Courtesy of the IndyCar Series
Race weekend: Saturday, April 17 – Sunday, April 18
Track: Barber Motorsports Park, a 2.3-mile, 17-turn road course (clockwise) in Birmingham, Alabama
Race distance: 90 laps / 207 miles
Push-to-pass parameters: 200 seconds of total time with a maximum time of 20 seconds per activation.
Firestone tire allotment: Six sets primary, four sets alternate, one additional set available for rookies for use in first practice.
Twitter: @BarberMotorPark @IndyCar, #HIGPA, #IndyCar
Event website: www.barberracingevents.com
INDYCAR website: www.IndyCar.com
2019 race winner: Takuma Sato, 1:55:46.806, 107.272 mph. No race in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
2019 NTT P1 Award winner: Takuma Sato, 1:08.5934, 120.711 mph. No race in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Qualifying lap record: Sebastien Bourdais, 1:06.6001, 124.324 mph, April 23, 2016
NBC Sports race telecasts: Qualifying, 10 p.m. ET Saturday, NBCSN (tape-delayed); Race, 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday, NBC (live). Leigh Diffey is the play-by-play announcer for NBC’s coverage of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, alongside analysts Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy.
Peacock Premium live streaming: All NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice sessions and qualifying will stream live on Peacock Premium, NBC’s direct-to-consumer livestreaming product.
INDYCAR Radio Network broadcasts: Mark Jaynes is the chief announcer alongside analyst Davey Hamilton and Nick Yeoman. Jake Query is the turn announcer. The Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama race (3 p.m. ET) airs live on network affiliates, Sirius 211, XM 205, indycar.com and the INDYCAR Mobile app powered by NTT DATA. All NTT INDYCAR SERIES practices and qualifying are available on indycar.com and the INDYCAR Mobile app, with qualifying also airing on XM 205.
At-track schedule (All Times Local/Central Time):
Saturday, April 17
10-10:45 a.m.: NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice #1, Peacock Premium
1:40-2:25 p.m.: NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice #2, Peacock Premium
4:55-6:10 p.m.: Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama qualifying (Three rounds of knockout qualifications), Peacock Premium (live); NBCSN (Tape delayed at 10 p.m. ET)
6:15 p.m.: NTT P1 Award Presentation (pit lane)
Sunday, April 18
10:30-11 a.m.: NTT INDYCAR SERIES warmup, Peacock Premium
2 p.m.: NBC on air
2:35 p.m.: “Drivers, start your engines”
2:42 p.m.: Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama (90 laps/207 miles), NBC (live)
Race Notes:
- The Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama will be the 11th NTT INDYCAR SERIES event conducted at Barber Motorsports Park. Helio Castroneves won the inaugural race in 2010.
- Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud and Takuma Sato are the only entered drivers to have won at Barber Motorsports Park. Power won the race in 2011 and 2012, Hunter-Reay in 2013 and 2014, Newgarden in 2015, 2017 and 2018, Pagenaud in 2016 and Sato in 2019.
- Power, Hunter-Reay, Pagenaud, Newgarden and Sato are the only entered drivers to have won the pole position at Barber Motorsports Park. Power claimed the pole position in 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2017, Pagenaud won the pole in 2016, Hunter-Reay won the pole in 2013, Newgarden won the pole in 2018, and Sato won the pole in 2019.
- Five drivers have won the race from the pole – Power in 2011, Hunter-Reay in 2013, Pagenaud in 2016, Newgarden in 2018 and Sato in 2019.
- Scott Dixon has finished on the podium in eight of his 10 previous starts at Barber Motorsports Park – including six runner-up finishes – but he has yet to finish on the top step of the podium at the picturesque road circuit.
- Seven drivers have competed in every NTT INDYCAR SERIES race at Barber Motorsports Park – Marco Andretti, Dixon, Hunter-Reay, Tony Kanaan, Power, Graham Rahal and Sato. All but Andretti and Kanaan are entered this weekend.
- Team Penske has six wins at Barber Motorsports Park (2010, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017 and 2018). Andretti Autosport, Ed Carpenter Racing and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing are the only other teams to win at the track. Andretti Autosport won in 2013 and 2014 with Hunter-Reay. Ed Carpenter Racing won with Newgarden in 2015, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing won in 2019 with Sato.
- Three NTT INDYCAR SERIES Rookie of the Year contenders – Romain Grosjean, Jimmie Johnson and Scott McLaughlin – are entered. Those three, plus 2020 rookies Dalton Kellett, Alex Palou and Rinus VeeKay, will race an NTT INDYCAR SERIES car at Barber Motorsports Park for the first time.
- Eighteen of the 24 drivers entered in the event have competed in NTT INDYCAR SERIES races at Barber Motorsports Park. Ten entered drivers have led laps: Power 208, Newgarden 133, Hunter-Reay 93, Pagenaud 87, Sato 74, Dixon 46, Rahal 25, Sebastien Bourdais 19, James Hinchcliffe 4 and Alexander Rossi 3.
- Dixon has made 272 consecutive starts heading into the weekend, which is the second-longest streak in INDYCAR SERIES history. Andretti Autosport’s Marco Andretti is not entered in an NTT INDYCAR SERIES race for the first time since he debuted in 2006. Andretti has made 248 consecutive starts, which is the third-longest streak in INDYCAR SERIES history.
