Lights, while Malukas took a podium in Indy Pro 2000 and a win in Lights.

No. Driver Hometown Car name Team-Engine
2 Josef Newgarden Nashville, Tennessee PPG Team Penske Team Penske-Chevrolet
3 Scott McLaughlin Christchurch, New Zealand Sonsio Team Penske Team Penske-Chevrolet
4 Dalton Kellett Stouffville, Canada K-Line / AJ Foyt Racing A.J. Foyt Enterprises-Chevrolet
5 Pato O'Ward Monterrey, Mexico Arrow McLaren SP Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet
06 Helio Castroneves Sao Paulo, Brazil AutoNation / SiriusXM Meyer Shank Racing-Honda
7 Felix Rosenqvist Varnamo, Sweden Vuse Arrow McLaren SP Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet
8 Marcus Ericsson Kumla, Sweden Huski Chocolate Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda
9 Scott Dixon Auckland, New Zealand PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda
10 Alex Palou Barcelona, Spain The American Legion Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda
11 Tatiana Calderon (R) Bogota, Colombia ROKiT / AJ Foyt Racing AJ Foyt Enterprises-Chevrolet
12 Will Power Toowoomba, Australia Verizon Team Penske Team Penske-Chevrolet
14 Kyle Kirkwood (R) Jupiter, Florida ROKiT / AJ Foyt Racing A.J. Foyt Enterprises-Chevrolet
15 Graham Rahal New Albany, Ohio Code 3 Associates Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda
18 David Malukas (R) Chicago, Illinois HMD Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports-Honda
20 Conor Daly Noblesville, Indiana BitNile Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet
21 Rinus VeeKay Hoofddorp, Netherlands SONAX Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet
26 Colton Herta Valencia, California Gainbridge Andretti Autosport w/Curb Agajanian-Honda
27 Alexander Rossi Nevada City, California NAPA Auto Parts / AutoNation Andretti Autosport-Honda
28 Romain Grosjean Geneva, Switzerland Enevate / DHL Andretti Autosport-Honda
29 Devlin DeFrancesco (R) Toronto, Canada PowerTap Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport-Honda
30 Christian Lundgaard (R) Hedensted, Denmark Shield Cleansers Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda
45 Jack Harvey Bassingham, UK Hy-Vee Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda
48 Jimmie Johnson El Cajon, California Carvana Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda
51 Takuma Sato Tokyo, Japan Nurtec ODT Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda
60 Simon Pagenaud Montmorillon, France AutoNation / SiriusXM Meyer Shank Racing-Honda
77 Callum Ilott (R) Cambridge, UK Juncos Hollinger Racing Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet
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