Palou takes rare maximum IndyCar score with Barber dominance
IndyCar

Palou takes rare maximum IndyCar score with Barber dominance

by Jack Benyon
4 min read

Alex Palou claimed his third IndyCar win in four races - he finished second in the other - at Barber Motorsports Park to extend his points lead to a massive 59 to kick off the crucial Month of May.

Anyone hoping for a change in fortunes for the transcendant Chip Ganassi driver Palou this weekend will have been left extremely disappointed as - liveried in a special paint scheme for Honda Racing Corporation - took a rare IndyCar maximum score for the win, leading a lap, leading the most laps and pole position.

It's like he's toying with the opposition at this point.

You’d be forgiven for thinking Palou didn’t break a sweat on his Sunday drive - even if that does. a massive disservice to the effort it takes to reach the level he’s currently operating at.

He dominated the first stint from pole and his gap to second-place starter Scott McLaughlin was 8.5 seconds, and then over 10s to Colton Herta who pitted two laps before Palou on 31/90.

Herta’s undercut almost halved his gap to Palou to just under five seconds once the stops were done as he jumped McLaughlin, but again, even with the deficit of running the hard tyres to Herta’s softs, Palou still edged away.

And it didn’t matter anyway after yet another drama for Andretti's Herta, who’s had more than you can count already in 2025. A slow pitstop where Herta stalled relegated him six positions by the time the second stops were complete.

In the same round of stops, McLaren's Christian Lundgaard pulled off an epic undercut to jump Will Power and then he took McLaughlin with one of his textbook outrageous dives at Turn 17 - he’s done it before at Barber - to become Palou’s main challenger.

“See ya,” he shouted on the radio after the move.

But even on a fresh set of softs compared to the scuffed pair Palou had, Lundgaard was unable to reel in Palou in the penultimate stint of the race.

In the last round of stops, Palou bolted on a fresh set of softs with a six-second gap over Lungaard on a scuffed set, and extended his gap to a frankly ridiculous 16s seconds by the finish.

The only people who can claim to have completed a better start to the season than Palou is his engine supplier, Honda, which has actually won every race so far and securing the newest one in its own livery on Palou's car must have felt sweet.

Lundgaard’s incredible maiden season at McLaren continues with a third straight podium and second in the championship, with McLaughlin adding crucial points in third, needing to make up for an MGU overheating at Thermal which caused him to finish last.

One of the stars of the race finished fourth, as Rinus VeeKay twice emerged from the pits milimetres ahead of Will Power on soft tyres and still held him off. The second came after an issue in the pits with his front right wheel nut.

Chrsitian Rasmussen staying out for a long stint between VeeKay and Power held the latter up further, allowing VeeKay to bag Coyne’s best result since Texas in April 2023, and VeeKay’s best since Iowa 2022

VeeKay almost unseated McLaughlin with a storming final stint, which ultimately came up fractionally short.

As he races for a new contract, it was another important top five for Power, his second in a row, holding off a charging Pato O'Ward for what felt like the entirety of the race he spent within 0.8s of his rival.

Herta took seventh as part of his recovery, with Alexander Rossi (Ed Carpenter), Nolan Siegel making it all three McLarens in the top nine, and Josef Newgarden rounded out the top 10 itself, only his second of the season.

The winner of the last race, Long Beach victor Kyle Kirkwood, started down in 18th after failing to graduate from his group in qualifying, and things looked bleak as he suffered from a suspected gearbox issue early on.

But rapid thinking to pit him - even if there was a right-rear wheel issue - meant the damage was mitigated and he fought back through the race to finish 11th.

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