Grand Prix of Alabama

The Indy Grand Prix of Alabama is an Indy Racing League IndyCar Series open-wheel race held at the Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham. Officially announced on July 27, 2009, the inaugural event took place over the weekend of April 9-11, 2010. The event is under contract through the 2012 season and under the management of the local group Zoom Motorsports and will be televised nationally on either ABC or Versus. The venue is designed to allow for nearly 100,000 spectators and will have an estimated economic impact on Greater Birmingham of $30 million.

The opportunity to pursue the event came after the Detroit Indy Grand Prix was discontinued. With an open date available, Birmingham made its pitch to IRL officials and was selected to hold the event over: Cleveland, Houston, Baltimore, Nashville, Charlotte and Portland, Oregon. IRL cited both strong support from both local and state government in addition to the large crowd the attended an IRL training session in March 2009 as factors in Birmingham being selected for the race.

2010 inaugural race

Charles Barkley was grand marshal and Taylor Hicks sang the national anthem.

Will Powers took the pole during qualifying.

Helio Castraneves held off Scott Dixon after a caution caused the race to resume with two laps to go. Marco Andretti led the most laps with 58, but had to pit late in the race, leaving Castroneves in the lead.

References

• Tomberlin, Michael (July 26, 2009) "Indy Car race coming to Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama." Birmingham News
• MacDonald, John A. (July 28, 2009) "IRL helps land Barber on the map." Birmingham News
• Tomberlin, Michael (January 28, 2010) "With Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at the Barber Motorsports Park, comes opportunity." Birmingham News