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Children's of Alabama INDY Grand Prix
Birmingham, AL - May 4, 2025

JOSEF NEWGARDEN No. 2 PPG CHEVROLET

START: 9TH  
FINISH: 10TH  
POINTS: 11TH (-118)
 

RACE RUNDOWN: Josef Newgarden and the No. 2 PPG Chevrolet team fought back from a tough opening stint in Sunday's Children's of Alabama INDY Grand Prix to finish 10th on the day. After qualifying in the ninth position on Saturday afternoon, Newgarden and team elected to start the 90-lap race on the Firestone primary tire while most of the competitors around him began on the softer, red compound tire. The speed in the softer compound resulted in Newgarden losing several positions over the opening laps of the race before settling into the 15th position. Unfortunately, this was the third consecutive INDYCAR race with no caution flags and the remaining laps evaporated quickly to deprive Newgarden and team a chance to bunch back together. To make matters worse, Newgarden was held up by another driver who had pit lane issues and returned to the track in front of the No. 2 Chevrolet to further hinder his chances at a better finish. 

NEWGARDEN'S THOUGHTS: "Just a decent day.  At least got a decent result.  P10-nothing to brag about. At least we got some points and a clean day which is probably the most important at the moment.  Lacked a little bit of speed in the race.  The team executed really well. We just wanted to get as much as we could.  Just disappointed we couldn't drive forward a little bit more.  Sometimes its all you have on a weekend.  Everyone did a great job.  We rallied pretty aggressively on Saturday just to try to compensate for the hybrid issue. The team did a good job sticking with it and getting what we could out of it.  Again, just brought home a solid result.  Something we can build on to get a podium or a victory here hopefully soon." 

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN No. 3 GOOD RANCHERS CHEVROLET

START: 2ND  
FINISH: 3RD  
POINTS: 5TH (-91)
 

RACE RUNDOWN: Scott McLaughlin and the No. 3 Good Ranchers team entered the Children's of Alabama INDY Grand Prix weekend with a chance to become the first team to win three consecutive races at Barber Motorsports Park. After a hard fought, third-place finish, McLaughlin still owns three straight podium finishes at the Alabama circuit and moves inside the top five in the series points standings. McLaughlin narrowly missed out on the pole position on Saturday and started the race to the outside of eventual winner, Alex Palou. He and Palou chose to start on the softer Firestone compound and quickly joined Colton Herta in a three-car breakaway at the front of the field. McLaughlin - a newly naturalized U.S. citizen - maintained a position at the front of the field for the remainder of the race despite losing a position to the No. 7 of Christian Lundgaard in the middle of the 90-lap event before crossing the finish line in the third position for his first podium of the young season. 

MCLAUGHLIN'S THOUGHTS: "The Good Ranchers Chevy has been fast the last three years. We didn't have enough today. Props to Alex (Palou) and Lundgaard as well, who was super quick. We had the third best car today. It was a very interesting race, but I wish we had a little bit more tire life on our car. But overall we're all good."

WILL POWER No. 12 VERIZON CHEVROLET

START: 4TH 
FINISH: 5TH 
POINTS: 9TH (-103)
 

RACE RUNDOWN: Will Power and the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet team finished fifth in Sunday's Children's of Alabama INDY Grand Prix, their third consecutive race with a top-six finish after an early incident in the season opening at St. Petersburg. For the first time in 2025, INDYCAR's all-time leader in pole positions made his way through to the Firestone Fast Six in qualifying on Saturday, and he put the speed in his Verizon Chevy to use early in the 90-lap event. Despite other competitors using the undercut and overcut on pit cycles to make up ground on him, Power stayed put inside the top five and in position to capitalize on a potential caution. Unfortunately, the race was run without stoppage as Power crossed the finish line in the fifth position. 

POWER'S THOUGHTS: "If we saved fuel, we could have gone a lap longer. We should have tried to cover VeeKay. There was a bit of hard racing there. It was still a good day for the Verizon Chevy with the strategy we chose. We could have over cut and got a couple of people. It was a difficult decision, but still a good day."

Looking Ahead

The fifth round of the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season takes place Saturday, May 10 when the month of May begins to ramp up with the Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Coverage can be seen live at 4:30 pm ET on FOX.