2010 Indy Grand Prix of Alabama

March 2026 March 2026 February 2025 USA Alabama Barber Motorsports Park.svg April 11 2010 Indy Grand Prix of Alabama 3rd IndyCar Series Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Alabama Road course 2.300 3.700 90 207.000 333.000 77 °F °C, clear skies Will Power Team Penske 1:10.1356 AUS Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 1:12.7853 53 UK Hélio Castroneves Team Penske BRA Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing NZL Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing GBR The 2010 Indy Grand Prix of Alabama was the third race of the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season. The race took place on April 11, on the 2.300 mi km on road course in Birmingham, Alabama, and was telecast by Versus in the United States. Report Background January 2011 Practice and qualifying January 2011 Race NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley waved the green flag over the inaugural Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Points leader Will Power, looking for his third win in a row led from pole followed by Mike Conway. Scott Dixon was ordered to relinquish third and fourth places to Hélio Castroneves and Marco Andretti respectively after being judged to have jumped the start. Replays showed that he reached the start line before Castroneves, after having started behind him. The first yellow flag was displayed on lap 12 for Japanese ex-Formula One driver Takuma Sato, who stopped on-course in Turn 13 after a throttle failure. During the yellow, many drivers decided to pit, including Power and Conway from first and second, but others decided to stay out, led by Castroneves and Andretti. Conway beat Power out of pit road but was ordered to give the position back after replays showed that Power had reached the pit lane blend line before Conway. On the restart, Andretti took the lead into Turn 5, and the leading quartet of Andretti, Castroneves, Dixon and Dario Franchitti rapidly distanced themselves from the rest of the field. Simona de Silvestro ran an impressive fifth, unable to keep pace with the top four but well ahead of sixth-placed Alex Lloyd. The drivers who had pitted under the caution, including Power, Conway, Ryan Briscoe and Justin Wilson were all stuck in the mid-pack. Andretti was the first of the leaders to make his first pit stop and he did so on lap 29. Castroneves and Dixon went two and one laps longer, respectively, but rejoined behind Andretti after their stops. The pace of the top three was such that Andretti, Castroneves and Dixon were still first, second and third after their stops, still ahead of Tony Kanaan, Will Power and the others who had stopped before or during the yellow. Franchitti moved back to fourth after Kanaan and Power pitted, but was now 7 seconds behind the leaders. Power rejoined sixth, and set about chasing down fifth-placed Simona de Silvestro. He passed her on lap 48 to take fifth, but he was 21 seconds behind fourth-placed Franchitti and 28 behind the lead trio. The leaders continued on in the same order as before, with Andretti making his second stop on lap 57 whereas Castroneves made his on lap 61, and Dixon on lap 60. This cycled Andretti back to the lead but, unlike Castroneves and Dixon, he did not have enough fuel on board to take him to the end. Andretti had now begun to hit traffic as the leaders began to lap the drivers at the tail of the field. This allowed both Castroneves and Dixon to close right up to Andretti, but Andretti was able to resist the pressure and keep them behind him. However, he was forced to make a quick fuel stop on Lap 82 and thus hand over the lead to Castroneves after having led for 58 laps. He rejoined fifth behind Franchitti and Power. On lap 85, with five laps left, Simona de Silvestro spun her HVM Racing car in Turn 