Barber Motorsports Park is 8,200 miles from Scott McLaughlin’s native Christchurch, New Zealand, but the track is becoming his home away from home.

McLaughlin led the opening practice for the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix powered by AmFirst on Friday, turning a top lap of 1 minute, 7.7245 seconds in the No. 3 Odyssey Battery Team Penske Chevrolet.

SEE: Practice Results

The picturesque, 17-turn, 2.3-mile road course at Barber has become one of McLaughlin’s best tracks in North America since he left the Supercars championship in Australia and New Zealand after three consecutive titles and joined the NTT INDYCAR SERIES full time with Team Penske in 2021. He won this race in 2023 and 2024, finished third last year and has finished sixth or better in four of his five Barber starts.

“Pretty good start for us on the Odyssey Battery Chevy,” McLaughlin said. “We were all strong, which is a good sign for the team. We’ve done a lot of hard work in the offseason to figure out where we can be better. We’ve still got a lot to learn and be better and stronger.

“Overall, a pretty good start for us. Bring on tomorrow.”

Up next is the second practice at 11 a.m. ET Saturday, followed by NTT P1 Award qualifying at 2:30 p.m. ET Saturday (FS1, FOX One, FOX Sports App, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls for both sessions). Live coverage of the 90-lap race starts at 1 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX, FOX One, the FOX Sports app and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls.

Series leader Kyle Kirkwood was second in today’s 64-minute session, split into three groups, on a tightly packed time sheet at 1:07.4128 in the No. 28 JM Bullion/Gold.com Honda of Andretti Global. Unlike McLaughlin, Barber has not been a strong track for Kirkwood, whose best finish here is 10th in 2024.

2022 Barber winner Pato O’Ward was third at 1:07.4158 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, followed by teammate Christian Lundgaard at 1:07.4379 in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. David Malukas rounded out the top five at 1:07.5456 in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet.

Three-time Barber winner Josef Newgarden was sixth at 1:07.5600 in the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet as Team Penske and Arrow McLaren combined to take five of the top six spots. Still, just .1760 of a second separated those six drivers.

Alex Palou

Four-time series champion Alex Palou, who scored a dominant victory last season at Barber, was seventh at 1:07.6733 in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (photo, above). Palou, who won the season opener on March 1 at St. Petersburg, trails Arlington winner and series leader Kirkwood by 26 points in the standings.

Caio Collet was the quickest of the three series rookies on the daunting, fast, flowing circuit, 21st at 1:08.2692 in the No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet of AJ Foyt Racing.