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Barber Motorsports Park (Leeds, Ala.) — If stats don’t lie, Alex Palou won the INDYCAR race Sunday by 13.2775 seconds over Christian Lundgaard. In this case, Palou says stats lie. He didn’t deliver the butt-whipping that leading 79 of 90 laps and that margin of victory would indicate. Lundgaard had a slow final pit stop and with no cautions, couldn’t make up the time. [BARBER HIGHLIGHTS: Alex Palou Coasts to Repeat in Alabama] “If you look at the result and you don’t follow the race, the timing, maybe then you look like you were so much faster than everybody else,” the driver of the Chip Ganassi No. 10 car said in his postrace news conference. “That was not the truth. “We had an amazing car. We had an amazing race. But it was not easy. It was tough.” Here are my takeaways: 1. Palou Still Has It Even though he’s not the season-long points leader — Kyle Kirkwood, driver of the No. 27 car for Andretti Global, has a two-point lead on Palou — the three-time defending series champion Palou is showing similar strength to last year. Maybe he’s not that dominant, but he still has shown that when other drivers or teams make mistakes, he will make them pay. Lundgaard might have caught him and made a race of it, but Palou, even though he had to use one more set of the primary tires (the harder of the two compounds, which means they are slower but last longer) than originally planned, never had a hiccup on the 2.3-mile course. “Alex is the same Alex as last year,” Lundgaard said in his postrace news conference. “I just do think there are cars and drivers that are showing up more this year than last year.” 2. Lundgaard Frustration Justified Christian Lundgaard, driver of No. 7 for Arrow McLaren, lost about 10 seconds on a pit stop when the team had trouble tightening the right rear wheel. He had pitted five laps later than Palou and felt with the fresher tires and the potential to actually come out of the pits ahead of Palou, he would have had a chance to win the race. Instead, for the second consecutive year, Lundgaard finished second to Palou at Barber. [ALL ABOUT BARBER: Track the Vision of Dairy Farmer who Loved Motorsports] “With the pace and how the race panned out today, we had the car to win the race, Lundgaard said. “We had the pace, we had the track position at the time. “I’m not really sure what happened in the pit stop. … It’s unfortunate.” 3. Kirkwood Still Tops Kyle Kirkwood finished fifth, good enough to retain the points lead. And considering he probably had at-best a fifth-place car, that’s what champions do. And why did he finish fifth? His team executed flawlessly, and that meant a nice rebound from a subpar weekend on pit road in the previous race. “We had a really clean day on pit lane,” Kirkwood told me and other reporters after that race. “That’s what we had in [the first two races at] St. Pete and Phoenix. So back to normal.” 4. Malukas Making It Happen David Malukas, driver of the No. 12 car, didn’t feel his team chose the right tire strategy as far as when to have the harder primary tires and the softer alternate tires, but he still finished fourth. And for the second consecutive race, he was the top-finishing Penske driver. There’s something to be said for that as the replacement for Will Power is proving he is deserving of the ride as he has two top-five finishes in the first four races. “A good points day, we learned a lot, and we keep going from here.,” Malukas told me and other reporters after the race. 4 ½. What’s Next There are two weekends off before INDYCAR returns to the track on the streets of Long Beach. The Long Beach race is traditionally one of the marquee events of the year and is the last street course until Detroit, which comes the weekend after the Indy 500. Kirkwood won that race a year ago and will be the favorite following his win on the most recent street course at Arlington. “We’re going to a really good track next in Long Beach,” Kirkwood said. “A couple weeks off to get our head in the game there, go into it leading the points, and hopefully do what we did last year.”​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

After a couple of races away from the winner’s circle, INDYCAR’s most dominant driver has picked up another win. Alex Palou raced to victory at the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix on Sunday, getting his second victory in four races in the 2026 INDYCAR season. Palou dominated Sunday’s race, leading for 79 of the 90 laps. He finished just over 13 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Christian Lundgaard, who was also the runner-up at last year’s Alabama Indy Grand Prix. This marks Palou’s second straight victory at Barber Motorsports Park. He actually won last year’s race in slightly more dominant fashion, leading that race for 81 laps before beating Lundgaard by over 16 seconds. Graham Rahal finished third in Sunday’s race at Barber Motorsports Park. It’s his best finish in a race since 2023. Here’s the full top 25 from the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix: 1. Alex Palou 2. Christian Lundgaard 3. Graham Rahal 4. David Malukas 5. Kyle Kirkwood 6. Marcus Armstrong 7. Scott Dixon 8. Santino Ferrucci 9. Marcus Ericcson 10. Josef Newgarden 11. Alexander Rossi 12. Will Power 13. Felix Rosenqvist 14. Rinus Veekay 15. Romain Grosjean 16. Scott McLaughlin 17. Pato O’Ward 18. Nolan Siegel 19. Christian Rasmussen 20. Kyffin Simpson 21. Caio Collet 22. Sting Ray Robb 23. Dennis Hauger 24. Mick Schumacher 25. Louis Foster​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

