Now, that we’ve all had time to take in what took place during Sunday’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park, let’s look back at how great of a race that it was.
For starters, after one of the more “boring” season openers in recent memory, it was good to see a lot of passing in the second week of the series.
Winner Will Power celebrates after proving he is still the driver to beat on road courses.
Literally, once the green flag fell, people were racing each other hard. It must have helped knowing what the new car could do. The drivers didn’t have that luxury heading into the race at St. Pete.
There were so many battles that took place throughout the day, ranging from the battle for the win between Will Power, Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves and James Hinchcliffe for most of the day. That involved in little bit of everything, from passing on track to pit strategy.
Even when that battle cooled down, the races for other positions were heating up. How much fun was it to see Sebastian Bourdais passing cars late in the race? It made us all feel like we were watching the guy who dominated Champ Car for all those years.
By the end, eight different teams were represented in top ten of the finishing order. When was the last time we could say that about the IZOD IndyCar Series?
The whole weekend was a success, as over 81,000 fans took in the weekend, according to information that Zoom Motorsports released. A lot of the talk heading into the event is how the promoters are trying to make the race into Alabama’s version of the “Indy 500.” Well, they are on pace for sure!
After seeing the first couple of races this year, there definitely should be praise given to a couple surprise drivers: Hinchcliffe and Simon Pagenaud. Hinch has been a contender for both wins already this season. And he has handled his time in the famous GoDaddy car very well. Pagenaud is a raw talent. He’s fifth in points on the Schmidt/Hamilton Motorsports team. That says enough right there.