RACE REPORT: Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix
Race Notes
- After a dominant performance earlier in the day from the Andretti INDY NXT team that saw Dennis Hauger claim his second INDY NXT victory from the pole in a race weekend sweep at Barber Motorsports Park, all eyes were on Andretti INDYCAR as they took on the second road course race of the season.
- With a proven history of success on road circuits, Colton Herta led the Andretti INDYCAR trio with a seventh-place finish that marked his 29th top-10 road course finish.
- Today’s event marked the third consecutive INDYCAR race this season without any yellow flags or caution laps.
- Andretti INDYCAR now turns its focus to the Month of May in Indianapolis, starting with next weekend’s Sonsio Grand Prix on the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, followed by the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 25.
Race Results
Colton Herta
No. 26 Gainbridge Honda
P7
| Started | P3 |
| Standings | 8th (99 points) |
- Rolling off the grid as the highest Andretti INDYCAR qualifier, Colton Herta took today’s green flag in his best career starting position at Barber Motorsports Park in third.
- Herta ran consistently in the top three throughout the first half of the race until an issue in the pits on Lap 46 caused the Gainbridge Honda to stall and ultimately lose a position in the top three.
- Despite the slow stop, Herta worked his way back up the field before taking the checkered in seventh.
- Today’s finish marks Herta’s third top-10 finish at Barber and third consecutive top 10 of the season.
“I’m obviously feeling frustrated with today’s race. We had a strong car and were in the perfect spot to be on the podium, but lost it to a bad pit stop. Today didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but we’re just going to need to regroup as a team and be ready to go in Indy next weekend.”
Kyle Kirkwood
No. 27 PreFab Honda
P11
| Started | P18 |
| Standings | 3rd (127 points) |
- Despite suffering some wing damage in the opening lap of the race, Kirkwood gained four positions within the first 10 laps of the race. Kirkwood continued that momentum and took the checkered flag outside the top 10 in 11th.
- Kirkwood heads into next week’s IMS Road Course race third in the INDYCAR Championship Standings.
“It was a decent day. I think we had decent pace, we just couldn’t really get up anywhere off strategy from anyone else. I mean, gaining seven positions in an INDYCAR race is never a bad thing, so at least we went forward today. It’s pretty typical of us to finish in that 10th-11th range at Barber – I finished 11th in my first year with Andretti, 10th last year and then 11th again here today. We’ll take the result and some okay points and move on to Indianapolis next weekend.”
Marcus Ericsson
No. 28 Bryant Honda
P20
| Started | P23 |
| Standings | 13th (65 points) |
- Making his sixth appearance at Barber Motorsports Park, Marcus Ericsson started today’s race hoping to capitalize on this morning’s Warm-Up Session, which found the Swede at the top of the leaderboard.
- During the last half of the race, Ericsson made contact with the No. 76, resulting in front wing damage to the No. 28 Bryant Honda. The Swede ultimately finished the day in 20th.
“It was a disappointing day for us on the No. 28 car – a bit of a head scratcher. We started the weekend fastest in Practice 1, and then we ended up qualifying and racing badly, so we need to analyze that, learn from it and be better going forward. There’s definitely a lot of data to look into and understand. Overall, just very disappointing.”
Rob Edwards
Chief Operating Officer
“Super disappointing day – you can’t hide it. We obviously got Colton up into P2 in the first set of stops and then blew it from there. Then, I think the No. 27 just didn’t quite have the pace they needed, and starting as far back as they did doesn’t help. Although I think they still made good progress up through the field. The No. 28 struggled to recover after the crash yesterday morning and then ran the last half of the race with a broken front wing. So, again, they didn’t really have the pace for the damaged car. It’s a very frustrating, disappointing day, but we’ll go back and figure out what we need to do going forward.”
