With Álex Palou and David Malukas starting from the first row, the IndyCar race at Barber Motorsports Park has all the ingredients to get off to an exciting start. Will Power has to come from the back after a big shunt in qualifying, whereas championship leader Kyle Kirkwood has to come from fifth place.
Early dominance by Palou
At the green flag, it is Palou who quite easily kept the lead, as Kirkwood and Graham Rahal have a little contact between turns 2 and 3. Other than that, there were little incidents in the first lap.
Early on turn 5 proves again to be the favourite overtaking spot, with both Scott McLaughlin and Christian Lundgaard overtaking there. The Dane in general is having a good day, as he overtakes Santino Ferrucci for sixth. This puts him at +4 for the day already.
Palou is controlling the race in the meantime. He has a 2 second lead to Malukas, despite being on the harder of the two compounds.
Ericsson is also the Firestone blacks, but he can’t get them to work as he loses two spots in two laps, to Josef Newgarden and Romain Grosjean respectively. Logically, he is the first to stop to get rid of the tyres. A lap earlier than projected, but it does trigger other drivers to enter the pits.
During all of this Malukas is overtaken by Rahal for second, with the gap to Palou already being 4.5 seconds.
Kirkwood is the first of the front-runners to make his pit stop. Contrary to any of the stops in Arlington, it was a good one. Malukas covers Kirkwood’s stop and comes out back ahead of the championship leader.
The Andretti Global driver does apply the heat to Malukas, but cannot manage to pass the Penske driver.
Grosjean on fire, figuratively
The battle between Ferrucci and Grosjean is cut short by the American youngster entering the pits. This gives Grosjean some free air. A lap later the French driver stops, and he comes out ahead of Ferrucci.
While Rahal stops, Ferrucci has to fend of McLaughlin and Alexander Rossi into turn 8. This gives Pato O’Ward the opportunity to overtake Rossi. A lap later McLaughlin does manage to overtake Ferrucci.
Lundgaard and Power stop next, while Palou keeps extending. He does stop the next time around, making sure he does not fall into the caution trap. The gap to Rahal is a bit smaller, but Palou’s lead was never in jeopardy duting the stops.
Grosjean is putting the pressure on former F1 colleague Ericsson, while Power manages to overtake Rosenqvist into turn 8.
In the back field, Rinus VeeKay attempts to overtake Rossi into turn 5, but spins. He keeps the car going so a caution is prevented. A lap later Dennis Hauger demonstrates how it’s done by overtaking Mick Schumacher.
Ericsson is again the one to open the pit stop sequence, giving Grosjean a bit of a breather. Newgarden follows a few laps later, meaning the Dale Coyne driver is now in seventh. However, a lock-up into turn 9 signals Grosjean to go to the pits himself.
Kirkwood and Armstrong enter the pits just shy of the halfway mark, which put both just behind Malukas.
Lundgaard on the rise again
Rahal is still in second, about 7 seconds behind Palou. His team mates are scrapping for 24th, with Louis Foster currently ahead of Schumacher.
Palou stops first this time, followed by Rahal a lap later. Palou goes back to the black tyres, whereas Rahal does the opposite and goes to the soft, red-walled tyres. For now, this means Lundgaard is leading the race with a pit stop in hand.
A lot of late stoppers stop at lap 50, filtering them right into traffic. Grosjean capitalises and immediately overtakes Rossi. O’Ward tries to as well, but cannot manage right away.
Lundgaard stops in lap 51, and manages to get out ahead of Rahal, albeit on cold tyres. The Dane has a little wiggle in the final turn, but for now keeps the veteran American behind him.
This of course means Palou again leads this IndyCar race at Barber. With the gap being over 7 seconds, Lundgaard has his work cut out for him.
Pit lane drama for Lundgaard
Approaching the final round of pit stops, Lundgaard is closing the gap to Palou, who is approaching the backmarkers. First up is Schumacher, who has more than one incentive to stay on the lead lap. One is the possibility to help team mate Rahal in third.
Again, Ericsson opens the pit stop sequence, pitting when being pressured by Scott Dixon. It does mean the Swede has to do some fuel saving towards the finish, as there are still 25 laps to go.
Palou is the first of the front runners to stop, choosing again for used hard tyres. Coming out of the pits he battles with Schumacher to stay on the lead lap. The German rookie does get overtaken by Palou and team mate Foster. It does cost Palou some time.
Rahal stops a lap later, and goes to new hard tyres. Palou in the meantime comes across Hauger who makes it really difficult for the reigning champion. All this while Lundgaard is the fastest driver on track.
With 21 laps to go Lundgaard enters the pits, but his right rear wheel has issues, meaning he drops back into the clutches of Rahal. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver does pass Lundgaard straight away on warm tyres, making the stop a disaster for Arrow McLaren.
Rahal returns to podium
Palou now has a significant lead over Rahal and Lundgaard, but the Arrow McLaren driver still wants to get second. So with 12 laps to go the gap between the two is less than a second. Behind them, Malukas is also creeping into the picture.
The Penske driver does have the most push-to-pass left, but with just 10 laps to go, he needs to be quick if he wants to get on the podium.
On the edge of the top 10 it is Power who looks to pass both Rossi and Newgarden after starting from 23rd.
With 6 laps to Lundgaard decides to put the pressure really on Rahal, creeping closer with every turn. The next lap he has a look into turn 5 and turn 8, but cannot manage to get past.
With 3 to go Lundgaard has the run he needs out of turn 4, and he manages to outbrake Rahal in turn 5. This immediately puts Rahal under pressure of Malukas, who has push-to-pass in abundance.
Entering the final lap Rahal has just a few seconds left, but he manages to hold off Malukas for the podium.
Up front Palou wins, ahead of Lundgaard and Rahal. Malukas is just off the podium, from Kirkwood, who is now tied with Palou for the championship. Amstrong comes home in sixth, ahead of Dixon, Ferrucci, Ericsson and Newgarden.
Next up: the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach
