Simon Pagenaud dominated the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports, but had to withstand a late-race challenge from Graham Rahal to seal the victory. ""We are just on a roll," Pagenaud said in victory lane. "The car is amazing and I am so comfortable driving that PPG car. We made it exciting at the end for the fans, which is great. I am happy there was some action."

The two drivers swapped the lead twice in the final ten laps a they battled through traffic and even made contact with each other. However, Pagenaud seized the lead for good with five laps remaining after Rahal got together with Jack Hawksworth and broke his front wing. Rahal held on for second, while Josef Newgarden got around Will Power for third in the final laps. Juan Montoya made a charge from 21st on the grid to finish fifth.

The initial start saw the race's only caution, as Carlos Munoz bumped Mikhail Aleshin into Jack Hawksworth, sending both cars off the track as the field took the green flag. Neither car was damaged, though, and both drivers continued on, albeit at the back of the field for the restart. Munoz was also placed at the back for his role in the incident.

When the green flag fell again, Pagenaud shot off into the lead while chaos reigned in turn five. Sebastien Bourdais got sideways on the brakes entering the corner and speared into the back of Scott Dixon, breaking his front wing and sending Dixon into a spin. Both continued on and no caution flew, but both drivers endured long days afterward, though Dixon did rebound to finish tenth.

Elsewhere, a number of drivers put on early charges. Montoya rocketed forward ten spots to run 11th after starting 21st. Marco Andretti swept through the field to tenth after starting 19th. Ryan Hunter-Reay bulldozed his way to 12th after starting 18th. While Andretti's and Hunter-Reay's runs would stall, Montoya kept his charge going.

Up front, though, Pagenaud ran largely unchallenge through two cycles of pit stops, leading all but two laps along the way. However, his lead shrunk drastically as the final round of pit stops approached as he was stuck behind the lapped car of Conor Daly, allowing teammate Will Power to quickly close the gap. Graham Rahal, who moved around Josef Newgarden earlier in the stint, also took advantage to close the gap to the two leaders.

Power's chances to win, though, evaporated as his final stop, which ran a couple seconds as he waited for a full load of fuel. Rahal, subsequently jumped around Power during the sequence and cleared the lapped Daly with 17 laps remaining, allowing him to set his sights on Pagenaud.

Again, lapped traffic allowed Rahal to quickly close the gap, and with nine laps to go, Rahal made a move exiting turn five. However, Pagenaud tried to shut the door entering the next corner, both drivers made contact, and Pagenaud took the grass, allowing Rahal through into the leader.

No action was taken by Race Control and Pagenaud quickly regrouped and closed back in, with Rahal now stuck behind Jack Hawksworth. Both drivers battled and tried to the A.J. Foyt Racing driver exiting turn five, but but Rahal the back of the Briton's car as he lifted to let the leaders by. The contact broke Rahal's wing, making him a sitting duck for Pagenaud, who quickly swept by to retake the lead. "I thought I was the best on the long run all day, and quite simply we just let this one slip today," said a disappointed Rahal about the battle. "This one I feel like should have been ours. I let the guys down. Definitely felt like at the end we had the car to beat and just kind of took my eye off the ball there for a second when Jack was in front of us and (I) looked down, pressed push-to-pass and by the time I looked up and got my reaction, it was a little too late. Just had a brain lapse there for a second and I got into the back of Jack."

Pagenaud credited Rahal for his effort, despite the contact, but was pleased that he came out on top. "That was a really good piece of driving from him but it was a late pass and that is not a corner that you can pass. I went off and it made me really upset too. So I said I am going to pass him back and that’s what I did. The car is amazing and I am so comfortable driving that PPG Car," Pagenaud explained.

Rahal was able to hold on for second ahead of a fast charging Josef Newgarden, who passed Will Power with two laps remaining to take third and expressed excitement about taking momentum with him into the month of May. "Pretty decent weekend for sure!" Newgarden asserted "You know, it's great to go out with a great result in the Fuzzy's car. We have the 100th Running bottle so everybody has been pretty excited about that. So I was really happy to get a good result for those guys. It is going to be a really fun month of May for sure."

Behind them, Juan Montoya waged a battle with James Hinchcliffe for fifth for much of the race, but eventually pulled away over the final stint to complete the top five. "The Verizon Chevy was very good. We had a good car all weekend, but just in qualifying, our tires just didn't come in," Montoya explained. "I don't know what happened and we'll go back and look at what went wrong there. We knew we had a fast car. It was fun and we made some good moves today."

Pagenaud's second win in a row gives him a 44 point over Scott Dixon as the Verizon IndyCar Series takes a couple weeks off before heading to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis on May 14.