Round 4: Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, April 20-22.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 4: Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, April 20-22.

This Sunday will be the 9th running of the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, at Barber Motorsports Park and the first road course race of this season.

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.

Barber Motorsports Park is owned by George Barber, an accomplished driver, who raced Porsches in the 1960s and early '70s and a successful businessman. Over the years he amasased a collection of motorcycles and after establishing a non-profit foundation in 1994 opened a museum, desplaying 325 motorcycles from around the world and some vintage cars a year later. 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.

By 2002, a 740 acre site in the hills east of Birmingham was chosen. A new museum was built, housing the 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, plus the short circuit and 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'.

Some trivia:
The driver with most wins: 2.
Josef Newdarden, 2015, 2017.
Will Power, 2011, 2012.
Ryan Hunter-Reay, 2013, 2014.
The team with most wins: 5.
Team Penske, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017.

Track layout:


Length: 2.3 Miles (3.7 Km)
Turns: 15

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:
Power took pole and lead from the start, followed by Castroneves, while Dixon was able to pass Pagenaud for third place. Hunter-Reay and Hinchcliffe made contact coming out of Turn 3, causing a piece of Hunter-Reay's front wing to break off, which hit and broke Jones' front wing, with the debris bringout the first caution. Both Hunter-Reay and Jones pitted for repairs.

The race resumed on lap 6, with the front runners remaining unchanged. However, a few laps after the restart, Newgarden was able to pass Pagenaud for fourth, while Hinchcliffe moved up to fifth after Pagenaud lost momentum as he was forced wide by Newgarden.

The first round of green flag pit stops followed, during which Newgarden was able to move up to second thanks to quick pit work from his team and due to the slow pace of Castroneves and Dixon, who had gone the farthest on their first stint. Dixon was also able to get around Castroneves during this sequence, allowing him to maintain his third position. Further down the field, Alexander Rossi, despite a qualifying badly, managed to move into the top ten.

The second round of green flag pit stops came after lap 40. Prior to their stops, Dixon was able to get around Newgarden for second place. However, a slow pit stop meant that Dixon emerged behind Newgarden. Castroneves also fell back, as both Pagenaud and Hinchcliffe made quicker stops. Once this round of stops was over, Newgarden began to close on Power, reducing the gap to roughly 1 second before Power responded by pulling out a gap of nearly 2 seconds by lap 60.

On lap 62, just before the final round of stops, the second caution of the race came when Pigot, who had been running eighth, spun coming out of Turn 5 and stalled just off the track. Nearly the entire field pitted during the caution perod, with Power emerging first, while Dixon managed to leapfrog Newgarden. However, Kimball was now leading, as he had decided to stay out during the caution but he still had to make his stop.

Racing resumed with 22 laps to go, with Kimball and Power still first and second but Newgarden was able to get past Dixon in less than one lap. On lap 75, Kimball pitted, handing the lead back to Power. However, Power developed a puncture in the left rear tyre, forcing him to pit and dropping him well down the order. Newgarden inherited the lead and despite pressure from Dixon, took his fourth career victory. Pagenaud finished third, Castroneves fourth and Rossi a respectable fifth. Power was only able to recover to 14th having dominated the race.

This was Newgarden's first win driving for Team Penske and his first since Iowa the previous year. It was also his second win at Barber in three years. For Dixon, it was his seventh podium finish at the track without a victory. Bourdais managed an eighth place finish, allowing him to maintain his points lead. For the third consecutive year, no cars retired from the event.

Pole:
Will Power. 1:06.96, 123.653 Mph (199.000 Km/h).
Team Penske.
Dallara DW12-Chevrolet Indy V6

Winner:
Josef Newgarden,
Team Penske,
Dallara DW12-Chevrolet Indy V6.

Laps: 90
Distance: 214.2 Miles (344.721 Km)
Race Time: 1:54:09
Average Speed: 108.809 Mph (175.111 km/h)

Caution periods: 2
laps: 7

Race Broadcast:
NBCSN. April 22, 3:00pm ET.