BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK QUALIFYING NOTES
RACE RESULTS
8th: ALEXANDER ROSSI No. 20 Java House Chevrolet
15th: CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet
NEXT RACE: Sonsio Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, May 10 (FOX, 4:30 p.m. ET)
ALEXANDER ROSSI, NO. 20 JAVA HOUSE CHEVROLET
ALEXANDER ROSSI, No. 20 Java House Chevrolet, Finished 8th: “The Java House team called a great race from pit lane and that was about as much as we could do on the day. I am still a bit disappointed on our performance yesterday, I did think we had a quicker car than that. Ultimately, we knew we were going to have a tough stint on the black tires at some point because of where we started. We tried to get as much track position as we could on the alternate red tires and build a big enough gap that it wouldn’t hurt us too much, then did the black tires at the end. It was a lot of work to keep going and keep those guys behind us, but we managed.”
RACE RESULTS:
START: 15th
FINISH: 8th
STATUS: Running
LAPS COMPLETED: 90/90
OF NOTE:
- Alexander Rossi started 15th in today’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix. Rossi, who turned the 5th-fastest lap of the weekend’s opening practice session, knew he had a quick car underneath him despite his qualifying position. He immediately showed the pace in the No. 20 Java House Chevrolet, using his opening set of red Firestone Firehawks to gain five positions in the first lap of the race. By the end of Lap 2, Rossi was up to 9th.
- As one of the fastest cars on track, Rossi stretched his red tires to Lap 22. He cycled up to 2nd before making his first stop and selected a second set of red tires for the following stint. He remained in 9th for the duration of the stint, making his second stop just after the halfway point of the race.
- After his Lap 47 stop, Rossi found himself in the 7th position. He continued to increase his gap over surrounding cars before switching over to his mandatory set of primary black Firehawks on Lap 68. Rossi persevered through a tough final stint, managing to keep two hard-charging competitors on red tires behind him. Rossi would finish in the 8th position, his third Top 10 finish with ECR in the first four races of the season.
CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN, NO. 21 SPLENDA CHEVROLET
CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN, No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet, Finished 15th: “Tough weekend, I think. We thought we would roll off better than we did with how our recent test here went, but it seemed like nothing from the test correlated to the race weekend which put us on the back foot from the start. Qualifying P17 wasn’t great and with an all green race again, we become limited on what we can do. We maximized what we had with what we could do on strategy to end today’s race.”
RACE RESULTS:
START: 17th
FINISH: 15th
STATUS: Running
LAPS COMPLETED: 90/90
OF NOTE:
- Christian Rasmussen rolled off one row behind his teammate Rossi, starting from the 17th position. He used his opening set of red Firestone Firehawks to gain two positions before the conclusion of Lap 1; by the second lap, he was up to 14th. He maintained the position as the field began to spread out across the 2.3-mile course.
- Rasmussen made his first pit stop on Lap 22, remaining on alternate red tires for his second stint. As has been the case in the preceding events of the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, green flag conditions prevailed throughout the event. Though he was turning fast lap times, there were no passing opportunities and Rasmussen continued on until his second pit stop on Lap 48.
- Rasmussen concentrated on hitting his fuel number and managing his tires. He was able to be one of the very last cars to make his final pit stop, staying out until Lap 73. Rasmussen also had to finish the race on the requisite set of primary black Firehawk tires as he had saved them for his final stint as well. He too held off competitors behind him on red tires and secured a 15th-place result.