Americans Flourish On A Road Course At INDYCAR

Josef Newgarden leads Scott Dixon during the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park. [Photo by: Chris Owens]

Carpenter Fisher Hartman (CFH) Racing’s Joseph Newgarden held off hard-charging Graham Rahal of Rahal Letterman Racing as two American drivers led the field of the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama to the checkered flag today at Barber Motorsports Park outside the city of Birmingham.

Scott Dixon of Ganassi Racing was third.

The victory was the first of Newgarden’s INDYCAR career, now in its fourth year. His previous bests were second place finishes on an oval track (Iowa) and the temporary street course in Baltimore.

“I was so nervous,” said Newgarden of his final laps at speed. “I’m normally not like that, but a win has been so long coming. I knew one day it would happen, and I can’t thank everybody (on the team) enough. I wouldn’t be here without all those guys.”

“The car was great, the fastest in the field,” he continued. “We were able to save fuel and able to get by other cars.”

Rahal used pit-stop strategy and impressive racing skill to his advantage over the last third of the race.

“I lost a few seconds (at the last pit stop),” he said, “but I drove as hard as I could. I drove every lap 110%. The car was very competitive. We’ve got to keep working hard and one of these days we will win one—it will all come together.”

Rahal made several passes on the outside of corners at Barber, moving handsomely up the running order to put himself into contention on the white flag lap.

Dixon yielded the runner-up spot to Rahal on the final lap, creating speculation that he might be running out of fuel near the end of the race. “Fuel was not a problem today. We just didn’t have enough at the end,” he said.

The race was highly entertaining with Chevy and Honda splitting the top two spots on the podium.

INDYCAR championship points leader Juan Pablo Montoya suffered an ill-handling car throughout the weekend, but managed to retain his lead over Penske Racing teammate Helio Castroneves when the latter ran out of fuel in the race.

INDYCAR now takes a brief competition vacation until May 7th when practice commences for the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s permanent road course.

Allan Brewer

Allan Brewer covers IndyCar and other racing series for RacingNation.com. Allan is a fixture at the race track, armed with keyboard and camera, eager to take you inside open-wheel sport where the news is being made. He comes to RacingNation.com with multiple professional awards from the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association (AWWRBA). He began his motorsports writing career at FastMachines.com; and solely published IndyProRacer.com and A1GP.com, two award-winning websites for open-wheel racing’s junior leagues, prior to becoming IndyCar correspondent at Motorsport.com. He has also covered Formula 1, NASCAR, Formula E, the Indy Lights Series and its predecessor Indy Pro Series, NHRA events and major auto shows. His major interest outside of competition is automotive technology and its application to the cars we drive every day on the public highways.

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