Thirteen seconds. That was the final gap between Alex Palou and the rest of the IndyCar field at Barber Motorsports Park on Sunday. It was the kind of margin that makes a race look like a procession, but Palou himself says that’s a lie.
“If you look at the result and you don’t follow the race, the timing, maybe then you look like you were so much faster than everybody else,” the four-time champion said. “That was not the truth.”
The truth is more interesting. Christian Lundgaard, driving the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, was eating into Palou’s lead at nearly half a second per lap on fresher alternate tires. On Lap 52, Palou’s advantage sat at 7.2 seconds and was shrinking.
Lundgaard’s strategy of staying out four laps longer than Palou on the final stint was working. The race was alive. Then Lundgaard’s crew botched the right-rear wheel change.
His final pit stop ballooned to 17.8 seconds, roughly nine seconds slower than normal. He came out third, behind Graham Rahal. Game over.
Lundgaard drove like a man robbed. He made 11 on-track passes in the race, seven for position inside the top 10, both race highs. He knifed past Rahal in Turn 5 with three laps remaining to salvage second, but salvage is the operative word.
We had the car to win the race,” Lundgaard said flatly. “We had the pace, we had the track position at the time.”
Even Palou acknowledged the threat was real. He admitted to struggling on the used primary Firehawk tires he was forced to run, calling the middle of his race difficult. His opening and closing stints were dominant, but the part in between is where Lundgaard found daylight.
None of that will show up in the record books. What shows up is Palou’s 21st career victory, his third at Barber, and his second win in four races this season. He led 79 of 90 laps in a caution-free race.
He now sits just two points behind championship leader Kyle Kirkwood after trailing by 26 points entering the weekend. And there’s an unsettling historical note for the rest of the paddock: both previous times Palou won at Barber, he went on to claim the championship.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing had its best day in nearly three years. Graham Rahal started third, finished third, and held off David Malukas down the stretch for his first podium since August 2023 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. The 36-year-old veteran looked genuinely moved.
Kirkwood, meanwhile, quietly did what he’s done all season: finished in the top five. His fifth-place result extended his streak to four consecutive top-fives to open 2026, including a win at Arlington. That kind of metronome consistency is how you lead a championship, even if a guy like Palou is the one grabbing headlines.
Honda flexed hard at Barber, putting all five of its teams into the Firestone Fast Six in qualifying and claiming three of the top five finishing positions. Will Power, starting from the back after a qualifying crash, climbed 11 spots to 12th in his Andretti Global Honda. Less fortunate were Mick Schumacher and the RLL rookies, who finished 24th and 25th respectively.
The series heads to the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 19, Honda’s home race. Palou arrives carrying momentum that borders on inevitability. Lundgaard arrives knowing he had the speed to beat the best driver in the series, and that a single wheel nut was the difference between a statement win and another second-place trophy collecting dust.
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