CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES
Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix
2.3-mile, 17-turn Barber Motorsports Park natural terrain road course
Birmingham, Alabama
Sunday Race Report
March 29, 2026
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (March 29, 2026) – For the second time in the first four races to start the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES, Christian Lundgaard, in the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, was the highest finishing Team Chevy driver, going from his 10th starting spot to the second step on the podium. The Danish driver was joined in the top ten by fellow Chevrolet-powered drivers David Malukas in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, Santino Ferrucci in the No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet and Josef Newgarden in the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet.
Barber Motorsports Park by the numbers for Team Chevy:
Lundgaard’s second-place finish is the 681st Chevrolet-powered podium all-time and the 367th since the introduction of the 2.2L Twin-Turbo V6 in 2012.
The second-place finish is Christian Lundgaard’s 2nd podium of the season and his 8th with Chevrolet power and Arrow McLaren over the last two seasons.
Arrow McLaren now has 46 podiums since joining Team Chevy in 2020, tying them with Newman-Haas Racing for third all-time and increasing their hold on second place since the introduction of the 2.2L Twin-Turbo V6 in 2012.
Lundgaard moves to third place in the points standings, leading Chevrolet-powered drivers Malukas in fourth, Newgarden in fifth, Pato O’Ward (Arrow McLaren) in sixth, and Scott McLaughlin (Team Penske) in 7th.
Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix Race Results
Up Next
Up next for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES is a trip west to California and the iconic Grand Prix of Long Beach. The 2026 event marks the 42nd time that the NTT INDYCAR SERIES will visit the 1.968-mile, 11-turn, Long Beach street circuit. In 1987, Mario Andretti became the first driver to win with factory-backed Chevrolet power with Newman-Haas Racing.
What they’re saying – Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix
Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 2nd:
Do you wonder what might have been if there was not a bobble in the pit stop? Did you have something for Palou?
“I think so. You know the pace that we had and just how we were catching him I think so. It’s unfortunate. You know, I think there was a there was a bobble on the pit stop. I don’t know if it was my fault, or if the car went down too fast. But, at the end of the day, I wanted to go out there and repass Graham to make up for that and put make a statement, and, we got it. It’s unfortunate, the guys have done an amazing job and I don’t think that’s really ever happened. One in almost 100 starts, I think it’s okay.
And you’re moving forward up to third in the championship now.
It’s still early. The No. 10 car is still ahead of us, so… Yeah, I think we had a chance to make a difference there today and it’s unfortunate, but I don’t think we can be unhappy with a 10th to 2nd.”
David Malukas, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet finished 4th:
“It all comes down to the beginning, of choosing a start of the race that was not the right strategy. I think the best we could have had was P3, I think if we could have set up Graham a little bit better at the end, then maybe could have had a podium. Overall, it’s really a good points day for us and Team Penske. We learned a lot., yeah, now we know, we got to stay ahead of the game when it comes to choosing these tires. If we started primaries, who knows, we would have been right up there and it would have been a different battle. But either way, thank you to Team Penske, Verizon and Chevrolet.”
Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet finished 8th:
“A really solid result for the team. It was great to have our three Veterans here with us from Homes For Our Troops today and overall, just really happy. I think we executed this weekend to best of our ability. There’s obviously little things here and there that you can nit-pick, but as a whole, getting a top-ten in qualifying and a top-ten in the race really kicks off the momentum for the season, especially considering we haven’t had the best of starts. I’m really proud of our Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet team. The guys have put in a lot of work and it’s great to get a solid result.”
Josef Newgarden, No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet finished 10th:
“Tough day for the team. First of all, they did a great job. Good pit stops, good strategy. Stuck with it all day. We were scrapping out there to finish 10th. It was hard for us today. I wasn’t sure we were going to make it to then end. But we did what we could. We just have to analyze everything. Totally different from what I predicted going in-what everyone predicted. The PPG Chevy felt like it had longevity. The tires acted the opposite way it had in the past. So we have to figure out why. We had a fast car. We are all motivated. We have a long way to go so we gave to stay focused.”
Alexander Rossi, No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet finished 11th:
“Well, it was a pretty boring day. We finished where we started. It was a primary tire race for us, so we lost a little bit on the start compared to the guys on alternates. The Java House boys and girls had really good pit stops as well. Our pace was kind of 11th-place-ish, so we received to there. Eleventh is just two ones next to each other, instead of one one. We will try to get one one soon.”
Rinus VeeKay, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet finished 14th:
“It was a decent race today. We did what we could on strategy to move forward. No yellows and high downforce at a high speed track, it’s really hard to make moves and to get close enough to pass cars. Unfortunately, I had a spin around Lap 35. I was really trying to get that spot to get clear air from there, but I got a little bit too close. I lost a few positions there, but had a good recovery after that. Not the result we were looking for but I think it comes back to qualifying. That’s where we need to find more pace on the Alternates. The Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevy felt great in the race and we did a great job. I’m excited for Long Beach to see if we can get another top ten there.”
Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Odyssey Battery Team Penske Chevrolet finished 16th:
“Tough day for us in the Odyssey Battery Chevy. We didn’t quite have the pace on the blacks. It was a little bit better on the red tire, but ultimately just didn’t have the pace in general. Just frustrating because there was a lot of promise. I felt like we were pretty good as the tracks sort of came up, it was it got hotter and hotter. So, we’ve got a little bit of work to do to figure out what went on this weekend. Obviously, my crash didn’t help. But, you know, just gonna move on. We’ve got a lot of work to do on my end.”
Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 17th:
“It was a really difficult day for us here at Barber. I don’t have an answer right now as to why we struggled. I’m happy to see the 7 with Christian get a podium; I know they were fighting there for the win. There are things we need to work on as a team, but I’m glad one of the cars from the team was strong. We need to see where we went wrong, but we weren’t all that different than their car, so it was a very confusing day and one of those weekends where I felt helpless inside of the race car. The good thing about getting beat like this is you kick it into a different gear. We’ll be pushing hard to make sure we don’t let something like this happen again.”
Nolan Siegel, No. 6 SmartStop Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 18th:
“Pretty disappointing. We had a really fast car today. The pace was super strong; we were able to pass people. Unfortunately, we had an issue where we couldn’t get all the fuel in the car, so I ended up in big fuel saves and wasn’t able to use that pace. But, positive that the pace was there.”
Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 ECR Splenda Chevrolet finished 19th:
“It was a tough weekend all around. We just struggled for pace all weekend long. The team worked super hard to turn it around, but we ultimately we couldn’t really find anything that worked well for us. A shoutout to the Splenda pit crew, they did a great job on pit lane today as well as last race weekend, I really appreciate their hard work! We are looking forward to a better weekend in Long Beach. It’s been a pretty tough start to the year for us this time around so we are looking to get that turned around.”
Caio Collet, No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet finished 21st:
“Honestly, I expected to be a bit quicker. I was struggling — more than what I anticipated — with the balance. I think overall, it’s a really hard track here to overtake. We had one slow stop that hurt us, and put us on the wrong foot for the rest of the race. But some positives to take away are that we were definitely quite competitive yesterday morning, and also in qualifying, except the mistake that I did yesterday, starting at the back, was not easy. Today, I just need to figure out a little bit more the balance for the race, but we’ll keep pushing.”
Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger – Goodheart Chevrolet finished 22nd:
“It was an OK day today, I think when it’s an all green race like this it’s difficult to move forward. There is not a lot of opportunity without restarts and yellows. We moved up a few spots and it was just tough for everyone. It was a physical race. Everyone was running as fast as they could the whole time, so it was just a matter of what kind of pace you had and how you could pass. I’m hoping at Long Beach we can repeat what we did last year. Roll off strong and be able to move back up in the points.”
NTT INDYCAR SERIES News Conference
Sunday, March 29, 2026
Christian Lundgaard
Press Conference
THE MODERATOR: Christian Lundgaard, as quick as he’s been all weekend. Christian, who led 10 laps today, best finish of the season. Second podium of 2026. 11th career podium. Christian also with a race-high 11 on-track passes today.
I know you were hoping for a little bit more, but give us your thoughts on the day.
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, I mean, everything you just said sounds great except the P2 part. I think we had a race-winning car today. 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. That was nice.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll open it up for questions.
Q. Going into the pit stop, you were obviously in the lead. Going into that, were you in a position where you felt like you were going to win the race?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Absolutely. Well, yes and no I guess. I don’t necessarily know what the gaps were. I was just told on the way here we would have cleared him. Then obviously you have to have the track position on the first couple of laps. It’s unknown. From what I’ve been told, we would have cleared him.
Q. How were you able to get back to P2?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I was very frustrated. It’s fair to be frustrated. It’s a tough position to be in because it’s like one of those unlucky yellows that hurt your entire race progress, right? We had done so good up until then.
Again, we finished P2, we shouldn’t be that frustrated. But when you are up against a car that’s been the most competitive and best car in INDYCAR for the past many years, to have a chance to beat him fair and square, that hurts. It’s the position that we’ve tried to be in the past three years. I think we got there today.
Really just to miss out on it for something like that is unfortunate. I think there’s a lot of learnings to take from it.
Q. When it comes to your starting position in these races, what has been the issue?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: There’s so many things. Just not getting it right really for many different reasons. It’s just frustrating. We put in so much work. I think the team’s done a phenomenal job in the off-season obviously producing such great race cars. To not get there in qualifying when it really counts.
I think this weekend was a big surprise for us. Obviously we were competitive here last year. Just not really getting it in qualifying is frustrating. Obviously we had four qualifying sessions that obviously haven’t been on an oval so far where we’re not transferring in the Firestone Fast Six when I think we should have.
You look at the results, we’re right there. Finished third in St. Pete, finished seventh in Arlington even though we got spun on the first lap.
We have the race pace. We just need to start further up.
Q. Can you use the frustration of the pit stop to feel your aggressiveness to get some of it back because it really looked like that’s what you did, especially when you were able to track down Graham?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, I mean, I’m sure he can answer that question as well. Sometimes I don’t think I need more aggression. I think it’s just naturally there.
