The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
The iconic race track at the Barber Motorsports Park is one of the top road courses in the world.
The Indy Racing League will be in Alabama on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at the Barber Motorsports Park near Leeds in Jefferson County.
This three-day event draws Indy racing league fans from across Alabama and beyond. The race itself will begin at 12 noon on Sunday. The race will be televised on NBC.
27 cars are expected to be in the field on Sunday. The teams were in Long Beach California last weekend.
Motorsports has a long storied tradition in Alabama. Both IndyCar and NASCAR have tracks in Alabama. The two racing leagues are very different. NASCAR to a point pretends to be modified version of popular sedans like the Toyota Camry or the Ford Mustang. Since even before the controversial 'car of tomorrow' NASCAR has diverged from its stock car roots significantly. Indy cars on the other hand have no resemblance at all to anything sold at a dealership. Indy Car uses the Dallara chassis and the cars typically have between 500 and 750 horsepower. A formula 1 car on the other hand typically runs a 1000 horsepower. Indy car teams cost about $15 million; while a Formula 1 team have a budget cost well north of $100 million.
IndyCar split from CART in the mid 1990s. CART went into bankruptcy at one point. The two racing leagues merged in 2019.
Barber is a permanent road course, and it can be treacherous. Eight cars were involved in a crash in 2021 on the first lap of the race.
The race weekend begins on Friday with the first practice. The second practice will be on Saturday starting at 11:15 a.m. CDT. Qualifying will follow at 2:30 p.m. CDT. Both sessions will air live on Peacock, INDYCAR LIVE and the INDYCAR Radio Network. The pre-race warmup will begin on Sunday at 9:15 a.m. CDT. Parking is at a premium; but there are shuttles from remote lots.
To purchase tickets:
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