Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama
IndyCar Series
VenueBarber Motorsports Park
LocationBirmingham, Alabama
Corporate sponsorHonda
First race2010
Distance2.38 miles (3.83 km)
Laps90
Most wins (driver)Josef Newgarden (3)
Most wins (team)Team Penske (6)
Most wins (manufacturer)Chassis: Dallara (12)
Engine: Chevrolet (7)

The Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama is an IndyCar Series race held at Barber Motorsports Park, a 17-turn 2.38-mile (3.83 km) road course, in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. Officially announced on July 27, 2009, the inaugural event was on the weekend of April 9–11, 2010.[1][2] The event is under the management of the local group Zoom Motorsports. The venue is designed to allow for nearly 100,000 spectators and will have an estimated economic impact on Greater Birmingham of $30 million.[1]

History

Having an IRL race at Barber became a possibility in 2007 when the league had testing session at the facility on October 12, 2007.[3] The test would also serve in evaluating the track as a potential site for a race beginning in the 2009 season. By July 2008, IRL revealed its 2009 schedule with new races being held at Long Beach and Toronto, but not at Barber.[4] However local officials indicated that Barber was under strong consideration for a 2010 date.[4]

Due to the success of the testing session in 2007, Barber was selected for a full-field, three-day testing session in March 2009.[5] Officials remained confident that the track would gain a race in the future due to the desire of the IRL to expand into the South, as well as the location of the Honda Manufacturing of Alabama plant in nearby Lincoln, Honda being an official engine supplier of IRL.[5]

The opportunity to pursue the event came after the Detroit Indy Grand Prix was discontinued.[1][6] Initially, Zoom Motorsports looked to have the Detroit race moved to Alabama for the 2009 season; however, the league decided in February 2009 to not replace the event on its schedule.[7] With an open date available for 2010, Birmingham made its pitch to IRL officials and was selected to hold the event over Cleveland (Burke Lakefront Airport), Houston, Baltimore, Nashville, Charlotte and Portland.[1] IRL cited both strong support from both local and state government in addition to the large crowd that attended an IRL training session in March 2009 as factors in Birmingham being selected for the race.[1]

Past winners

Season Date Driver Team Chassis Engine Tires Race Distance Race Time Average Speed
(mph)		 Report Ref
Laps Miles (km)
2010 April 11 Brazil Hélio Castroneves Team Penske Dallara Honda Firestone 90 214.2 (344.721) 1:56:41 106.436 Report [8]
2011 April 10 Australia Will Power Team Penske Dallara Honda Firestone 90 214.2 (344.721) 2:14:43 92.194 Report [9]
2012 April 1 Australia Will Power Team Penske Dallara Chevrolet Firestone 90 214.2 (344.721) 2:01:40 102.081 Report [10]
2013 April 7 United States Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Dallara Chevrolet Firestone 90 214.2 (344.721) 1:52:05 110.818 Report [11]
2014 April 27 United States Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Dallara Honda Firestone 69* 164.22 (264.286) 1:40:43 94.537 Report [12]
2015 April 26 United States Josef Newgarden CFH Racing Dallara Chevrolet Firestone 90 214.2 (344.721) 1:55:53 107.176 Report [13]
2016 April 24 France Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Dallara Chevrolet Firestone 90 214.2 (344.721) 1:48:42 114.254 Report [14]
2017 April 23 United States Josef Newgarden Team Penske Dallara Chevrolet Firestone 90 214.2 (344.721) 1:54:09 108.809 Report [15]
2018 April 22/23 United States Josef Newgarden Team Penske Dallara Chevrolet Firestone 82* 195.16 (314.06) 2:01:14 93.335 Report [16]
2019 April 7 Japan Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara Honda Firestone 90 214.2 (344.721) 1:55:46 107.272 Report [17]
2020 April 5 Canceled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic [18]
2021 April 18 Spain Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara Honda Firestone 90 214.2 (344.721) 1:52:53 110.025 Report [19]
2022 May 1 Mexico Pato O'Ward Arrow McLaren SP Dallara Chevrolet Firestone 90 214.2 (344.721) 1:48:39 114.304 Report [20]
2023 April 30 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin Team Penske Dallara Chevrolet Firestone 90 214.2 (344.721) 1:47:58 115.019 Report [21]