But it is frustrating. I think for me it was more I just wanted that position just to prove to the team that this is where we belong. It was really more for them than it was for me. That was my mindset: Okay, let’s go get Graham here, and not really focus so much on Malukas behind and the pit stop in general. Let’s go out, reset, focus on getting this position.
At the end of the day that was the best result possible for us at the moment. At that time in the race, P2 was the best we could do. Alex was gone. It was just getting that position and get the best result.
Q. It’s still appears this year could still be more wide open than last year when Alex dominated. Do you think you still have that mindset that your team’s better, other guys throughout the field are better, it’s not going to be a walkover like last year?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Just looking at how the season’s gone so far, Alex is the same Alex as last year. I just do think there are cars and drivers that are showing up more this year than last year.
Q. I think did Louis come over and say something to you. The contact with him early in the race…
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: No. I haven’t seen him. I know he congratulated Graham. I was aware that he was going to hold me up as much as he could, yeah.
Q. Before your last pit stop, your team was telling you the options on the tires. Probably put on the primaries to play it safe. Is there any part of you that’s like, Let’s not play it safe, we need to do things that aren’t safe to get this win?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I think it’s easy to be smart in hindsight. At the end of the day we didn’t do it, so I don’t think we know what the outcome would have been.
I can sit here and say now I would have preferred the alternates just to at least have the same balance as I’d had the past two stints. I think the primary tires were way more physical than the alternates were. For that reason, I just wanted the used alts.
The two other cars were on the same tires. We’d seen how the used alts had done in the beginning of the race. It didn’t really seem like it was preferred for anyone. I’m not quite sure how many laps we had to do on the last stint.
It’s really an if, but or maybe.
Q. You said you were going to try to catch Alex. Had a 13-second lead. Did you think you had a way to catch him?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: He pitted before we did on that third stint. I basically pulled in around four and a half seconds on him on the stints. On my way up here, I was told that the traffic that he had as he came out for the last stint, we would have cleared him on a normal pit stop.
Obviously the pace was there to win the race. I think it would have been a fair and square fight on the last stint if that would have been the case. We sit here now and it wasn’t the case, so…
I mean, there’s not really much to say to it. I think overall we had a race-winning car today. If we would have started three positions further up, I think our race would have been very different.
We need to be better on Saturdays.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations on the podium.
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: See you in Long Beach.
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Let’s see if we can do that better, too (smiling). Two better.
Chevrolet History at Barber Motorsports Park
Chevrolet Wins – 9
2024 – Scott McLaughlin – Team Penske
2023 – Scott McLaughlin – Team Penske
2022 – Pato O’Ward – Arrow McLaren
2018 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske
2017 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske
2016 – Simon Pagenaud – Team Penske
2015 – Josef Newgarden – ECR
2013 – Ryan Hunter-Reay – Andretti Global
2012 – Will Power – Team Penske
Chevrolet Poles – 10
2024 – Scott McLaughlin – Team Penske
2022 – Rinus VeeKay – ECR
2021 – Pato O’Ward – Arrow McLaren
2018 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske
2017 – Will Power – Team Penske
2016 – Simon Pagenaud – Team Penske
2015 – Helio Castroneves – Team Penske
2014 – Will Power – Team Penske
2013 – Ryan Hunter-Reay – Andretti Global
2012 – Helio Castroneves – Team Penske
Chevrolet Podiums: 21
Driver Podiums: Josef Newgarden (4), Will Power (4), Scott McLaughlin (3), Scott Dixon (2), Helio Castroneves (2), Christian Lundgaard (2), Simon Pagenaud (2), Ryan Hunter-Reay (1), Pato O’Ward (1), Rinus VeeKay (1)
Team Podiums: Team Penske (13), Arrow McLaren (3), ECR (3), Chip Ganassi Racing (2), Andretti Global (1)
Chevrolet Laps Led: 709
Driver Laps Led: Josef Newgarden (141), Will Power (114), Simon Pagenaud (87), Helio Castroneves (73), Rinus VeeKay (58), Pato O’Ward (52), Santino Ferrucci (14), Sebastian Saavedra (11), Christian Lundgaard (10), Sebastien Bourdais (6), Scott Dixon (3), James Hinchcliffe (1)
Team Laps Led: Team Penske (455), ECR (104), Arrow McLaren (62), Andretti Global (54), KV Racing Technology (13), A.J. Foyt Racing (18), Chip Ganassi Racing (3),
Manufacturer History at Phoenix International Raceway
Wins (with competition)
9 – Chevrolet (2024, 2023, 2022, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2012)
5 – Honda (2026, 2025, 2021, 2019, 2014)
Poles (with competition)
10 – Chevrolet (2024, 2022, 2021, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012)
3 – Honda (2025, 2023, 2019)
Historical Chevrolet in the INDYCAR SERIES information
- INDYCAR SERIES Manufacturer Championships (since 1979)
- Chevrolet-Powered Wins in the Twin-Turbo 2.2L V6 Era (2012-present)
- Chevrolet-Powered Wins – All-Time
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