Outside of Birmingham, Alabama is a motorcycle track that puts on one of the best NTT IndyCar Series races all year.
That’s right, Barber Motorsports Park and the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix is next on the 2024 schedule.
The fast and flowing layout brought straight out of George Barber’s imagination has recently been the shining example of how great IndyCar’s road course racing can be. The 17-turn, 2.3 mile circuit can come down to the last stint to determine the winner.
Add the news of the penalties INDYCAR levied against Team Penske on Wednesday (April 24), and the drama will be overflowing like your Amazon shopping cart.
Last Year
What a different season Romain Grosjean could have had if he held onto the lead he took from Scott McLaughlin on lap 64 and got his first IndyCar win. Instead, McLaughlin dug in and retook the top spot with 19 laps to go, relegating the Frenchman to a fifth second-place finish in American open-wheel racing.
It was the peak of his season, as the rest of the year was a bumpy ride made worse when Andretti Global did not sign him for a third year.
Meanwhile, his rival that day, McLaughlin took his lone victory in 2023, but he did finish the season strong, jumping to third in the championship at the finale.
Now, both return to this track looking to jumpstart their 2024, just a bit. McLaughlin is in the deepest hole out of anybody on the full-time grid. After the penalty levied by IndyCar this past week and a mechanical failure at Long Beach, he is officially dead last in the points standings. He will need Batman’s grappling hook just to climb to level ground after this race. Prior to the penalties, he’d been outdone by his Bus Bros teammate Josef Newgarden who was leading the Team Penske charge. Now it’s Will Power who is well ahead both of them in the standings.
The New Zealand native and former Australian Supercars champion isn’t going to land in Birmingham ecstatic about his current situation and Barber is a great place for him to return to victory, or at least a podium to get into the championship discussion.
Grosjean shouldn’t be expecting wins, but a top five would be a great result for his Juncos Hollinger Racing team to walk away from one of his best tracks. It’s the only course that he has been to in his three years on the IndyCar circuit where he’s finished in the top 10 each time, with his runner-up last year his highest…
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