Birmingham, AL

  • Alex Palou and the #10 Chip Ganassi Racing HRC Honda will start on pole position for the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix
  • Andretti Global's Colton Herta will roll off P3 at Barber Motorsports Park
  • Rinus VeeKay starting an impressive fifth for Dale Coyne Racing

The #10 HRC Honda driven by championship leader Alex Palou will lead the field to green in Sunday's Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park.  

Palou is debuting the striking Honda Racing Corporation livery in NTT INDYCAR SERIES competition this weekend at Barber as he continues his title defense. Palou, the three-time and reigning series champion, scored his first-career IndyCar win at Barber back in 2021—in a car that was also red, white, and blue.

Andretti Global's Colton Herta will start third for tomorrow's race. Herta has started every race thus far this season from the first two rows in his #26 Honda IndyCar.

Also making the Firestone Fast Six for Honda was Dale Coyne Racing's Rinus VeeKay in only his fourth race for the team.

At least one car from each of the five Honda-powered teams transferred into the second round of knockout qualifying. Kyffin Simpson notched his career-best NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying result in P10, Marcus Armstrong qualified 11th for Meyer Shank Racing, and rookie Louis Foster qualified P12 for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix Honda Qualifying Results

1st Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
3rd Colton Herta Andretti Global Honda
5th Rinus VeeKay Dale Coyne Racing Honda
10th Kyffin Simpson Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
11th Marcus Armstrong Meyer Shank Racing Honda
12th Louis Foster - R Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
14th Felix Rosenqvist Meyer Shank Racing Honda
18th Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Global Honda
21st Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
23rd Marcus Ericsson Andretti Global Honda
25th Jacob Abel - R Dale Coyne Racing Honda
26th Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
27th Devlin DeFrancesco Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda

R – Rookie

Quotes
Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) qualified first: "Number one! It feels great, feels amazing. We are running a new livery for HRC this weekend—which looks amazing on track and it's great to see that it also runs really fast on track. The car has been really strong all weekend, especially during the Fast Six qualifying. It was extra quick and extra comfortable. I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

Colton Herta (#26 Andretti Global Honda) qualified third: "I'm happy with that! This is generally one of our worst qualifying tracks—well, statistically it is our worst qualifying track. I've never made a Fast Six here, so I'm happy that I was able to do that. This place is really hard to get up to the front when you start from the back. So I'm really happy that we righted those wrongs from the last few years and have a good starting spot for tomorrow."

Rinus VeeKay (#18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda) qualified fifth: "Fast Six, there we go! I'm really happy, especially after Long Beach, which was a struggle for us. We knew we were going to be good here, this was the first time we've come back to a track we've tested at before. The car was exactly what I needed. Dale Coyne Racing gave me a car that allowed me to do exactly what I needed. Honda gave me great drivability and power to get to the top. I'm super happy and excited for everybody. And we saved some tires for tomorrow, so I think that will work in our favor. I'm just very happy and I think we can make it to the podium tomorrow." 

Honda at Barber Motorsports Park

  • Honda-powered NTT INDYCAR SERIES drivers and teams have won five times at Barber Motorsports Park, most recently with Alex Palou in 2021.
  • Four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves won the inaugural Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber in 2010.
  • Other Honda-powered winners of the event are Will Power (2011), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2014) and Takuma Sato (2019).

Where to Watch

  • Television coverage of Sunday's Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix starts at 12:30 PM CT / 1:30 PM ET on Fox. Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on the INDYCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation (Channel 160).

HRC US social media content and video links can be found on: