By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer

In a repeat of 2025, Alex Palou dominated at Barber Motorsports Park on Sunday for his second win of the 2026 IndyCar season. 

Palou, now a back-to-back winner at the Birmingham, Alabama road course, started on pole and never looked back, much like his 2025 triumph. The 13.2-second margin of victory, combined with 79 laps lead by the Spaniard, adds to his continued domination at Barber, the site of his first career IndyCar win. 

“It was a very tough race,” Palou said to the media post-race.”I guess you guys [the media]  cannot really see it from outside, but we struggle quite a lot. We had to run a used set of primaries in our third stint, which we never, ever do that. We did that during practice two. I mean, it’s the one that we used in practice two. We just did that because we thought it was going to be a red race. Lundgaard was getting very close. Rahal was getting very close. I think we got lucky there with the pit exchange that they lost some pace or some time. Yeah, I’m glad everything worked out for us in the No. 10 car.”

The only time Palou seemed to face pressure all day was during the last pit stop exchange from Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard. Palou would make his final pit stop on Lap 66, going onto a set of used, black, primary tires. Exiting the pits, side-by-side with Mick Schumacher, Palou would have a 23.2-second deficit to make up for Lundgaard, who assumed the lead. 

The No. 10 car would be in the midst of traffic for the next few laps, as the rookie, Dennis Hauger would hold up Palou on Lap 67. Hauger would cause Palou to lose 1.5-seconds to Lundgaard. The race win seemed out of Palou’s hands, with Lundgaard having a big enough gap to make his last pit stop and come out with the lead. 

“That was tough,” Palou said in regards to the traffic after his last pit stop. “That was very, very tough. Everybody was fighting as if it was the last lap of the Indy 500. I was like, ‘Please guys.’ I was crying inside. ‘Let me by. I just need to fight with Lundgaard’. But yeah, I mean, I understand not 100%, but I understand a little bit what they are trying to do.”

Lundgaard came in for new black, prime tires on Lap 70. A holdup on the right-rear tire gave the win back into the hands of Palou and the No.10 Chip Ganassi Racing team. Lundgaard would battle to finish second, but is looking for even more improvement with the No.7 crew. 

“I think we had a race-winning car today,” Lundgaard said. “Obviously it’s frustrating, the past many few races, we’ve produced such great race cars on Sunday. We’ve been lacking on Saturday. It’s just frustrating. Obviously you win races on Sunday, so that’s when you need to have a good car. I think we need to put ourselves in better positions. I think even with the pace and how the race panned out today, we had the car to win the race, we had the pace, we had the track position at the time. 

I’m not really sure what happened in the pit stop. I’m not sure I can really comment too much on it. Again, it’s unfortunate. Obviously came out behind Graham there on the last stint and just wanted to really get that second place for the team, as well. It wasn’t just for me. This is where we were. At least with a bubble on pit road, let’s get the same result, not worse. We had the pace. Got by Graham [Rahal]. That was nice.”

Closing out the podium on Sunday was Graham Rahal who climbed onto the steps for the first time since August of 2023 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. Rahal’s No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda showed great pace all weekend long and starting from the third position, put the veteran driver in position for a return to the podium. 

“It’s a great reward for the guys and gals,” Rahal said. “Everybody has worked so hard to be back here. Heard all the noise and BS that we get to hear all the time. All weekend the car was in really good shape, very, very competitive, very comfortable. The race is actually the most challenging it [the car] was. It was extremely stable. In the race, as you guys could see, I was losing the rear a lot no matter what I felt like I could do on tire degradation. That’s been our Achilles’ heel so far this year. We’ve got some work to do. 

I mean, I’m super happy for everybody on the No.15. Great pit stops, great strategy with Bryan. We’ll carry this momentum into the break here a little bit and get ready for Long Beach. It’s a good relief this early in the year to have a good result. Now our job is to go analyze and figure out why. ‘What changes did we make to put our car so much further into the window than most other road course races and how can we take that to the GP and Indy in particular?’”

David Malukas and championship points leader, Kyle Kirkwood, ended the day in fourth and fifth respectively. Will Power was the biggest mover in the caution free race, driving from 23rd to 12th after a crash in qualifying on Saturday. 

SEE: Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix Results 

Kirkwood takes a two-point lead over Palou into the next race: The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 19.