Alex Palou – Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix – Photo by Joe Skibinski

By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio

The Month of May officially is underway at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where Alex Palou’s bid for a two-race sweep has emerged as a real-time story line.

Palou continued his methodical march through the early portion of the NTT IndyCar Series schedule Sunday via a dominant victory in the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix powered by AmFirst at Barber Motorsports Park.

The three-time/reigning series champion, Palou posted his third victory in four races by wheeling the No. 10 HRC Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to a 16.0035-second victory over Christian Lundgaard of Denmark in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Palou authored the widest margin of victory in the series since Scott Dixon won by 22.2256-seconds on the World Wide Technology Raceway oval in Madison, Ill., in August 2023.

“It was a perfect day, a perfect weekend,” said Palou, a 28-year-old native of Spain. “The car was amazing, super-fast. I had a ton of fun. I was a bit lonely there, but I loved it. It was an amazing day.”

Lundgaard admittedly maximized his effort after qualifying seventh on Saturday. “This is everything we could have hoped for and much better,” Lundgaard said. “It was an awesome job by the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet crew. We knew we could go aggressive today. After warm-up, we knew the car was good enough to move forward. We had an awesome strategy, and we proved it again that we do have pace.”

Palou bagged his 14th series victory on the same circuit where he scored his first win with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2021. Palou led 81 of 90 laps on the 2.3-mile/17-turn natural-terrain layout outside Birmingham, Ala., from pole position.

The Spaniard increased his lead in the series standings to 60 points over Lundgaard entering the two races scheduled this month at The Brickyard _ the Sonsio Grand Prix on Saturday, May 10, on the IMS Road-Course and the 109th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on Sunday, May 25.

Palou has won the last two Sonsio Grands Prixs to loom as chalk favorite this weekend. Meanwhile, victory in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” remains the one shiny object missing from Palou’s brilliant open-wheel resume.

Native New Zealander Scott McLaughlin, the winner at BMP in 2023 and 2024, completed the podium finishers Sunday in third in the No. 3 Good Ranchers Team Penske Chevrolet.

Rinus VeeKay of The Netherlands placed fourth in the No. 18 askROI Honda to deliver Dale Coyne Racing its best start to a season since 2020. VeeKay notched his highest result since finishing fourth in July 2022 at Iowa Speedway for Ed Carpenter Racing.

Two-time series champion Will Power of Australia completed the top-five finishers in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, his third consecutive top-six result.

Arrow McLaren ace Pato O’Ward placed sixth and moved from sixth to fourth in the standings. “It was a very strong points day for all of us,” said O’Ward, a native of Mexico with family ties to San Antonio. “It was great to see all three (McLaren) cars in the top-10.

“It was a pretty boring race, I would say. The highlight was seeing Christian go through the Penskes while I was struggling. But great job to Christian and Nolan (Siegel). From our side, I felt like we were behind playing catch-up and we kept making things better and better but for the race, that was the most I could get out of it. We recovered some good points for the championship, and I’m excited to go to the Indy Road-Course and the Indy 500, which is just an amazing event to be a part of.”

David Malukas led the two-car effort by Waller, Texas-based A.J. Foyt Racing in 16^th, with teammate Santino Ferrucci finishing 18^th.

Malukas started 20th in the 90-lap/207-miler in Foyt Racing’s No. 4 Chevrolet. “Really unfortunate from the weekend as a whole,” Malukas said. “We’re just not having any luck this season. The car was mega all weekend…a really good car heading into qualifying and just got stuck behind people in traffic and couldn’t get a lap in and ended up being in the back.

“And then in the race, every time we came out of the pits, we just couldn’t get clean air, even though we tried, and just kept getting stuck behind people. So, really fast car, but couldn’t show it.”

Ferrucci, who started 13th in the No. 14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet, was forced to make an extra pit stop after a problem on the first stop resulted in a short-fill of fuel.

