Preview: 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama

Photo Credit: Dan Helrigel

The Notes and Know:

The Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg marked the first time that the Dallara DW12 was unleashed with the opening of the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR competition. This weekend, the brand new race car will roam the sweeping, twisty road course of Barber Motorsports Park. The visit to the 2.38-mile Barber Motorsports Park road course early in the season for the IZOD INDYCAR Series will be the third year in a row. Unlike the temporary St Petersburg street course, the race track of Barber Motorsports Park has already been lapped by the new race cars through a multi-day test session in 2012 IZOD INDYCAR pre-season.

After the first-ever event with the updated racing vehicles, the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series' return to a multi-engine formula appeared to have contributed to a higher than accustomed to rate of mechanical issues for some race competitors compared to season INDYCAR seasons. The elevation changes and the high-speed turns of Barber Motorsports Park will provide another unique test for the new Dallara open wheel race cars. In a contentious engine battle between Chevrolet, Honda and Lotus, Chevy has claimed the initial upper hand when Helio Castroneves guided a Penske-owned vehicle to victory at St Petersburg.

For fans, the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama should provide an interesting spectacle. All 26 cars that debuted in the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series opener will be present at Barber Motorsports Park. Will Power will be looking to defend his pole which led to a flag-to-flag victory at last year's Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.


Barber Motorsports Park
Birmingham, Alabama
Track Type: 17-turn road course
Track Distance: 2.38 Miles
Race Length: 90 laps/214.2 miles
Race Time: 2:00 PM Eastern

2011 Defending Race Winner: Will Power


IZOD INDYCAR Entry List

	Car #	Driver	Driver Nationality	Race Team	Engine Supplier
1	2	Ryan Briscoe	Australia	Team Penske	Chevrolet
2	3	Helio Castroneves	Brazil	Team Penske	Chevrolet
3	4	JR Hildebrand	United States	Panther Racing	Chevrolet
4	5	EJ Viso	Venezuela	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
5	6	Katherine Legge	England	Lotus-Dragon Racing	Lotus
6	7	Sebastien Bourdais	France	Lotus-Dragon Racing	Lotus
7	8	Rubens Barrichello	Brazil	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
8	9	Scott Dixon	New Zealand	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
9	10	Dario Franchitti	Scotland	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
10	11	Tony Kanaan	Brazil	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
11	12	Will Power	Australia	Team Penske	Chevrolet
12	14	Mike Conway	England	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Honda
13	15	Takuma Sato	Japan	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda
14	18	Justin Wilson	England	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda
15	19	James Jakes	England	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda
16	20	Ed Carpenter	United States	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet
17	22	Oriol Servia	Spain	Lotus-Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Lotus
18	26	Marco Andretti	United States	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
19	27	James Hinchcliffe	Canada	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
20	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	United States	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
21	38	Graham Rahal	United States	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
22	67	Josef Newgarden	United States	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	Honda
23	77	Smon Pagenaud	France	Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports	Honda
24	78	Simona de Silvestro	Switzerland	Lotus-HVM Racing	Lotus
25	83	Charlie Kimball	United States	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
26	98	Alex Tagliani	Canada	Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian	Lotus