CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
CHILDREN’S OF ALABAMA INDY GRAND PRIX
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING RECAP
MAY 3, 2025
Scott McLaughlin Puts Chevrolet on Front Row at Barber
- Scott McLaughlin puts Chevrolet on front row at Barber
- Third time driver of the No. 3 Good Ranchers Team Penske Chevrolet has scored front row start at Barber
- Is two-time defending winner at the Alabama road course
- A total of three Chevrolet powered drivers qualified into the Firestone Fast Six to run for the pole
- Six of Fast-12 were Team Chevy drivers
- Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, quailed in his first Fast-12 of the season, moving into the Fast-Six and scoring the fourth starting position
- Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, made the Fast Six for the first time in his career and will start sixth
- His previous best start was 11th at St. Pete and Long Beach this year
- Arrow McLaren drivers have transferred to ten Fast-12 sessions thus far this season
- Christian Lundgaard has been in all four Fast-12 sessions
- David Malukas, in the No. 4 A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet, led the second NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice at Barber Motorsports Park on Saturday morning, leading seven Team Chevy drivers in the top ten. The action-packed practice featured a drying track early, Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, along with several other drivers finding the barriers, and the rain returning for the last ten minutes of practice.
- With just under 20 minutes remaining in the second practice at a damp Barber Motorsports Park, the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet of Pato O’Ward made contact with the soft barrier at the exit of Turn 17. O’Ward caught oversteer at the entry of the final corner, overcorrecting, bounding through the gravel, grass soaked by overnight storms, going nose first into the barrier. The AMR INDYCAR Safety Team pulled the car onto the asphalt and after refiring the Chevrolet IndyCar V6, O’Ward drove back to pit lane for repairs. The team decided to inspect the No. 5 instead of sending the driver back out.
Tune-In Alert
Sunday
- NTT INDYCAR SERIES Warm Up – 10am (ET)/9am (CT)/8am (MT)/7am (PT) – FS1/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218
- Children’s Of Alabama Indy Grand Prix (90 laps) – 1:30pm (ET)/12:30pm (CT)/11:30am (MT)/10:30am (PT) – FOX/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218
What They’re Saying:
Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Good Ranchers Team Penske Chevrolet, qualified 2nd: “I just had my eye on the on the timing pylon, and then I saw the No. 10 (Alex Palou) come and I was like, oh, it’s that guy again. But congrats to him. It was a great, great run and I’m just really proud of my Good Ranchers Chevy team. We managed to bring a car that was okay, but we weren’t great. Now it is back to sort of where I like it, and I’m excited for tomorrow’s race. It’s going to be nice and sunny, with a great starting spot and we’ll see where we end up.”
Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, qualified 4th: “Definitely, excited to have my first appearance in the Fast 12, let alone my first (Firestone) Fast Six. We’ve had really strong race days, but that Palou guy makes it hard. I’m really happy to be fourth, we can do something from there. This has actually had more yellows than other tracks. It might seem like a track that you can’t pass, but it might be a bit of a hectic race tomorrow.”
Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, qualified 6th: “I think it was just execution to be honest. Going into this we really expected to be in the Fast Six. We felt that our true pace was top ten and we’ve been in the top ten in every session. Everything went smoothly. We were calm, cool, collected, made small changes, didn’t get ahead of ourselves and executed well. That’s what it takes. Everybody else here is perfect and that’s what it takes. We just executed everything well and it paid off.”
Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, qualified 7th: “I’m a little disappointed, I will say. We didn’t quite get the tires in the window for the push lap and went slower in Q2 than we did in Q1. I think there are a lot of positives to take from the weekend going into tomorrow’s race. As a team, we’re sixth, seventh and eighth. As long as we all make it through lap one, I believe we’ll all be okay and definitely have some opportunities to bring Arrow McLaren forward in the race.”
Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, qualified 8th: “In P2, I had the mishap in Turn 17, and we didn’t really get a lot of running in, so we were playing a bit of a guessing game going into qualifying. We just missed there by a little bit. Considering we didn’t have a lot of running in, I’m not displeased with it. Obviously, we want to be further up front. I think it’s all to play for tomorrow. Strategy is going to be a big thing like it’s been the last few races. It’s good to see all three cars get into the Fast 12. It’s cool to see Nolan do his first (Firestone) Fast Six, so let’s see what he can do here. We can work from here.”
Post practice incident quote: “I lost the rear and once I got into the grass, I was just a passenger. I don’t know if I touched some paint while opening the radius of the corner. Maybe that’s why I lost the rear, or maybe I just lost it. The damage isn’t as bad as I thought, but the steering column is kind of ahhh. So, we didn’t want to risk it with the high speed corners here. We’ll see what qualifying brings. (after watching the replay). I just lost the rear and obviously it took me to the grass and you’re along for the ride.”
Josef Newgarden, No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet, qualified 9th: “Qualifying had been an issue for us to start the year so to start solidly inside the top 10 is a step in the right direction for the PPG Chevy team. The MGU issue this morning obviously set our day back a bit; got us behind on our plan for qualifying. The car felt good but there were some things that a little more practice today would have helped us solve. This has been a great track for me in the past so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 A.J. Foyt Racing/Sexton Properties Chevrolet, qualified 13th: “It was an okay session. I think our car was pretty good, definitely fast enough to advance. It was really tough to get a gap. Also, the way that everything worked out, we were too heavy on fuel, which is honestly all the lap time that we really needed to advance as well. Or just having a clean out lap before we started our push lap to understand the balance correctly. You’re missing it by five hundreds of a second so it’s the blink of an eye. But these days it’s so tight. We sit good for tomorrow in 13thwith three sets of sticker reds and we’ll come through the field.”
Alexander Rossi, No. 20 Java House ECR Chevrolet, qualified 15th: “I am disappointed with qualifying. I didn’t quite get the lap together, which cost us the transfer. We’ve been fighting to stay on top of conditions all weekend and just came up short. We’ve got a good car and will be pushing very hard tomorrow.”
Callum Ilott, No, 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet, qualified 16th: “The PREMA team is doing a really good job, and we had a good chance of advancing, and I was really happy with the car. It’s close. It’s close, but this is where we need to be, and it’s just nice to keep working from here. To move forward tomorrow, we need a good strategy, good pit stops, nice tire wear, you know, all all the good stuff. We’ll try our best for it. But, yeah, we’re still we’re still learning, still progressing, but this is a good step.”
Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Splenda ECR Chevrolet, qualified 17th: “Today’s conditions were tricky for the No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet. This morning in practice was dark, cool and wet while qualifying was dry and warm. It makes things hard in a racing series where every little thing makes a difference! We aren’t starting where we know we could, but we do have a good race car for tomorrow.”
Conor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, qualified 19th: Today we honestly made a really good step forward with our balance. Practice two was good for us. Then we just didn’t get the exact timing for the tires to get in, The second half of lap two was good and so was the first half of lap three. Both laps were similar in time. Just a little bit of a miss on what we needed in qualifying. Happy with the balance. I think we have a lot that we can show tomorrow which is really good. A great step forward for us as a team since we didn’t test here. It’s a positive step forward. I think we will be in good shape tomorrow.
David Malukas, No. 4 A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet, qualified 20th: “We finished up qualifying obviously a lot shorter than what we were expecting. Looking at these times, the car was fast enough for it, we had the pace, just unfortunate, unfortunate. Just keep getting very unlucky in all these situations. And in this qualifying session, we just got jam-packed with the timing. Everybody jumped us in pit lane and we didn’t get a clear lap. So this one I think frustrates everybody the most, and it hurts because we knew we had an incredible car and we didn’t even make it out of group one just because of track position. It’s the way the game is. It sucks but we’ll calm down, put our heads down and come up with a good strategy for the race. We know we have a fast car so we’ll be trying to bring it forward tomorrow.”
Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, qualified 22nd:Qualifying today was not where we wanted to be. We’ve been kind of on the back foot a little bit this weekend, compared to some cars around us. That’s part of the game when it rains in the middle of your practice session. It’s been a very interesting weekend so far. I think the race will be very exciting because of all of the chaos. I think we have a good direction for where we want to go. Conor and I have been working hard to find a package we’re happy with and I think we’re close. The race should be fun and we should be moving forward in the race.
Robert Shwartzman, No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet, qualified 24th: “Unfortunately, qualifying didn’t go well for us today. I was hoping for some rain because in those conditions during Free Practice the car felt quite good. Instead, it become quite windy during qualifying which unbalanced the car and I didn’t feel as confident with it. I didn’t manage to put it altogether for a proper lap, and while I don’t think it would have been top six this time, I think it could have been better. Now we will see what we can do tomorrow in the race.”