“Obviously, one of those days that’s tough to swallow,” said Ferrucci, a resident of Dallas. “Everybody did a phenomenal job, crew, engineering, the car was amazing. We were so quick. Just had an issue with some electronic stuff in the pits that had us have a short-fill. Just some bugs that we’re gonna work out going into Indy and I think we will be really good.”

Checkout time for Palou arrived early on Sunday. Alex jumped into the lead at the green flag and never surrendered it except for cycling through his three pit stops.

While McLaughlin stayed close during the first two trips around the circuit, Palou still built a gap of 1.1- seconds after just three laps. The margin continued to grow, aided by the third consecutive race without a caution period. The last stretch of three straight INDYCAR races without a yellow flag occurred in 1986, when consecutive events at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway, The Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., and an airport course in Cleveland ran caution-free.

“When the guy is on top of his game, you just can do the best you can, in that regard,” McLaughlin said of Palou. “I feel like week-in and week-out, we can challenge him. But if he keeps executing like this, all we can do is execute, as well.

“Props to his team. But it’s a long season. It’s way too early to be even worrying about points. We’ve just got to keep being there, and if we’re there, we’ll be OK.”

Palou surrendered a 4.888-second lead to Lundgaard when he made his final pit stop at the end of Lap 65. His CGR crew was flawless on that and two earlier stops, and Palou bolted back into the lead for good on Lap 68 after Lundgaard and then Alexander Rossi in the No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet pitted from the lead.

From there, Palou was under no threat. He padded his lead to 7.139-seconds by the end of Lap 73 and cruised to the checkered. The ease of Palou’s victory was illustrated by the amount of Push-to-Pass time he had remaining compared to his fellow-podium finishers: Palou had 63 unused seconds of overtake assist at the finish, while Lundgaard had 15 and McLaughlin 25.

En route to victory, Palou also passed a significant milestone by leading his 1,000th career series lap. Palou reached that mark in his 85th career start, 14 races sooner than his iconic CGR teammate from New Zealand, six-time series champion Dixon.

Practice on the IMS Road-Course for the Sonsio Grand Prix is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. (EDT) Friday, May 9, followed by another practice at 1:10 p.m. and NTT P1 Award qualifying at 4:35 p.m. during a full day of action. FS2 will air coverage of the first two practices live, while qualifying will be broadcast on FS1. The FOX Sports app and INDYCAR Radio Network also will provide live coverage of all three sessions.

Rookie phenom Dennis Hauger remained flawless in this young INDY NXT by Firestone season, winning the Grand Prix of Alabama from pole position on Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park.

Andretti Global driver Hauger led all 35 laps/80.5-miles from P1 in a repeat performance of his season-opening win from pole on March 2 on the Streets of St. Petersburg in Florida. Hauger now has led all 79 laps of competition in INDYCAR’s developmental series this season and every session but one practice at St. Pete, when he was second.

“That was a good weekend, for sure,” said Hauger, a 22-year-old native of Norway. “It felt really good out there. I was trying to take care of the rear tires, especially in the beginning. After that, I was just trying to keep it consistent.

“The pace was really there. Andretti gave me a good car all weekend. I’m super-happy for all of us.”

Hauger drove his No. 28 Rental Group car to a massive 11.0196-second victory over 17-year-old Evagoras Papasavvas, an American of Cypriot descent who made an impressive first career start in the No. 24 HMD Motorsports car. Lochie Hughes of Australia completed a podium filled with rookies, placing third in the No. 26 McGinley Clinic/USF Pro Championship machine.

Veteran Myles Rowe finished fourth _ tying his career-best in the series _ in the No. 99 Abel/Force Indy car, while veteran Josh Pierson placed a career-best fifth in the No. 14 HMD Motorsports machine.

Two caution periods were the only speed bumps for Formula 2 veteran Hauger on the 2.3-mile/17-turn natural-terrain road-course. Hauger never was challenged and pulled away from the field on restarts on Lap 4 and Lap 13.

