Round 3: Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, Barber Motorsports Park, April 5-7.
Barber Motorsports Park is owned by George Barber, a successful businessman and accomplished driver, who raced Porsches in the 1960s and early '70s. He amassed a collection of motorcycles and after establishing a non-profit foundation and in 1994 opened a museum, displaying 325 motorcycles from around the world and some vintage cars. In 1998, he sold the family business and donated $54 million to the foundation in order to build a new museum and a road course, on which to run the collection.
In 2002, a 740 acre site east of Birmingham was chosen and a new museum was built, housing an expanded collection of 1,200 motorcycles, with Up to 600 on display at any one time. It's been certified by Guinness as the largest museum of its type.
The road course was designed by South African race track designer Alan Wilson, with three layouts. The main circuit, which is a 16-turn, 2.370-mile (3.70 km) road course, the short circuit and the club circuit. The venue, opened in 2003 and has hosted Grand-Am, Vintage Racing Series events and AMA Superbike. It serves as the home of the Porsche Sport Driving School and the Kevin Schwantz Suzuki School. One feature that stands out are the series of metal sculptures around the track. The large spider alongside Turns 5-6 has lead to this section of track being nicknamed 'Charlotte's Web'.
This Sunday will be the 10th running of the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park. The race was first held on April 11, 2010 and was won by Hélio Castroneves driving for Team Penske, in a Dallara IR05-Honda. Prior to that, Barber Motorsports Park hosted a testing session in October 2007, the success of which led to a full-field, three-day testing session in March 2009. An open date became available in the 2010 season's race calendar and Barber Motorsports Park made a successful bid to hold the race, over Cleveland (Burke Lakefront Airport), Houston, Baltimore, Nashville, Charlotte and Portland.
Some trivia:
The driver with most wins: 3.
Josef Newgarden, 2015, 2017, 2018.
The team with most wins: 6.
Team Penske, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2018.
Track layout:
Length: 2.3 Miles (3.7 Km)
Turns: 16
Lap record:
Sebastien Bourdais, 23 April 2016. 1:06.60, 124.324 mph (200.080 Km/h),
KVSH Racing,
Dallara DW12-Chevrolet Indy V6.
Verizon IndyCar Series.
Last year's race:
Defending champion Josef Newgarden claimed pole and lead from the start, followed by Will Power, Sebastien Bourdais and Ryan Hunter-Reay in fourth place. Scott Dixon, Alexander Rossi and Marco Andretti got past James Hinchcliffe, though Andretti then spun on Lap 3 trying to get around Rossi. He rejoined in 21st. By Lap 4, Newgarden had a lead of five seconds over Power although the Australian started to peg it back, while edging away from Bourdais. However, once the gap dropped to below 2.5sec, Newgarden put on a spurt to stabilize it.
The first full-course yellow flew on Lap 12, when Charlie Kimball spun on the exit of Turn 16 and Ed Jones went into the tire wall at Turn 17 and then stopped on the track. When pitlane opened, Simon Pagenaud in ninth, Zachary Claman De Melo driving for Dale Coyne, Andretti, Max Chilton, Rene Binder and Matheus Leist, AJ Foyt Racing, took the opportunity to pit and switch to an alternate strategy.
0n the restart, Pagenaud and Andretti lead these early stoppers but as the rain was coming down harder, they dropped back 16th and 17th. Newgarden almost lost it on a big puddle, while Power did lose it, hydroplaning and spinning despite short-shifting. Miraculously Hunter-Reay
avoided the wayward Penske. However, Power was now a passenger as the car looped across the track and his left wheels slammed the pitwall. He was out on the spot and two laps later the race was Red flagged.
The 21 remaining cars sat on pitlane with drivers remaining in the cockpit but following an attempt at a restart after 35 minutes, the convoy returned to pitlane after five laps. Josef Newgarden told Robin Miller of NBCSN that the high-speed sections were the worst, while pace car driver Oriol Servia admitted he had a couple of major moments at just 60mph.
Race Control aimed to send the cars back out at 4.30pm local (Central) time but with no let up from the rain it was eventually postponed until the following day.
The race had originally been scheduled for 90 laps but was now reduced to a two hour timed race. It resumed in dry conditions on Lap 23 today, with the first four laps run under full-course yellow, behind the pace car. The green flag was waved on Lap 27 with the single file restart was drama-free.
Newgarden led from Bourdais, Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi, Hinchcliffe, Zach Veach, Robert Wickens, Sato, the Chip Ganassi Racing pair of Dixon and Ed Jones followed by the Ed Carpenter Racing duo of Jordan King and Spencer Pigot and Graham Rahal. The early stoppers from Sunday made up the rear of the field, led by Marco Andretti and Simon Pagenaud. At the
end of the lap, Newgarden led by 1.5sec, eventually pulling out a 5 second lead over Bourdais.
When the first cycle of stops came, Newgarden had stretched his lead to 12 seconds over Bourdais. Newgarden pitted on Lap 50 for new primary tires, giving Bourdais the lead. Bourdais then pitted from the lead on Lap 55, handing the lead back to Newdarden who now, after the full cycle of stops, had almost a 25 second lead over Bourdais.
On Lap 71 the rain returned and Team Penske president Tim Cindric, called Newgarden into the pits for wet tires. Pagenaud and Leist also pitted. Hunter-Reay, still on slicks, was able to pass Newgarden who was desperately trying not to shred his wets while the track was still reasonably dry.
Bourdais retook the lead, with 12 minutes left and was trying to run to the end on slicks. Hinchcliffe, Hunter-Reay and Wickens pitted for wets with less than 10 minutes remaining.
Bourdais now had an 11 second lead over Newgarden and Dixon, who was also on slicks and 11sec. behind the Penske driver. But then Dixon could stand it no longer and stopped and Bourdais, with his lead cut to four seconds, pitted for wets one lap later. The gamble from Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon, to make the 75-minute remainder of the race on only one stop, was over.
Newgarden took it easy on the slick surface in the closing laps easily beating Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe by 10 and 15sec respectively. Wickens was fourth, while Bourdais held off Dixon by 0.081sec, in a sprint to the finish to complete the top 6.
Newgarden lead 73 of the 82 laps of the timed race, to win his ninth IndyCar race and third in a row at Barber Motorsports Park. With the win, Newgarden took the championship points lead with 158 points after four of 17 races, giving him a 13-point advantage over Alexander Rossi. It was also the sixth win at Barber Motorsports Park for Team Penske and their 199th win in IndyCar history.
Pole:
Josef Newgarden. 1:07.441, 122.773 Mph (197.583 Km/h).
Team Penske.
Dallara IR18-Chevrolet Indy V6
Winner:
Josef Newgarden,
Team Penske,
Dallara IR18-Chevrolet Indy V6.
Laps: 82*
Distance: 195.16 Miles (314.06 Km)
Race Time: 2:01:14
Average Speed: 93.335 Mph (150.208 km/h)
*After 23 laps the race was delayed then postponed to the following day and resumed as a
timed race with roughly 75 minutes remaining.
Caution periods: 2
laps: 14
Race Broadcast:
NBCSN. April 7, 4:00pm ET.