Scott McLaughlin
Press Conference
THE MODERATOR: Scott, a lot of attention as you sat and waited for obviously the Firestone Fast Six session to play out before you went out. What was the reasoning behind that?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Keeping laps off our red tires. Didn’t want a false read off blacks. I said to the guys, I’d rather go out and do it one time.
We were prepping a lap anyway. I could feel the track on that lap. Then it was just a matter of putting it down.
First lap wasn’t great. Sounds like Alex had the same thing. Second lap was where it was.
We definitely left a little bit up on the table. A lap around there is a lot of fun. Alex did a great job. From our team, done a really good job just coming back because I feel like we had a bad test here, we sort of went the wrong way a little bit. Fixed it yesterday, massaged it today and got it going.
THE MODERATOR: Do you feel good about the race car for tomorrow?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I do now.
THE MODERATOR: Weather looks good tomorrow, but we’ll see.
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, no, very similar answer to Alex. I think you got to be prepared for anything. As a driver, if it’s going to rain or be dry, you just got to try to do the best you can in those conditions.
I try to keep a pretty neutral thought process before an unpredictable session. Like practice two or even qualifying. Turned out qualifying was pretty dry.
Yeah, you just got to be as prepared as you can be, but fluid at the same time.
Q. Why are you so good here?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: He’s good everywhere (smiling). Yeah, very similar. Reminds me of a track back home, Phillip Island. Just a high-speed motorcycle track as well. I just enjoy these fast, flowing, smooth tracks.
Q. Scott, your girl is hanging from the bridge again this year.
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I’m a girl dad now. My girl hanging from the bridge? I was like, poop.
No, we’re good. Yes, she is. She’s tied up, ready to go. You know what I mean? I got a daughter now.
Q. Scott, they showed the phone booth. Are you going to have to lock him in the phone booth to win tomorrow?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: No. I tried a lot of things before Nashville last year.
Look, I’m looking forward to the race. We always have some really good battles every race that we’ve had. Very hard, fair, aggressive racing. So that’s fun. I’m excited for it.
Q. How much of a strategy race is this if we continue the trend? If it were to go caution free, how much of a strategy race is this?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I guess we’ll see. I mean, I think personally it’s going to be very similar to what we’ve seen in the past. But yeah, we’ll see how it plays tomorrow. You can never really sort of predict INDYCAR. You just got to be ready for all sorts of situations at the same time.
Q. This is the first time INDYCAR has come to Barber with the hybrid unit. Has it shown difficulty this weekend? If so, what areas?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I agree with Alex. I think the fun thing now, we’ve been used to the last year or so, has been deploying and doing different strategies, how you use the battery, then regen that battery, how that affects your car balance, trying to figure out what works for you. Not every driver is the same. But you know there’s a quick way of doing it. I’ve really enjoyed studying that and understanding that.
Barber, yeah, it’s been technical. It’s technical already. Adding that, it’s been tough.
Q. Scott, I know you’re drawing the comparisons to Phillip Island. These are really high-commitment corners, aren’t they, sequences of corners? Can you explain to people that don’t know Phillip Island?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I think it’s high commitment, but also high load, long duration corners, big Gs. At the same time these corners are leading to slow corners. You’re trying to keep a constant flow around the track. It’s all about momentum. A track like this, as soon as you miss one corner, it affects the next. That’s what makes it really fun.
Phillip Island for me is very much the same that it was in a Super Car. Yeah, like it’s obviously a different animal, different beast to drive the INDYCAR compared to the Super Car, nuances how the track attacks itself between the two cars is very similar.
Q. With this weather, potentially maybe more coming, are we going to see drastic change in the track surface, the grass more slippery now? Is that going to affect track grip or tire strategy?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I don’t know what Alex thinks, but I sort of thought the track got better. It’s a pretty nice surface. Once we got out there and it was fully dry, we could attack it, lay our rubber down. It didn’t take long for the track to hit its stride.
We’ll have a lot of rain tonight. There’s a weather advisory coming. Ultimately, I think tomorrow with the sun, we’ll have warm-up in the morning, then the Indy Lights race as well. There will be a lot of rubber on the track before we head out.
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