Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama Qualifying Report

#10: Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Alex Palou Qualifies Third at Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama

  • Defending race winner, series champion Alex Palou tops NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying for Sunday’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama
  • Alexander Rossi rebounds from morning practice session crash to qualify fifth

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (April 30, 2022) – Alex Palou, the popular winner of last year’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama and eventual 2021 NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion, once again led the way for Honda today in qualifying for Sunday’s 90-lap contest at the scenic Barber Motorsports Park.

Palou was one of two Honda drivers to advance to the final round of Firestone “Fast Six” qualifying, and will start his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda from third. Meanwhile, Alexander Rossi and his Andretti Autosport team rebounded from a crash in this morning’s practice session, completing repairs to the #27 Honda in time for Rossi to also advance to the final round, and will start fifth.

Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama Qualifying Results

  • 3rd Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  • 5th Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport Honda
  • 8th Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport Honda
  • 9th Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
  • 10th Colton Herta Andretti Autosport Honda
  • 12th Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  • 13th Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  • 14th Christian Lundegaard-R Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
  • 15th Jack Harvey Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
  • 16th Helio Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing Honda
  • 17th Takuma Sato Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda
  • 18th David Malukas-R Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda
  • 20th Devlin DeFrancesco-R Andretti Autosport Honda
  • 24th Simon Pageaud Meyer Shank Racing Honda
  • 26th Jimmie Johnson Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

R – Rookie

Quotes

Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) will start third, defending race and series champion: “It was a busy session; it was really close. The car was really fast, and we were

improving every session. I’m really happy with the #10 The American Legion Honda and the starting position [third] for tomorrow. Same place we started [the race] in last year, and we won it.”

Alexander Rossi (#27 Andretti Autosport Honda) qualified fifth: “I’m so grateful to everyone at Andretti Autosport. Not just my guys, but guys from all my teammates cars and the Honda engineers. It was a thrash [to complete repairs after a crash in morning practice], so I just appreciate the efforts in getting me back out there. Fifth is fine. You’re always hoping for a little bit more in qualifying, but we’ll go back, look at the data to see where the car’s actually at, and go from there in the race tomorrow.”

Fast Facts

Honda-powered drivers and teams have won the two most recent NTT INDYCAR SERIES races at Barber Motorsports Park. Driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Takuma Sato dominated the race in 2019; starting from the pole and leading 74 or the 90-lap contest to score the victory. Honda drivers swept the victory podium that year, with Scott Dixon finishing second, and Sebastien Bourdais third.

The Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama was not run in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic; but opened the 2021 season, with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou scoring his career-first Indy car win. Palou went on to win the 2021 INDYCAR Drivers’ title as Honda recorded its fourth consecutive INDYCAR Manufacturers’ Championship.

Other Honda-powered winners at Barber Motorsports Park include Helio Castroneves, who won the inaugural INDYCAR race here in 2010; Will Power in 2011; and Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2014.

Where to Watch

Television coverage of Sunday’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama starts at 12:30 p.m. EDT on NBC Peacock, and at 1 p.m. on NBC. Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on NBC Peacock, the INDYCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation (Channel 160).

Honda Racing social media content and video links from this weekend’s activities from Barber Motorsports Park can be found on Instagram (www.instagram.com/hondaracing_hpd), Twitter (twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD). Additional features and long-form videos can be found on the Honda Racing/HPD YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV).