Motors, Malice, and Mannequins: A Barber Indy GP Primer

While our hearts are in Indiana, all eyes will be on Birmingham for the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park. (1:30 ET on FOX)

Barber Motorsports Park is easily the most beautiful circuit on the IndyCar calendar with its lush rolling hills and massive sculptures strewn across the grounds earning it the nickname “The Augusta of Motorsports.” Natural terrain road courses have a bad reputation for a lack of passing but nobody told Barber. The 2 pit stop strategy and the 3 stop strategy have been very closely matched under the current formula. Having two distinct groups running very different races makes for high drama and bold moves throughout the grid. While we’ve learned to expect the unexpected at Barber, even mannequins falling from the sky, there are some patterns to be found in the data and some clear favorites to fill out your GridRival team.

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Penske, Penske, Penske

Team Penske was making headlines for all the wrong reasons entering the 2024 Barber Indy GP. It had just been revealed that Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin had used push-to-pass illegally on starts and restarts at The GP of St. Petersburg. The team maintains that this was an honest mistake, software accidentally left installed in the cars from a preseason test. The rest of the paddock didn’t buy it. Regardless, Josef’s win and Scott’s 3rd place finish were vacated and Will Power was docked 10 championship points just for good measure. 

What’s a team to do when they’ve made the heel turn from ‘Penske Perfect’ to bonafide villains? Win the next race of course. And why not take 2nd too?

The most obvious storyline entering the weekend is Scott McLaughlin’s attempt to win his 3rd race in a row at Barber. That's impressive enough on its own but Penske’s dominance reaches further than that. Team Penske has won 8 of the 14 races IndyCar has run at Barber. Digging even deeper, Team Penske entries at Barber have an average finish of 8.24 with 3 or 4 cars entered per race. Let that sink in. Scott may be the obvious choice but Will Power and Josef Newgarden have two and three wins respectively and can’t be overlooked. Every lineup should have a Penske driver. Or two. Or three.

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Andretti Global? More like Andretti Flat Earth

Andretti are riding high after Kyle Kirkwood's win at Long Beach but you must resist the temptation to jump on that train this week. Street courses are Andretti Global’s key strength and, while that was an impressive showing for the team, I don’t expect that to carry over to Barber.

In the past 5 races at Barber Andretti has only scored 10 top 10 finishes and only one top 5. Not the results you expect from a blue-chip team. I don’t consider Andretti drivers to be ‘must-drop’ but I would wait to sign any drivers to new contracts until we get back to Indianapolis.

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Chip Ganassi Juggernaut

It's no secret that Chip Ganassi Racing is good. Really good. They’ve been good for over 35 years but the Alex Palou era is different. Lately we don’t ask “Who could win this week?” instead we ask “Who could beat Alex Palou this week?” 

Barber is no exception. In his four starts at Barber, Palou has never finished outside the top 5.

Alex Palou is not a value play, he tops the charts with a GridRival salary of $29.8 million but if you have the money to burn he is as close as you can get to guaranteed points.

Don’t worry though, there are deals to be had in the Ganassi camp outside of the Speedy Spaniard.

Kyffin Simpson is in the same equipment and knows what to do with it. His good-not-great results to start the year have held his salary down to $9.3M despite a respectable points haul of 113 at Long Beach. Kyffin had an unassuming finish of 14th at Barber last year but scored 9 overtakes from his 23rd place starting position on his way to a respectable total points score of 106. (if GridRival’s IndyCar game had been running last year) 

Kyffin Simpson is a solid value play, especially if he manages to qualify well.

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Chip Ganassi Extended Universe

Meyer Shank Racing became Ganassi’s sister team this year and they’ve benefited greatly from the information that's been shared with them. Felix Rosenqvist and Marcus Armstrong are both solid choices for Talent Driver but I give the edge to Marcus. Felix had a nasty crash in testing at Barber in March and has already been off track in Friday’s practice. The positive take is that he’s comfortable exploring the limits at Barber. The negative take is that he doesn’t know where those limits are. He’s figured it out before; finishing 4th last year and scoring 109 points. 

I have Felix under contract and am comfortable with that risk but Armstrong would be the safer play.

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Wild Card

In the same way that MSR is an extension of Ganassi, A.J. Foyt Racing is an extension of Team Penske. 

Santino Ferrucci is one of the most aggressive drivers in IndyCar and, while that may never change, his racing IQ is rising. A brilliant strategy call at Long Beach helped Santino gain a whopping 16 positions on his way to a total GridRival score of 129.

Last year at Barber Ferrucci drove to 7th from 17th on the starting grid and would have scored an eye watering 151 points. If he can repeat that performance this year his $16.4M salary would be money well spent. 

Santino Ferrucci is a boom or bust type of driver but all signs this week are pointing to boom.

The comment section is on X @BenScruggsGP

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