LEEDS, Ala – Track position rang king again on Sunday. Takuma Sato started on the pole and dominated this weekend’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama en route to his fourth win of his NTT IndyCar Series career. All coincidentally enough, have come on different tracks.
Sato though, nearly thought he gave it away in the end.
With five laps remaining in Sunday’s 90 Lap race, Sato went off course and into the grass in his No. 30 Honda. Luckily, he didn’t slow down much, if at all, and still held onto the lead.
While Scott Dixon closed the gap some, he couldn’t get by, as Sato led a race high 74 of the 90 Laps in earning his second win with RLL, both coming in the last five races. Sato, won the penultimate race of the 2018 season in Portland and in the third race into 2019, he arrives in victory lane again.
Dixon, finished runner-up for the sixth time of his career at the Barber Motorsports Park to go along with eight podiums in 10 tries. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver also finished runner-up in the season opener at St. Pete too as he trails Josef Newgarden by 27 points in the standings heading to Long Beach.
Sebastien Bourdais capped a great weekend with a third place finish in his No. 18 Honda giving Honda a clean sweep of the podium. Bourdais, finished fifth in the last race at COTA and now brings two consecutive top five finishes to Long Beach. Also, the third place run was Bourdais’ third straight top eight finish in Barber as he came away with a fifth place run last year in this very race.
Josef Newgarden charged from 16th to bring his No. 2 Chevrolet home fourth while Alexander Rossi rounded out the top five in his No. 27 Honda.
After seeing an 18 year old win the last race at COTA (Colton Herta) we see a 42 year old win this week (Sato) in Barber.
Here are the main takeaways from Sunday’s race.
Another Runner-Up For Dixon
Scott Dixon is as good as it comes in the NTT IndyCar Series. Depending on which stat you look at, he’s in the top two or three in all of them.
Championships?
His five rank second ever. Only AJ Foyt (7) has more.
Wins?
His 44 rank third all time. He only trails AJ Foyt (67) and Mario Andretti (52) on that list.
Podiums?
His now 107 rank third only behind Andretti (144) and Foyt (119).
Top fives?
Dixon earned his 156th on Sunday trailing just Andretti’s 193 on the career top fives list.
But, despite out of his 44 wins being on 22 different tracks, Dixon has still failed to score a victory at the Barber Motorsports Park. Dixon, brought his No. 9 Honda home runner-up again for his second of the season and 42nd of his career. Again, that ranks second ever behind just Andretti (56).
A second place finish at Barber though is different for Dixon than everywhere else. See, this second place run on Sunday was his sixth in 10 tries on the 2.38-mile road course. Yes, six.
He’s been that close to winning at Barber six times (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2019). He also has two third place finishes (2014, 2015) too.
“It was really tough,” said Dixon on his race. “We had a lot of deg we think. We could push really hard early and be quick. The last 10 laps, were tough. The team was really strong in the pits. Another second was good for points.
“It was mostly just trying to hold on. All in all, I’m really happy for the team.”
In Sunday’s race, Dixon was strong but had nothing for race winner Takuma Sato. While he can only laugh about another runner-up it’s still a strong start to his 2019 season and bid for a second straight title.
Bourdais Looks Like A Title Contender
After a frustrating opening weekend in Long Beach where Sebastien Bourdais didn’t get to turn a qualifying lap and as a result would start 19th, his engine blew after just 11 laps in the race leaving him with a 24th place result.
It looked like it could be one of those years for him. But, after a strong last two races, Bourdais is now looking like a potential championship contender.
Two races ago in COTA, Bourdais said he lucked his way into a fifth place finish and gained nine spots in the points standings as a result of that. On Sunday, in the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, Bourdais earned a top five finish, a podium at that.
The Dale Coyne Racing driver finished third in his No. 18 Honda for his 57th career NTT IndyCar Series podium. That boosts him another nine spots in the standings to sixth as he trails Josef Newgarden by 53 points.
