After four days of being mired in awkward and uncomfortable controversy from having two stars disqualified from the season opener, Team Penske found some measure of redemption with a 1-2 finish at Barber Motorsports Park.
Scott McLaughlin won from the pole position by 1.3194 seconds over teammate Will Power, who had qualified second. Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Linus Lundqvist finished a career-best third.
IndyCar hammered Team Penske with massive penalties April 24 after determining its trio of drivers had illegal access to push to pass horsepower boosts on restarts during the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg six weeks earlier.
Having used the overtake button at unapproved points in the race, winner Josef Newgarden and McLaughlin, who finished third, had their finishes and points stripped. Power, who didn’t use his push to pass, was allowed to keep his second place but lost 10 points.
The situation was so awkward, team owner Roger Penske, who also owns IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, called an impromptu meeting Saturday to try to assuage the concerns of fellow team owners.
“Yeah, I would say after this week I think Roger would be pretty happy (with the victory),” Power said.
Said McLaughlin: “Look, there was never a lack of belief there. I’m more proud of just the people aspect of it, the way we just stuck together. We took the penalty, as we said at the start of the week. It was black and white.
“You move on. We move forward together as a team race by race. We’ll just keep working hard to make sure that we win as much as we can to put ourselves in the fight come September. That’s what I’m super proud of, just the execution.
“Certainly it was a little emotional, for sure. It’s just nice, yeah. It was just a nice cap. Obviously, it was a pretty tough week.”
Here are the IndyCar results and points standings Sunday after the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park:
RESULTS
Click here for the box score from the 90-lap race on the 17-turn, 2.3-mile road course in Leeds, Alabama.
Event summary
Lap leader summary
Lap chart
Section results
Best section times
Pit stop summary
Here is the finishing order in the Childrens of Alabama Indy Grand Prix with starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):
1. (1) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 90, Running
2. (2) Will Power, Chevrolet, 90, Running
3. (19) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 90, Running
4. (5) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 90, Running
5. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 90, Running
6. (3) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 90, Running
7. (17) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 90, Running
8. (15) Colton Herta, Honda, 90, Running
9. (6) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 90, Running
10. (9) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 90, Running
11. (7) Graham Rahal, Honda, 90, Running
12. (11) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 90, Running
13. (22) Jack Harvey, Honda, 90, Running
14. (23) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 90, Running
15. (13) Scott Dixon, Honda, 90, Running
16. (8) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 90, Running
17. (27) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 90, Running
18. (18) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 90, Running
19. (12) Tom Blomqvist, Honda, 90, Running
20. (20) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 90, Running
21. (21) Luca Ghiotto, Honda, 90, Running
22. (24) Theo Pourchaire, Chevrolet, 89, Running
23. (4) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 90, Running
24. (14) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 89, Running
25. (16) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 59, Mechanical
26. (25) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 54, Contact
27. (26) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 41, Contact
Winner’s average speed: 106.369 mph; Time of Race: 1 hour, 56 minutes, 45.7773 seconds; Margin of victory: 1.3194 seconds; Cautions: Four for 15 laps; Lead changes: 10 among six drivers. Lap Leaders: McLaughlin 1-27; Palou 28-29; Rosenqvist 30; Ferrucci 31-34; McLaughlin 35-45; Palou 46-55; Ferrucci 56-65; Lundqvist 66-69; McLaughlin 70-74; Power 75; McLaughlin 76-90.
POINTS
With his third top 10 finish to start the 2024 season, Colton Herta moved into the points lead as Scott Dixon fell from first to fourth with a 15th at Barber.
Click here for the points tally in Sunday’s race.
Here are the points standings after the third race for:
Drivers
Engine manufacturers
Entrants
Pit stop performance
Top 10 in points: Herta 101, Power 100, Palou 98, Dixon 94, Rosenqvist 87, O’Ward 71, Kirkwood 67, Lundqvist 62, McLaughlin 59, Ferrucci 58.
Rest of the standings: Rossi 53, VeeKay 53, Grosjean 50, Ericsson 49, Rahal 48, Newgarden 48, Lundgaard 48, Armstrong 45, Simpson 45, Canapino 39, Harvey 35, Blomqvist 34, Fittipaldi 28, Pourchaire 27, Robb 23, Rasmussen 22, Callum Ilott 19, Colin Braun 10, Nolan Siegel 10, Ghiotto 9.
PAST RESULTS
Round 1, St. Petersburg
$1 Million Challenge at The Thermal Club
Round 2, Long Beach
NEXT
The NTT IndyCar Series will race May 11 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course (3 p.m. ET, NBC and Peacock). Click here for the full IndyCar on NBC schedule in 2024.