5, apparently stalling the engine. This brought out a full-course caution and bunched the field up. Dixon was right behind Castroneves, but third-placed Franchitti had many lapped cars in between him and the lead duo. When the green flew, it left a two-lap shootout to the finish. Castroneves finished half a second ahead of Dixon and took his 17th Indy Racing League win, and was the 23rd of his career. He broke a tie with Emerson Fittipaldi to become the winningest Brazilian driver in IndyCar history. It was also his first win as a father, as he held his daughter Mikaella in victory lane. Franchitti held Power off to take third, and Andretti had to make do with fifth. Ryan Briscoe finished sixth in the third Penske car, with Justin Wilson, Tony Kanaan, Mike Conway and Alex Tagliani rounding off the top 10. Remarkably, all 25 starters were running at the finish; 25th place runner Sato finished 22 laps behind the leaders after the KV mechanics repaired his car. Classification Qualifying All cars were split into two groups of twelve, with the fastest six from each group going through to the "top 12" session. In this session, the fastest six cars progressed to the "Firestone Fast Six". The fastest driver in the final session claimed pole, with the rest of the cars lining up in session order, regardless of qualifying times. (fast six from 1–6, top 12 from 7–12 and round 1 from 13–25, with group 1 drivers occupying the odd–numbered grid positions, and group 2 drivers occupying the even–numbered grid positions. Pos No. Driver Team Group 1http://www.indycar.com/schedule/raceresults/55-izod-indycar-series/1801-indy-grand-prix-of-alabama-presented-by-legacy-credit-union/891-qualifications-round-1-group-1/ Indy Grand Prix of Alabama: Qualifying, Round 1 – Group 1 IndyCar Series Indy Racing League 2010-04-10 2010-04-10 https://web.archive.org/web/20100413193719/http://www.indycar.com/schedule/raceresults/55-izod-indycar-series/1801-indy-grand-prix-of-alabama-presented-by-legacy-credit-union/891-qualifications-round-1-group-1/ 2010-04-13 dead Group 2http://www.indycar.com/schedule/raceresults/55-izod-indycar-series/1801-indy-grand-prix-of-alabama-presented-by-legacy-credit-union/892-qualifications-round-1-group-2/ Indy Grand Prix of Alabama: Qualifying, Round 1 – Group 2 IndyCar Series Indy Racing League 2010-04-10 2010-04-10 https://web.archive.org/web/20100413194713/http://www.indycar.com/schedule/raceresults/55-izod-indycar-series/1801-indy-grand-prix-of-alabama-presented-by-legacy-credit-union/892-qualifications-round-1-group-2/ 2010-04-13 dead Top 12http://www.indycar.com/schedule/raceresults/55-izod-indycar-series/1801-indy-grand-prix-of-alabama-presented-by-legacy-credit-union/893-qualifications-round-2/ Indy Grand Prix of Alabama: Qualifying – Top 12 IndyCar Series Indy Racing League 2010-04-10 2010-04-10 https://web.archive.org/web/20100413194748/http://www.indycar.com/schedule/raceresults/55-izod-indycar-series/1801-indy-grand-prix-of-alabama-presented-by-legacy-credit-union/893-qualifications-round-2/ 2010-04-13 dead Fast 6http://www.indycar.com/Not-Found?item=%2fschedule%2fraceresults%2f55-izod-indycar-series%2f1801-indy-grand-prix-of-alabama-presented-by-legacy-credit-union%2f894-qualifications-round-3%2f&user=extranet%5cAnonymous&site=website Indy Grand Prix of Alabama: Qualifying – Fast 6 IndyCar Series Indy Racing League 2010-04-10 2010-04-10 https://web.archive.org/web/20120924062332/http://www.indycar.com/Not-Found?item=%2fschedule%2fraceresults%2f55-izod-indycar-series%2f1801-indy-grand-prix-of-alabama-presented-by-legacy-credit-union%2f894-qualifications-round-3%2f&user=extranet%5cAnonymous&site=website 2012-09-24 dead 1 12 AUS Will Power Team Penske 1:10.2595 1:10.1060 1:10.1356 2 24 GBR Mike Conway Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 1:10.7447 1:10.5581 1:10.6501 3 3 BRA Hélio