Notes

  • 2014: Race postponed same day and shortened to 100 minutes due to lightning policy.[22]
  • 2018: Race suspended until Monday after 23 laps due to heavy rain. The race was resumed as a timed race with 75 minutes remaining.[23]
  • 2021: Race rescheduled from April 11 to April 18 after the Long Beach Grand Prix was rescheduled and to allow for network television coverage.[24][25]

Indy Lights winners

Season Date Winning Driver Winning Team
2010 April 11 France Jean-Karl Vernay Sam Schmidt Motorsports
2011 April 10 Spain Víctor García Team Moore Racing
2012 April 1 Colombia Sebastián Saavedra Conquest Racing
2013 April 7 Colombia Carlos Muñoz Andretti Autosport
2014 April 26 United States Zach Veach Andretti Autosport
April 27 Colombia Gabby Chaves Belardi Auto Racing
2015 April 25 United States Spencer Pigot Juncos Racing
April 26 United States Spencer Pigot Juncos Racing
2016 April 25 United Arab Emirates Ed Jones Carlin
April 26 Uruguay Santiago Urrutia Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
2017 April 22 France Nico Jamin Andretti Autosport
April 23 United States Colton Herta Andretti Steinbrenner Racing
2018 April 21 Mexico Patricio O'Ward Andretti Autosport
April 22 Mexico Patricio O'Ward Andretti Autosport
2019 Not Held
2020 April 4 Canceled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
April 5 Canceled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
2021 April 17 Sweden Linus Lundqvist Global Racing Group with HMD Motorsports
April 18 United States David Malukas HMD Motorsports
2022 May 1 Sweden Linus Lundqvist HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Tomberlin, Michael (July 26, 2009). "Indy Car race coming to Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama". The Birmingham News.
  2. ↑ Tomberlin, Michael (July 27, 2009). "It's official: 3 Indy car races coming to Barber Motorsports Park". The Birmingham News.
  3. ↑ Bolton, Mike (October 2, 2007). "Star drivers to test at Barber Course is potential 2009 series event". The Birmingham News.
  4. 1 2 Demmons, Doug (July 31, 2008). "Barber misses cut for 2009 Indy race". The Birmingham News.
  5. 1 2 Bolton, Mike (December 7, 2008). "IndyCar Series drivers to conduct test session at Barber: Preseason testing bodes well for possible race at Barber in 2010". The Birmingham News.
  6. ↑ "INDYCAR: Detroit Canceled for 2009, Vision Racing Trims Staff". speedtv.com. 2008-12-18. Archived from the original on 2008-12-19. Retrieved 2009-07-26.
  7. ↑ Demmons, Doug (February 6, 2009). "Barber Motorsports Park won't get '09 IRL race". The Birmingham News.
  8. ↑ "2010 Indy Grand Prix of Alabama". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  9. ↑ "2011 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  10. ↑ "2012 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  11. ↑ "2013 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  12. ↑ "2014 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  13. ↑ "2015 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  14. ↑ "2016 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  15. ↑ "2017 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  16. ↑ "2018 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  17. ↑ "2019 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  18. ↑ Patchen, Tyler (March 13, 2020). "Indy Grand Prix of Alabama canceled due to COVID-19". Birmingham Business Journal. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  19. ↑ "2021 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  20. ↑ "2022 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  21. ↑ "2023 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  22. ↑ Koelle, Christian (April 22, 2018). "Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama Postponed". Frontstretch. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  23. ↑ Robinson, Mark (April 22, 2018). "Heavy rain suspends Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama". IndyCar Series. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  24. ↑ "IndyCar shifts Barber opener back a week to air on NBC". Racer. January 22, 2021. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  25. ↑ Brown, Nathan (January 21, 2021). "IndyCar to move Barber season-opener back one week to April 18". The Indianapolis Star. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
Preceded by
Grand Prix of Long Beach		 IndyCar Series
Indy Grand Prix of Alabama		 Succeeded by
GMR Grand Prix
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