But, Bourdais said that when he saw everyone abort a two stop strategy and move to a three pit stop day, he felt his chances of a win, let alone a podium were toast.
“When the guys started to bail on the two stop strategy and went to three, I thought we were dead in the water,” said Bourdais on his day. “Dale (Coyne) said we committed ourselves and had a lot of faith in me.”
See, Bourdais at that point was committed to a two stop day on Sunday. He saw everyone short pit but his bed was already made. So, he brought his car down pit road for the first time on Lap 28. That would take him from first at the time and a top five run down to 10th.
Then, the second pit sequence started shortly after and he would move up the running order as drivers hit pit lane one by one. Then, the lone caution of the day fell and his second stop was on the same lap as everyone else’s third.
It worked out.
Rossi Leads Tough Weekend For Andretti Autosport
Andretti Autosport failed to get a car in the Fast Six at Barber. That was a bit shocking in how quick Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay were in practice on Friday. Rossi, was ninth, fifth and 10th respectively in practice this weekend while Hunter-Reay was fifth and sixth respectively on Friday alone.
But, neither them, nor their other two teammates qualified well. Rossi, was the best with an eighth place start. Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti and Zach Veach started 11th, 13th and 23rd respectively.
As the race went on, Andretti and Veach hung around the top 15 for most of the day in coming home 12th (Veach) and 14th (Andretti) respectively.
Rossi, stayed in the top five for a majority of the day and capitalized with a fifth place run at one of his least favorite tracks.
“I’m just glad we’re done with it for another 12 months,” said Rossi. “It’s not my favorite joint. Huge effort from my NAPA Andretti Autosport guys. We fought all weekend. It hasn’t been a strong track for us in the past. We got through it. A top five is fine.”
Hunter-Reay was near the top five but faded to an eighth place finish in his No. 28 Honda.
Tough Race For Power
If Will Power didn’t have any bad luck, then he’d have no luck at all. Two weeks ago, he was well on his way to winning the race at COTA. He had led every single lap and was well in contention to a dominating victory from the pole. Instead, a caution came out right before he was going to pit for the final time which ended any shot of a victory celebration. Then, while he was on pit road, his car had a malfunction which ended his day with a last place effort (24th).
From leading the first 46 laps to finishing last in one moment. That’s frustrating.
Then, in the season opener on the streets of St. Pete, Power saw that Sebastien Bourdais went off track with an engine issue. Roger Penske called him down pit road to avoid what would happen to him one race later. That cost him a victory because the caution never fell and he’d cycle out of the lead.
Power, would finish third that day.
On Sunday in Barber, his car was basically junk. Shortly after his first pit sequence, his tires on his No. 12 Chevrolet started going away quickly. He’d even spin on track and have to pit multiple times which in turn forced him to an 11th place finish.
After three races, Power sits ninth in the points standings.
Throttle Issue Costs Rahal Early
Graham Rahal had high hopes for Sunday’s race. He was starting on the front row in second with his RLL teammate Takuma Sato and had a fast car. He was running second for the entire first pit sequence but when he hit pit road on Lap 18, he had a problem. See, Rahal was dealing with a throttle sensor problem. The lengthy stop for his team to try and rectify the issue dropped him from the top five down to 14th.
Rahal, would never recover.
Unfortunately, his car would stall on Lap 59 on track and end his day with a 23rd place finish. After such a great start to the year, Rahal has some terrible luck in Barber.
Clean Race After Wild Practice Sessions
We saw this happen last year in Mid-Ohio. The three practice sessions would be chaotic with a lot of drivers spending more time off the course than on it. So far this weekend in Barber, we saw wild practice action with a ton of red flags.
But, in the race itself, we went the first 59 laps without a caution and the race overall had just one stoppage in general.
That’s why we can’t gauge the craziness in practice and think that it necessarily will go caution free.
Newgarden Makes Up For Bad Qualifying Effort With Top 5 At Barber
Josef Newgarden’s two year win streak at Barber has officially come to an end. He honestly expected that when his No. 2 Chevrolet hit the track for the first time on Friday. While he entered the weekend with a win in the season opener in St. Pete and a second place run two weeks ago at COTA, his car as well as his teammates were never up to par with their competition this weekend.
Newgarden, was only 14th, 18th and 17th respectively in practice and qualified just 16th. Does that sound like a race contender?
He made the most of it and brought his No. 2 Chevrolet home fourth in Sunday’s 90 Lap race. It was his seventh consecutive top 10 finish at Barber though but his string of four straight podiums, three of which being wins, has come to an end.
The Tennessee native had a great pit strategy plan as he hit pit road for the first time on Lap 8. After the sequence ended, he was all the way up to fifth. He’d remain in the top 10 the rest of the way and picked off five drivers in the end to get his third top four finish in-a-row to start the season.
He was the top Chevrolet driver too and will keep the points lead heading to next weeks race at Long Beach.
Honda’s Cap A Strong Weekend
Sunday capped off a very good weekend for the Honda teams. They dominated all three practice sessions in having the top six speeds in not only the first practice session, but the second one too. In each, eight of the top 10 times belonged to Honda drivers.
In Saturday’s morning session, they had the top five speeds and six of the top eight.
That translated to a very good qualifying session for them in taking five of the Fast Six and 11 of the top 13 starters overall.
Well, in Sunday’s race, they put seven cars in the top eight and 12 in the top 15.
While heading into this weekend Chevrolet had won four straight in Alabama and six of the last seven, the Honda’s had the most speed.
Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Finishes With Dual Top 10’s
James Hinchcliffe had high hopes of a win this weekend, but his No. 5 Honda would finish sixth in Sunday’s race. While it wasn’t anywhere near where he’d like to have finished, it still caps a great start to the year for the Canadian driver.
Hinchcliffe, finished sixth in the season opener in St. Pete and if not for an incident with Felix Rosenqvist two weeks ago in COTA, he was likely going to a top 10 that day too.
But, Sunday was still another good afternoon in Barber for Hinchcliffe as he earned his sixth consecutive top seven finish in this race. The only frustrating part for him is that he was in the top three (3rd, 1st, 1st) in all three practice sessions this weekend and even qualified fourth.
He will head to Long Beach being sixth in the season standings.
Hinch’s Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ teammate of Marcus Ericsson also earned a top 10 finish on Sunday, his first in his young Indy Car career in bringing his No. 7 Honda home seventh. Just as he did in COTA, Ericsson pit early on the first pit sequence and would come out of the first round of stops in the top 10. The Swedish driver remained there the rest of the way and capitalized on a good run.
This is where he should have finished in COTA, as Ericsson is showing that if he can qualify better, then he’d be a factor to win some races this year.
A dual top 10 for SPM is a great start.
Qualifying Key Again
We’ve talked about this a lot this weekend and it’s true – starting up front is the key to success at Barber. Eight of the 10 race winners came from the Firestone Fast Six, five of which now from the pole.
The starting positions of the top five in the final finishing order was –
1st (Sato)
3rd (Dixon)
5th (Bourdais)
8th (Rossi)
16th (Newgarden)
Remember this stat for next year because making the Fast Six is the best shot of winning at Barber.
Honda Indy Grand Prix Of Alabama Results
- 30 Sato
- 9 Dixon
- 18 Bourdais
- 2 Newgarden
- 27 Rossi
- 5 Hinchcliffe
- 7 Ericsson R
- 28 Hunter-Reay
- 22 Pagenaud
- 10 Rosenqvist R
- 12 Power
- 26 Veach
- 60 Harvey
- 98 Andretti
- 19 Ferrucci R
- 31 O’Ward R
- 21 Pigot
- 14 Kanaan -1
- 20 Jones
- 4 Leist -1
- 81 Hanley -2
- 59 Chilton -2
- 15 Rahal OUT
- 88 Herta R OUT
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