- Alex Palou controls the pace at Barber to become the season’s first two-time winner.
- Lundgaard recovers for second-place finish, while teammate O’Ward struggles.
- Graham Rahal earns a hard-fought third-place finish to snap a 41-race streak.
Reigning NTT IndyCar champion Alex Palou did what he usually does best at Barber Motorsports Park: win. The Spaniard controlled the race and executed when it mattered, becoming the series’ first repeat winner of the season.
Yet the bigger story from Sunday wasn’t the 28-year-old’s second win. It was everything that slipped away from Arrow McLaren, and everything that finally went right for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal.
McLaren’s race to win slips away in the pit lane
For most of the evening, during the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix powered by AmFirst, it looked like it could finally be McLaren’s heyday. Arrow McLaren’s No. 7 ace, Christian Lundgaard, had the car, the pace, and, above all, timing.
Despite a lackluster 10th-place start, the 24-year-old carved his way through the field and began hunting down the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda of Palou. At one point, Lundgaard was lapping several tenths quicker and cutting into the lead rapidly as the race settled into its rhythm.
By the time the final round of pit stops came around, the gap was down to three seconds with Palou struggling in traffic. Meanwhile, Lundgaard was charging, eyeing a decisive late-race moment, and it was shaping up to be a straight fight.
Then it all went south. A slow final pit stop, triggered by a right-rear tire issue, blew the race open. What should have been a routine seven-second service turned into a costly delay when the car was dropped before the tire was fully secured, and the lug nut briefly came loose.
By the time the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet rolled back onto the track after a dismal 17-second stop, the gap had ballooned, effectively ending the Dane’s shot at catching Palou.
“From what I’ve been told, we would have cleared him,” Lundgaard admitted after the race, reflecting on the lost opportunity. To his credit, he regrouped. After briefly losing second to Rahal, Lundgaard fought back and reclaimed the spot late. But it didn’t feel like a podium. It felt like a win that got away.
“Everything sounds great except finishing second,” he said. “We had a race-winning car… that’s the frustrating part.”
That frustration wasn’t limited to one side of the garage. His No. 5 teammate, Pato O’Ward, had a completely different, and equally puzzling, day. The 26-year-old came to the Alabama track with wind in his sails, riding a stellar streak of three consecutive top-5 finishes, hoping to add another.
After rolling off 12th, O’Ward never looked like a factor for the top 10. Instead, he faded early and spent most of the race going backward, eventually settling for a season-worst finish of P17. The result dropped the Mexican from third to sixth in the standings after four races, leaving him 50 points adrift of standings leader Kyle Kirkwood.
It was indeed a rough spell, he admitted post-race, saying the team still doesn’t have clear answers for the lack of pace. The nine-time Indy winner pointed out that his car wasn’t drastically different from Lundgaard’s, which only added to the confusion.
Despite the frustration, he took some positives from the other side of the garage and made it clear that the focus now shifts to figuring things out and bouncing back.
For a team still chasing its first IndyCar championship since returning as Arrow McLaren in 2020, this kind of split performance says a lot. The potential is there, but it’s not coming together consistently.
Graham Rahal finds relief as Palou extends Honda’s edge
While McLaren was left replaying what went wrong, 37-year-old veteran Rahal finally had something to celebrate.
Driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, a team partially owned by his legendary father Bobby Rahal (1986 Indy 500 winner), Rahal ended a 41-race podium drought. It wasn’t flashy, but it was earned the hard way, running near the front all day and managing a tricky car that kept losing rear grip as the race wore on.
“It’s a great reward for the guys and gals,” Rahal said. “Everybody has worked so hard to be back here.” Prior to Sunday’s finish, the Ohio-native’s last podium finish dates way back to 2023, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
For a while, it even looked like he might see his No. 15 Honda across the finish line second. He held that position deep into the race before Lundgaard, on fresher tires, found a way through with three to go.
In hindsight, IndyCar’s fourth feature of the season highlighted a bigger trend: Honda’s strength. All in all, six Honda-powered cars finished inside the top 10; meanwhile, underlining just how consistent that package has been. McLaren, however, despite its history, including its iconic 1976 Indy 500 win with Johnny Rutherford, continues to chase that same level of control in the modern era.
For now, the gap remains, and Barber made that clear. While one team took the win, the other let it slip.
