Alex Palou took a dominant victory at the 2025 Children’s Grand Prix of Alabama held at the Barber Motorsports Park. He won by over 16 seconds from McLaren driver Christian Lundgaard.
Championship lead heading into Indy double-header
Palou goes into the Indy Road Course race in six days’ time 60 points ahead of Lundgaard in the standings. When asked about if he was proud of that, Palou said:
“Yeah, it’s amazing. It means nothing and means a ton at the same time. Means nothing for the championship yet. For sure I prefer to be in the position we are now than on anybody else’s position.
“Yeah, best start of my career, like not in IndyCar, I would say everything I’ve done in my life, never been as good as here. Not even go-karts.
“Yeah, couldn’t be happier. Hopefully we can keep it going.”
Reaching 1000 laps led
Palou dominated the race. He led 81/90 laps, meaning that Palou surpassed the milestone of leading 1000 laps in his IndyCar career. When he was asked about this and if he believed this was possible earlier in his career, Palou believed he didn’t.
“No, absolutely not. My goal was to be an IndyCar driver, then was just to be an IndyCar race winner or a person that could fight for wins and sometimes for championships.
“Yeah, I don’t think that I’m in a normal position. I’m aware that I’m very lucky to be in the position I am today, to be surrounded by a great team, being able to fight for wins every single weekend.
“Yeah, I don’t know how long is that going to continue, but hopefully it’s going to be for a long time.”
Confidence with the hybrid system
The hybrid system was introduced mid-way through 2024. According to Barry Wanser, Palou’s race engineer, he gains around two tenths on everyone else a lap at his peak. When asked about how he adapted so well to the hybrid, Palou stated:
“I don’t know. Yeah, honestly I love studying how to extract the max performance from the hybrid. It’s just another tool that we have as drivers to re-gen in different areas or deploy in different areas or just to change the balance. Maybe not gain on overlap time, but to change the balance a little bit for the car.
“I would say we started really well last year with the hybrid getting a pole at Mid-Ohio. Actually last year we didn’t get any win[s] with the hybrid. We struggle[d] a little bit. I personally struggle[d] a little bit during last year when the hybrid came.
“Now it’s like we’re getting back to form and I’m feeling really happy with [the] hybrid and the overall car balance.”
Best drive of his career
Palou’s drive was a dominant one. On occasion he was up to half a second quicker than anyone else. When asked about if this victory was one of the best of his career, Palou rated it highly.
“Yeah, I actually said to Will [Power] when we did the cool-down lap with the Honda Civic, I actually said it’s probably my best race or my best weekend in IndyCar, not only in IndyCar. When I say IndyCar, it would be like my career.
“Getting the pole when it was everything so tight, getting it at the last moment, and then today the fact that we had to run used tires that are used from qualifying, they are not in good condition. They are better than primaries, but I think everybody that was on the Fast Six was in a small disadvantage than everybody else.
“To still be able to keep a good performance, then also to do it on the blacks, on the primaries, was great. Yeah, honestly I felt it was probably one of my best races.”
