Race Report: Children's of Alabama Grand Prix

LEEDS, Ala. (March 29, 2026) -- Driving the No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet, Santino Ferrucci delivered on his top-10 grid spot to take home a top-10 finish in the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park this afternoon before a huge crowd spread around the sprawling road course known as the "Augusta" of race circuits.

Ferrucci started seventh in the 25-car field and popped into sixth on the first lap. He was challenged on lap eight and Christian Lundgaard passed him but Ferrucci held his own cycling up to fourth by the time of his pit stop on lap 22.

Santino is greeted by crew member Hunter Ahrendt after the race.

Although he lost a bit of time and dropped to 12th as he was still on blacks while some teams switched to the quicker alternate tire, the strategy paid off and he was back in the top 10 by the halfway point of the 90-lap race which stayed in green flag conditions the entire distance.

Ferrucci finished eighth for his first top-10 finish of the season.

"A really solid result for the team," said Ferrucci. "It was great to have our three Veterans here with us from Homes For Our Troops today and overall, I'm just really happy. I think we executed this weekend to best of our ability."

Santino poses with Veteran Jeffery Williams, his nephew Shemar, and Noah Galloway, another Veteran who finished third on Dancing with the Stars years ago.

Ferrucci added, "There's obviously little things here and there that you can nit-pick, but as a whole, getting a top-ten in qualifying and a top-ten in the race really kicks off the momentum for the season, especially considering we haven't had the best of starts. I'm really proud of our Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet team. The guys have put in a lot of work and it's great to get a solid result."

Caio Collet, who was quick in his No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet in practice and would have advanced out of the first round in qualifying but for a slight mistake on his optimal lap. He started 21st and finished 21st. He was the top finishing rookie in the race as he was when he finished 12th at Arlington two weeks ago.

The Combitrans crew in action.

"Honestly, I expected to be a bit quicker," the 23-year-old Brazilian said afterwards. "I was struggling -- more than what I anticipated -- with the balance.  I think overall, it's a really hard track here to overtake. But some positives to take away are that we were definitely quite competitive yesterday morning, and also in qualifying, except the mistake that I did yesterday, starting at the back, was not easy. Today, I just need to figure out a little bit more the balance for the race, but we'll keep pushing."

Alex Palou claimed his 21st victory after starting from the pole position. Lundgaard finished second followed by Graham Rahal, David Malukas and Kyle Kirkwood.

The NTT INDYCAR Series takes a break in the action after a really busy month of March when they ran four races in five weekends. The Long Beach Grand prix is the next race on the schedule and it will be broadcast on FOX on Sunday, April 19th starting at 5:30 pm ET.

Santino poses with former NFL quarterback and Alabama football star A.J. McCarron who led his team to two national championships and is now the head coach of the UFL's Birmingham Stallions. He inscribed the helmet, "To A.J., Roll Tide, Santino 14.