Underdogs Rise, But Palou Reigns in Rollercoaster Qualifying at Barber

The NTT Indycar Series took to the Alabama Rollercoaster known as Barber Motorsports Park for qualifying on Saturday afternoon, producing quite the cinematic sequence of sessions as the field was narrowed down until a familiar face took pole position.

Coming off of a tumultuous second practice session that produced multiple big shunts for elite drivers, the anticipation was high, and evidently, so was the risk that came with sending it through each corner. For the 27 drivers, today was about finding the limit, and not overstepping it. Not many find the barriers at Barber, but when they do, as proven by Pato O’Ward earlier in the day, they find it heavily.

Round 1

The opening group in the first round was quick to supply several highlights, with multiple drivers going for big slides and spins. This would include Will Power on the exit of turn 5 and Christian Rasmussen in turn 14, a section that has already caught out many this weekend.

As the clock ticked towards zero, it was a heroic effort by Power to qualify his way into the next round, edging out Santino Ferrucci by only a few hundredths of a second. Despite Power’s well known qualifying expertise, this would mark just his first trip to the Fast 12 of the season. 

Although Power was able to escape disaster in his qualifying effort, the same could not be said for Marcus Ericsson. The Swede found himself in the penultimate position of group 1, despite going fastest in the opening session of the weekend on Friday. He was another that found trouble in Saturday morning’s practice, and couldn’t recover his pace from the previous day.

Group 2 was more unpredictable, with times skyrocketing in the closing seconds of the session. Every driver kept their car straight up to that point, but it was Scott Dixon to be the first who took an off track excursion on his final lap, relegating himself to the bottom of the timing chart. More surprisingly, Dixon’s teammate, Kyffin Simpson, transferred for just the 2nd time in 21 career starts.  Simpson led much of the session, and finished it in 4th position.

“Just lost the rear there.  Unfortunately, no time to recover, so yeah, pretty frustrating.” ~Scott Dixon

The Chip Ganassi Racing Hondas were not the only surprising variable of this group, however. Leader of practice 2, David Malukas, also failed to transfer, and will now start in row 10 for Sunday’s race. Long Beach winner Kyle Kirkwood was bounced in round 1 as well, only able to muster a time around a tenth off of the cutoff.  Lastly, Felix Rosenqvist was unable to join his teammate in the Fast 12, falling a mere 16 thousandths short of the top 6 in the group.

“Just not really confident with the car…  You need to be around here.” ~Felix Rosenqvist

Replacing those usual frontrunners in the top 6 were a few of the other regular names, as well as Kyffin Simpson and Dale Coyne Racing’s Rinus Veekay, who has always had a high level of pace at the Birmingham, Alabama circuit.

Most notably of all, Louis Foster became the first rookie of 2025 to drive his way into the second round of qualifying not just once, but twice, edging out Rosenqvist, and joining the veterans in the Fast 12. The RLL youngster continued to show his raw ability is already at a level that few rookies can find.

Fast 12

With 6 of the 12 drivers in the second round having never won more than 1 race in Indycar, some underdogs advancing to the Fast 6 was inevitable. Siegel, Simpson, and Foster all spent time in the upper half of the field for much of the session, but swift final laps from several championship contenders meant the pressure was on for the less likely suspects.

Herta, McLaughlin, Palou, and Power would unproblematically advance to the Fast 6, but the final 2 spots were up for grabs, with all 8 drivers in the fight for them.  Foster and Simpson would see their hopes for pole go from slim to none at this stage, as well as Marcus Armstrong. Newgarden would also be unable to match his Penske teammates, and bow out of qualifying in the middle phase. 

Veekay, miraculously, managed to put his DCR machine into the Fast 6, and was joined by Nolan Siegel, who shockingly managed to jump over both of his Arrow McLaren teammates at the buzzer, and be the sole representative in the final round for the team. O’Ward, though not completely satisfied, emphasized that he is unfazed at missing the Fast 6.

“I’m not displeased with it.  Obviously, I wanna be further up front, but I think it’s all to play for tomorrow.  Strategy is going to be a big thing…  We can work from here.” ~Pato O’Ward

Fast 6

Barber’s final sprint for pole was evenly split between Honda and Chevrolet, with only Team Penske putting multiple drivers into the top half dozen. With 45 seconds to go in the session, McLaughlin would take provisional pole, just to be immediately topped by Herta. However, the number 3 car wasn’t done quite yet, taking the front position back. Unfortunately for both, it would be championship leader Alex Palou who would roar to first right at the end. Behind those 3 it would be Will Power, who reminded everyone that he can still qualify as well as anyone. For Veekay and Siegel, the pace wasn’t there to compete with the top quartet, but they will make up row 3 on the grid for what is shaping up to be a high stakes grand prix on Sunday afternoon.

Saturday’s qualifying gave us the best of both worlds in Indycar racing, allowing underdogs to make their way towards the front, while simultaneously showing 3 of the best drivers in open wheel racing to continuously swap the top spot, before the defending champion again showed part of what has made him such a dominant force in recent seasons.

written by Owen White / Media Credit: Penske Entertainment