Alex Palou won the IndyCar season opener at Barber Motorsports Park.
Pato O’Ward claimed the P1 award on Saturday for the Grand Prix of Alabama and opted to run a three stop strategy which proved to be costly as the day went on.
The first incident of the race happened almost immediately after the green flag as Josef Newgarden got loose and collected Colton Herta, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Felix Rosenqvist. Jimmie Johnson, making his IndyCar debut, would bring out the second caution on lap 10 after he spun by himself.
While O’Ward made three stops, he found two stop cars driven by Alex Palou, Will Power, and Scott Dixon ahead of him in the closing laps of the race.
With 10 laps to go Palou held a lead just over two seconds but second place Power had 40 seconds more of push to pass. The car of Connor Daly would prove to be a thorn in the side of Palou as Power inched closer. In the end Palou remained out front to win his first race.
Jimmie Johnson, making his IndyCar debut, finished 19th on the day. The highest finishing rookie of the race was Romain Grosjean who finished 10th.
Grand Prix of Alabama Results
- Alex Palou
- Will Power
- Scott Dixon
- Pato O’Ward
- Sebastien Bourdais
- Rinus VeeKay
- Graham Rahal
- Marcus Ericsson
- Alexander Rossi
- Romain Grosjean
- Jack Harvey
- Simon Pagenaud
- Takuma Sato
- Scott McLaughlin
- Ed Jones
- Connor Daly
- James Hinchcliffe
- Dalton Kellett
- Jimmie Johnson
- Max Chilton
- Felix Rosenqvist
- Colton Herta
- Josef Newgarden
- Ryan Hunter-Reay