Castroneves Team Penske 1:10.6187 1:10.4723 1:10.6569 4 26 USA Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport 1:10.8752 1:10.4171 1:11.0701 5 9 NZL Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 1:10.5937 1:10.6278 1:11.3557 6 5 JPN Takuma Sato (R) KV Racing Technology 1:10.3985 1:10.5646 1:11.4387 7 10 GBR Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing 1:10.5337 1:10.6307 8 11 BRA Tony Kanaan Andretti Autosport 1:10.9417 1:10.6903 9 6 AUS Ryan Briscoe Team Penske 1:10.7205 1:10.7602 10 8 VEN E. J. Viso KV Racing Technology 1:10.6449 1:10.7757 11 22 GBR Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 1:10.7389 1:10.7760 12 32 BRA Mario Moraes KV Racing Technology 1:11.0035 1:11.5219 13 78 SUI Simona de Silvestro (R) HVM Racing 1:11.0262 14 37 USA Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport 1:10.7449 15 67 USA Graham Rahal Sarah Fisher Racing 1:11.1495 16 19 GBR Alex Lloyd (R) Dale Coyne Racing 1:10.9524 17 06 JPN Hideki Mutoh Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing 1:11.2855 18 2 BRA Raphael Matos Luczo Dragon Racing de Ferran Motorsports 1:11.0507 19 7 USA Danica Patrick Andretti Autosport 1:11.5340 20 14 BRA Vítor Meira A. J. Foyt Enterprises 1:11.1348 21 77 CAN Alex Tagliani FAZZT Race Team 1:11.5669 22 34 BRA Mario Romancini (R) Conquest Racing 1:11.6020 23 4 GBR Dan Wheldon Panther Racing 1:11.6095 24 18 VEN Milka Duno Dale Coyne Racing 1:15.1422 25 36 BEL Bertrand Baguette (R) Conquest Racing 1:11.9800 Race Pos No. Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Laps Led Points 1 3 BRA Hélio Castroneves Team Penske 90 1:56:41.3928 3 20 50 2 9 NZL Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 90 + 0.5703 5 0 40 3 10 GBR Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing 90 + 8.1590 7 0 35 4 12 AUS Will Power Team Penske 90 + 8.6639 1 12 33 5 26 USA Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport 90 + 9.7410 4 58 32 6 6 AUS Ryan Briscoe Team Penske 90 + 10.9611 9 0 28 7 22 GBR Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 90 + 11.5478 11 0 26 8 11 BRA Tony Kanaan Andretti Autosport 90 + 12.8533 8 0 24 9 24 GBR Mike Conway Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 90 + 13.3162 2 0 22 10 77 CAN Alex Tagliani FAZZT Race Team 90 + 14.8450 21 0 20 11 4 GBR Dan Wheldon Panther Racing 90 + 15.2007 23 0 19 12 37 USA Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport 90 + 15.6727 14 0 18 13 32 BRA Mario Moraes KV Racing Technology 90 + 16.7242 12 0 17 14 2 BRA Raphael Matos Luczo Dragon Racing de Ferran Motorsports 89 + 1 Lap 18 0 16 15 06 JPN Hideki Mutoh Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing 89 + 1 Lap 17 0 15 16 8 VEN E. J. Viso KV Racing Technology 89 + 1 Lap 10 0 14 17 67 USA Graham Rahal Sarah Fisher Racing 89 + 1 Lap 15 0 13 18 14 BRA Vítor Meira A. J. Foyt Enterprises 89 + 1 Lap 20 0 12 19 7 USA Danica Patrick Andretti Autosport 89 + 1 Lap 19 0 12 20 36 BEL Bertrand Baguette (R) Conquest Racing 89 + 1 Lap 25 0 12 21 78 SUI Simona de Silvestro (R) HVM Racing 89 + 1 Lap 13 0 12 22 34 BRA Mario Romancini (R) Conquest Racing 89 + 1 Lap 22 0 12 23 19 GBR Alex Lloyd (R) Dale Coyne Racing 89 + 1 Lap 16 0 12 24 18 VEN Milka Duno Dale Coyne Racing 86 + 4 Laps 24 0 12 25 5 JPN Takuma Sato (R) KV Racing Technology 68 + 22 Laps 6 0 10 OFFICIAL RACE REPORT Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 AUS Will Power 136 2 BRA Hélio Castroneves 104 3 GBR Dario Franchitti 94 4 UK Justin Wilson 85 5 NZL Scott Dixon 80 Note: Only the top five positions are included. References 2 External links Indy Grand Prix of Alabama 2010 2010 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg 2010 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach None 2011 Indy Grand Prix of Alabama Indy Grand Prix of Alabama Indy Grand Prix Indy Grand Prix of Alabama Category:Grand Prix of Alabama