Alexi Lalas doesn’t want the United States men’s national team to brush aside goalkeeper Matt Turner’s performance in its 5-2 loss to Belgium in Saturday’s friendly. With the World Cup just over two months away, Lalas believes Turner’s outing on Saturday was devastating enough that it should cost him the opportunity to compete for the United States’ starting goalkeeper job with Matt Freese “Some day may start today for certain people, but I don’t think it starts today when it comes to Matt Turner,” Lalas said on the latest episode of “State of the Union.” “You are going to be associated with shipping five goals. You, unfortunately, Matt Turner, don’t get the benefit of the doubt because I do think that Freese is the incumbent. “I think we would all agree that this position has been such a position of quality and talent over the years — we’re going into the second World Cup in a row, from a men’s perspective, where there are questions about our goalkeeping, and that’s not something we’ve had to worry about in the past.” Saturday’s outing was actually Turner’s first start in net for the men’s national team since June of last year. In that start, Turner gave up four goals in a 4-0 loss to Switzerland. Freese started in net for the USA in the 12 games after that showing, including all six matches in the nation’s run to the CONCACAF Gold Cup final last summer. Freese averaged a goal allowed per match during that tournament, and has largely provided solid play in net for Team USA since he took over for Turner. The 27-year-old New York City FC goalkeeper has eight wins in those 12 starts, including three clean sheets. But U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino sounded as if he wanted to see Turner so he could evaluate his form in case Freese gets hurt. The U.S. was ahead before Belgium got a 45th-minute equalizer, the first of five straight goals. “Matt Freese was playing a lot in the last year with us and I think we thought that it was necessary to provide the opportunity to another keeper,” Pochettino said. “For the World Cup, circumstances can happen.” Turner, 31, was the U.S. starter at the 2022 World Cup, giving up four goals in four matches in that tournament. But he’s had some struggles since late 2023, allowing 23 goals in his last 12 appearances for the national team. Still, Pochettino emphasized the desire to get a full look at his squad as the 2026 World Cup nears. ‘It’s not that when you concede a goal, it’s only the keeper or mistake of the keeper,’ Pochettino said. “It is good to see him to perform after a long period. We all know that he has experience in the national team and in the previous World Cup, and that is a point that we need to use, use being in the starting 11 or not.” Turner hasn’t gotten off to a great start to 2026 with his club team, either. He’s surrendered nine goals in the New England Revolution’s first four matches this season, and holds a 65.4 save percentage. Last season, Turner gave up 16 goals in 10 matches for the Revolution after rejoining the squad in August. Despite the struggles, Turner’s confidence hasn’t wavered. “My overarching theme for earning that opportunity again is just to continue to be myself, to go out there,” Turner said. “Obviously, they’ve seen something that they like that I’m doing in training. They’ve seen something they like in my performances in New England. “I understand and feel in my bones that this coaching staff is very fair and they’re going to give people that deserve chances a chance,” Turner added. “So just stay calm. I know that a lot can change in three months time and it did from September to November back in the last go-around.” Lalas, however, believes Turner should return to the bench for the United States’ next match against Portugal. “I don’t think Matt Turner did anything to win the job back or change anyone’s mind — in fact, he might have gone the opposite direction — but Freese is the incumbent simply because he’s played the last 13 games, not because he’s necessarily a great goalkeeper,” Lalas said. “If there was ever a moment to shine, obviously it’s going to be this summer. I would absolutely play Freese in this next game.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports