Scott McLaughlin proved once again that pure speed is the best strategy, dominating the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park for his second consecutive victory at the 2.3-mile road course. The 29-year-old New Zealander led 58 of 90 laps in his No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet, executing a three-stop pit strategy to perfection to claim his first win of the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season.

It was a triumphant bounce-back performance for McLaughlin and Team Penske after a challenging week. McLaughlin and teammate Josef Newgarden were controversially disqualified from the season opener in St. Petersburg due to a technical infraction, while Will Power received a points deduction.

Power had to settle for second, finishing 1.3 seconds behind his teammate after starting on the front row. Rookie Linus Lundqvist earned an impressive first career IndyCar podium in third for Chip Ganassi Racing after starting 19th.

Felix Rosenqvist and Alex Palou, who led laps trying to make a two-stop strategy work, rounded out the top five for Ganassi and Meyer Shank Racing.

McLaughlin exchanged the lead a couple of times with Palou’s alternate strategy before making his final pit stop on Lap 76. He then built a massive lead over Power before a late caution bunched up the field for a frantic two-lap shootout to the finish.

But McLaughlin kept his cool, executing a perfect final restart to keep Power’s Penske Chevrolet in his rear-view mirror. His back-to-back Barber wins stamp McLaughlin as the master of this challenging road course.

With the victory, Colton Herta takes over the championship points lead by just a single marker over Power. The series now heads to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Month of May, kicking off with the Sonsio Grand Prix on May 11 followed by the 108th Indianapolis 500 on May 26.