Barber flashback: A pleasant surprise in 2012

Barber Motorsports Park’s reputation as a track that was too narrow for IndyCars to produce solid racing on was successfully rehabilitated in last year’s running of the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.

In previous events on the 2.3-mile road course outside Birmingham, the lone major passing zone had been the Turn 5-6 hairpin known as ‘Charlotte’s Web.’ But in 2012’s action-packed affair, which served as the road course debut for the turbo-charged Dallara DW12, wheel-to-wheel battles ensued all over the track in places that hadn’t been considered ripe for passing opportunities before.

When the dust settled, however, a familiar name was atop the podium. Will Power came from ninth on the grid to claim his second career win at Barber, withstanding a restart challenge from Scott Dixon at Lap 74 and pulling away to a 2.7-second win.

He later said that he thought a victory was not possible after qualifying as far back in the field as he did.

“We went in thinking that we have to kind of be a little off strategy to the other guys to be able to pass around here,” Power said. “So we started on black [primary] tires, everyone else started on [alternate] reds. We went to reds when everyone was on blacks. That got us a couple of spots.

“Then…Good stops and good strategy calls put me out in clean air, so we could use our speed. We slowly passed one by one. It was a very good team effort, absolute team effort. The strategy was perfect. The stops were perfect.”

Power would credit Firestone’s softer tire compounds on both the primary and alternate tires for the amount of passing overall.

“I really thought, as green as the race was, you put it down to the tires really, the fact that the tires had a discrepancy from brand-new to old of up to two seconds, three seconds,” he said. “That allowed for good passing. It really eradicated fuel saving because often we go in, we start lifting, fuel saving. Doing that with the tires eradicated that.

“It was just hard racing. I ran hard the whole day, never saved fuel.”

Dixon came home second, followed by Helio Castroneves in third, Graham Rahal in fourth and Simon Pagenaud in fifth.