IndyCar Finds Its ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ – Extends Contract With Barber Motorsports Park For Five More Years

What seemed like a gamble in 2010 has turned into one of the most popular and successful events on the IndyCar calendar.

Barber Motorsports Park has become IndyCar’s “Sweet Home, Alabama.”

Prior to this past Sunday’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix, IndyCar and ZOOM Motorsports – the promoter of Barber Motorsports Park – announced a five-year contract extension that will keep the high-speed racing series at George Barber’s beautiful 17-turn, 2.3-mile natural road course through the end of this decade.

The beautiful facility on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama is just 35 miles west of NASCAR’s iconic Talladega Superspeedway, but the two events are worlds apart.

Talladega is 2.660-miles of grim, edge-of-your-seat drama where catastrophe lurks in every turn.

Barber Motorsports Park is pristine and beautiful, like a well-prepared golf course.

It has earned the nickname “The Augusta National of Motorsports.”

Fans bring their lawn chairs, tents and coolers and pick out one of the many great viewing areas around the race course to watch the top drivers and teams in the NTT IndyCar Series battle.

This past Sunday, they saw a thrilling race for the victory between two of the fiercest competitors in IndyCar. Romain Grosjean of Andretti Autosport and Scott

McLaughlin of Team Penske battled it out for most of the 90-lap contest. These were the same two drivers that battled for the win in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and were racing side-by-side in the latter portion of the race before both crashed into the tire barrier.

Sunday in Alabama, the two renewed their rivalry in a fierce but clean fight. Grosjean led 57 laps and was on a two pit stop strategy, having to race fast enough to protect the lead, but slow enough to conserve fuel.

McLaughlin used a three pit stop strategy, which allowed him to race as fast as his car allowed, without concern for fuel consumption because the extra stop gave him an extra tank of fuel.

That strategy worked as McLaughlin passed Grosjean with 19 laps to go and would go on to score the fourth NTT IndyCar Series victory of his career by 1.7854-seconds over the driver from France.

The fans loved the pure racing aspect of the contest, which was slowed just one time for caution for just three laps.

That’s much different than what NASCAR fans witnessed the week before at Talladega Superspeedway, which invariably is determined by major crashes and caution periods.

But the two events appeal to two different types of spectators. That is why IndyCar at Barber has proven to be a stunning success, despite the fact it is deep in the heart of Dixie.

There are many reasons for that, beginning with the automotive industry.

Honda, Hyundai, and Mercedes all have large manufacturing facilities located in Alabama. The state is third in the United States in number of vehicles produced.

When Mercedes first came to Alabama in 1995, the state previously produced zero cars.

That has brought technology and expertise to the state. Also, UAB has a large medical apparatus that brings engineers and medical technicians to the state.

That has transformed the economy over the last 30-40 years to an area that was previously known as the “Pittsburgh of the South” because it produced steel and iron ore.

Today, it’s a very modern economy based on technology and that fits in well with the IndyCar crowd.

“Start with the product,” Zoom Motorsports CEO Gene Hallman told me before the race. “The IndyCar Series is phenomenal. The first couple of years they came here, there wasn’t much passing. But now, because of tires changes and push to pass, and by learning this facility and where the passing zones are, it has become so much more exciting.

“Then you take this park, which is more than a race course, it’s a beautiful park-like setting with so many places to watch the action from grass banks, picnic blankets and pop-up tent. And, you have the world’s largest collection of motorcycles and Lotus cars over in the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum located onsite.

“This has become a bucket-list item for a lot of IndyCar fans.”

It was back in 2009 when the idea of an IndyCar race at Barber was first conceived. The series was invited to Barber Motorsports Park to test the facility and see if an IndyCar race was feasible on the narrow track that was built for motorcycle racing.

The test went well enough that both sides decided to gamble on an actual race in 2010.

An IndyCar race 35 miles from Talladega? They must be crazy, was the general thinking in the racing community.

“I was scared to death,” Hallman admitted. “I was listening to some of the cynics that were talking about IndyCar won’t work in the Deep South 45 minutes from Talladega.

“But it has far exceeded my wildest expectations.

“We have grown the IndyCar fanbase here in Central Alabama. We can look at the Indianapolis 500 TV ratings and see that it is going up because we have more IndyCar fans here.

“A lot of people come here for the festivities and the social atmosphere, and they get hooked on the racing. That’s great that we are converting a lot of people to IndyCar.”

Sunday’s IndyCar race at Barber Motorsports Park was the 13^th straight year for the event.

It was also the first with a new sponsor as Medical Properties Trust
MPW
took over the entitlement from Honda, which had sponsored the race since 2010.

“Medical Properties Trust became the sponsor and then they turned around and gave the title sponsorship to Children’s of Alabama, a world class children’s hospital based here in Birmingham and does such great work for so many kids,” Hallman said. “It’s a showcase event for them. It allows us the resources to make this event one of the best on the IndyCar Series schedule.”

According to Hallman, ticket buyers for this past weekend’s IndyCar race came from 42 different states and 12 foreign countries. He said Sunday’s crowd was the biggest at the track since 2015.

“We have a lot of fun things for fans to do, whether they are race fans or not,” Hallman said. “I think it’s the Barber Motorsports Park and the museum that brings in so many visitors from out of state. They want to come in and see this facility, they have heard about it, it becomes a bucket list item for many of these fans and the Park is the primary draw.”

George Barber is the reason it all exists. The former dairy owner donated $125 million to a foundation that owns the property. It remains the largest philanthropic donation in Alabama history.

“It was his vision that built this,” Hallman said. “It is busy virtually year-round hosting a wide variety of events. But it’s this IndyCar that is the signature event that puts this place on the map both nationally and internationally.”

Hallman is also involved with Bruno Events, a company that promotes and supports some of the major golf tournaments in the Birmingham area that are part of the famed Robert Trent Jones Trail of courses created by golfing legend Bobby Jones.

He sees many similarities between the two fan bases.

“This is very much a demographic that likes things that are first class,” Hallman said. “This is often called the ‘Augusta National of Racing” and you have to see it to believe it.

“Every tree that is indigenous to North America is on site at the property. All the flowers and the shrubs, everything is immaculate.

“You get the feeling of a first-class golf facility that is also a first-class racing facility.

“We want to keep pulling people out here and ultimately turn them into race fans that want to come back more and more.”

Hallman loves having the date as the race that leads into the “Month of May” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It helps give Barber Motorsports Park a unique position on the schedule as interest starts to build leading into the biggest month of the year for IndyCar heading to the Indianapolis 500.

Mark Miles is the CEO of Penske Entertainment, which owns IndyCar, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the Indianapolis 500.

Miles and another member of senior management at the Penske Corporation, Michael Montri, put the schedule together for IndyCar and work with the promoters.

“For 13 years now, if it’s Spring, IndyCar is going to be at Barber Motorsports Park and they are going to have a great crowd,” Miles told me before the race. “This is such an awesome place. It’s gorgeous. Fans have a great time. They have a great experience. It’s technical, good racing for us and they are great partners.

“To be able to extend this is big for us. I want to thank Mr. Barber, who built this gorgeous place and has been a fabulous host since the first day here.”

Miles believes the track has the best of both worlds because there is a bit of an overlap of fans that go to both Talladega and Barber Motorsports Park, but over the last 13 years, it has created some loyal IndyCar fans in the area.

“We’ve been very, very fortunate,” Miles said. “We really like, and they really like being the last IndyCar race before we head to Indianapolis for the Month of May.”