Veteran Caio Collet of Brazil, who started second, kept Hauger honest in the early going. Collet stayed within about a second of the leader until he dropped down the order when his No. 76 HMD Motorsports car developed a throttle problem during the second caution period. That was triggered on Lap 11 when the No. 29 Grupo Indi car of Salvador de Alba of Mexico and the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing machine of Bryce Aron collided in Turn 5.

Papasavvas then inherited second place. He never threatened Hauger but held off Hughes, Rowe and Pierson over the closing laps to cap a stout series debut. The gap between second-place Papasavvas and fifth-place Pierson at the finish was just 1.8332-seconds.

The series shifted into high gear with this event, as a doubleheader looms this weekend on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road-Course. Race 1 of the Indianapolis Grand Prix is scheduled for 7 p.m. (EDT) Friday, May 9, with Race 2 at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 10. FS1, the FOX Sports app and INDYCAR Radio Network will provide live coverage of both 35-lap races.

NTT IndyCar Series Point Standings _ 1, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, 196; 2, Christian Lundgaard, Arrow McLaren, 136; 3, Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global, 127; 4, Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren, 108; 5, Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske, 105; 6, Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank Racing, 105; 7, Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, 104; 8, Colton Herta, Andretti Global, 99; 9, Will Power, Team Penske, 93; 10, Alexander Rossi, Ed Carpenter Racing, 82;

11, Josef Newgarden, Team Penske, 78; 12, Rinus VeeKay, Dale Coyne Racing, 78; 13, Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global, 65; 14, Marcus Armstrong, Meyer Shank Racing, 64; 15, Santino Ferrucci, A.J. Foyt Racing, 63; 16, Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 61; 17, Kyffin Simpson, Chip Ganassi Racing, 57; 18, David Malukas, A.J. Foyt Racing, 56; 19, Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter Racing, 55; 20, Nolan Siegel, Arrow McLaren, 48;

21, Sting Ray Robb, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 47; 22, Conor Daly, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 43; 23, Robert Shwartzman, Prema Racing, 35; 24, Callum Ilott, Prema Racing, 32; 25, Devlin DeFrancesco, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 30; 26, Louis Foster, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 30; 27, Jacob Abel, Dale Coyne Racing, 27.

FOX SPORTS’ 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES BROADCAST COVERAGE SCHEDULE

Sunday, March 2 _ Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla. (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Sunday, March 23 _The Thermal Club, Thermal, Calif.  (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Sunday, April 13 _ Streets of Long Beach, Calif. (Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global)

Sunday, May 4 _ Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala. (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Saturday, May 10 _ Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road-Course (FOX, 4:30 p.m.)

Sunday, May 25 _ Indianapolis Motor Speedway Oval (FOX, 10 a.m.)

Sunday, June 1 _ Streets of Detroit (FOX, 12:30 p.m.)

Sunday, June 15 _ World Wide Technology Raceway, Madison, Ill. (FOX, 3 p.m.)

Sunday, June 22 _ Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis. (FOX, 3:30 p.m.)

Sunday, July 6 _ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington (FOX, 2 p.m.)

Saturday, July 12 _ Iowa Speedway, Newton, Race 1 (FOX, 5 p.m.)

Sunday, July 13 _ Iowa Speedway, Newton, Race 2 (FOX, 2 p.m.)

Sunday, July 20 _ Streets of Toronto, Canada (FOX, 2 p.m.)

Sunday, July 27 _ WeatherTech Raceway, Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif. (FOX, 3 p.m.)

Sunday, Aug. 10 _ Portland (Ore.) International Raceway (FOX, 3 p.m.)

Sunday, Aug. 24 _ The Milwaukee Mile, West Allis, Wis. (FOX, 2 p.m.)

Sunday, Aug. 31 _ Nashville Superspeedway, Lebanon, Tenn. (2:30 p.m.)

NOTE _ All times Eastern. Dates and times subject to change.