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IndyCar: Could Alex Palou’s win signal a greater trend?

By Asher Fair

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, IndyCar - Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports
Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, IndyCar - Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports /
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The history of IndyCar race winners at Barber Motorsports Park is full of Indy 500 wins and championships. Can Alex Palou join the party?

In his first start behind the wheel of the #10 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing, Alex Palou secured the first win of his IndyCar career. He opened up the 2021 season with a victory in this past Sunday afternoon’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama presented by AmFirst at Barber Motorsports Park.

Palou went on a two-stop strategy after starting in third place, and he led 56 laps of the 90-lap race around the 17-turn, 2.38-mile (3.830-kilometer) natural terrain road course in Birmingham, Alabama, including the final 24.

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He became the first driver to secure his first career victory in a season opener since James Hinchcliffe won on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida in 2013, and he became the first driver to secure his first career victory at Barber Motorsports Park since Josef Newgarden did so in 2015.

And the fact that he did it where he did it could also become significant down the road.

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Barber Motorsports Park is the ideal “champion’s track”. Every single driver who had won at Barber Motorsports Park prior to Palou’s victory has multiple Indy 500 wins and/or championships to his name.

Not all the race winners at the track have won both, but all of them have earned at least two of those signature achievements combined. Helio Castroneves, a three-time Indy 500 winner, won the inaugural race at the track in 2010. Will Power, the 2014 champion and 2018 Indy 500 winner, won in 2011 and 2012. Ryan Hunter-Reay, the 2012 champion and 2014 Indy 500 winner, won in 2013 and 2014.

Newgarden, a two-time champion, won in 2015, 2017 and 2018. Simon Pagenaud, the 2016 champion and the 2019 Indy 500 winner, won in 2016. And most recently before Palou, Takuma Sato, a two-time Indy 500 winner, won in 2019.

There are only two other tracks on the schedule for which this can be said, with those two tracks being the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.

However, only four different drivers (Power, Pagenaud, Newgarden and Scott Dixon) have combined to win nine races at the former, and only four different drivers (Power, Newgarden, Dixon and Sato) have combined to win five races at the latter.

Prior to Palou’s win, Barber Motorsports Park had already seen six different winners in 10 races, so this trend is certainly far from a one-off.

Can Palou join the other Barber Motorsports Park winners by winning an Indy 500 and/or an IndyCar championship?

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The 24-year-old Spaniard sits atop the championship standings following round one of the 17-race 2021 season as the series heads to St. Petersburg for round two this Sunday, April 25: the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (12:00 p.m. ET, NBC). The driver of the #10 car hadn’t led the standings since Dario Franchitti won his fourth and final championship in October 2011.