If the last IndyCar round from Arlington, Texas made us believe that there was hope on the horizon for there being at least one driver capable of taking the fight to Alex Palou and beating him this season, then last weekend’s race in Barber taught us that it won’t be as easy as that. Palou returned to his dominant ways while behind him, many of his main rivals floundered. But there was some good news as the fourth round of the 2026 season gave us one of the best feel good stories of recent times.
Here are The Paddock Chronicle’s Key Takeaways from IndyCar in Barber.
Perfection from Palou
Pole Position for Alex Palou on Saturday already put a feeling of unease into everyone else on the grid – and rightly so. With David Malukas alongside him on the front row, there was hope of an opening melee between the two. But Palou immediately dispatched with the Team Penske driver and began to stretch his legs.
A different tyre strategy from the one many had expected from Palou also didn’t stop the Spaniard who instead, made it work for him – aided by smooth pit stops from the number 10 pit crew all race long. Towards the latter part of the race, it looked like Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard would be able to take the battle to Palou out front – more on that later – but it ultimately came to nothing. Palou won by thirteen seconds and now sits just two points shy of Kyle Kirkwood at the top of the standings.
Next time out, IndyCar races at Long Beach. Last year, Kirkwood defeated Palou at this venue and will be hoping to do so again. But Palou has positive momentum on his side and will be looking to correct one of the few wrongs from last season. Their potential clash does leave the door open for someone else though…
Lundgaard Launches Counter-Offensive
Thirty-Five points behind Kirkwood in the standings is Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard. With only a single blip of P13 on his docket for this year so far from Phoenix, the Danish driver is currently the best of the rest. For much of the race in Barber, it looked like he could not only close down the gap to Palou in first but repeat what Kirkwood did to the defending Champion in Arlington and beat him.
But a disastrous final pit stop by the Arrow McLaren team undid all of Lundgaard’s work on track. Lundgaard then struggled to get past Graham Rahal for the majority of the rest of the race, only managing to do so in its dying moments. It’ll be a bitter what if for him but one that will hopefully propel him back into action and into a great result when IndyCar goes racing in Long Beach.
Rahal’s Return to the Rostrum
Graham Rahal has been racing in IndyCar since 2008. In that time, he’s collected six race wins, five pole positions and twenty-nine podium finishes. After last weekend, that final number becomes thirty. Following a spectacular qualifying, Rahal fought tooth and nail all race long to maintain at least third position. Running in second for much of the final stint, even the most neutral of commentators would have been rooting for both Lundgaard and Malukas to stay behind the veteran driver.
But while the Arrow McLaren driver did pass him, the Team Penske driver wasn’t able to – despite an enormous amount of push to pass being available to him. Crossing the line in third gave Rahal his first podium since P2 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2023. It was a story that reminds us all of why we love motorsport and the stories that it can provide us with. Palou may have been happy to be winning again but it’s unlikely he’ll have been happier than Rahal on Sunday.
Failing at the Fundamentals
Ahead of the race weekend in Barber, Will Power spoke to the press about the undeniable threat that is Alex Palou. He acknowledged that sometimes, even when every other driver is performing at their best, it still may not be enough to overpower Palou. It’s what makes his, and other Championship contenders around him, such a frustrating talking point this weekend. Aside from Lundgaard, only Kyle Kirkwood was able to pull off a respectable result of P5.
Dixon was the best of the those other Championship contenders in seventh. Newgarden, Power and McLaughlin could only manage tenth, twelfth and sixteenth respectively. The latter two were hindered somewhat by massive crashes they had separately over the weekend and so spent the race navigating their way up through the field instead of fighting for top ten positions as they were meant to be.
Pato O’Ward had a disappointing weekend too, only able to finish as high as seventeenth. He sits in sixth place overall, fifty points – a full race win already – behind Kirkwood at the top of the standings.
None of these drivers can afford another weekend like the one they had in Barber if they want to be serious about taking on and beating Alex Palou. They all know that too which makes the situation all the more frustrating for outside observers relishing the idea of a proper Championship fight. Will these drivers bounce back in Long Beach or will Palou take back the Championship lead and leave them all in his dust?
Half a Dozen of One, Half a Dozen of the Other
Romain Grosjean had a rollercoaster weekend. After a near miss with Sting Ray Robb who impeded him in Practice, the French-Swiss driver went on to battle for Pole Position before ending up in sixth. But tyre degradation and subsequent strategy rewrote what would have been a brilliant story for the Dayle Coyne driver. Come the checkered flag, he had to settle for fifteenth.
ECR had a day to forget too with Rossi being the best of the two drivers but just missing out on a top ten finish in eleventh place. On the flip side of that, Marcus Armstrong had another strong weekend by finishing in sixth. It’s his third top ten finish of the season so far and puts him on the fringes of being considered part of the fight for the IndyCar Championship.
Meanwhile, Santino Ferrugi will be breathing a sigh of relief after he finally managed to get a good race result on the fourth time of asking. Eighth place for him is his best result since last season’s finale in Nashville.
Final Thoughts
Barber gave us a calm but tense Grand Prix, filled with tension until the very last corner on the final lap. But without any caution flags at any point, the jeopardy that usually comes into play in an IndyCar race had to be instead provided by an alternative source. In this case, it was Arrow McLaren and their blunder that cost us a potential grand stand finish for the race. But mistakes happen and that’s part of motorsport. Just two points now separate Kirkwood and Palou as we head west to Long Beach. While a two way fight for the Championship is an exciting prospect, other drivers, like those of Team Penske and Arrow McLaren need to rise up again too. If they don’t, the reign of Alex Palou may look set to continue for some time yet.
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IndyCar returns April 19th at Long Beach.
Feature Image: IndyCar Media Centre