Birmingham, Ala. (Thursday, April 27, 2023) – Nearly two months after the opening Grand Prix of the INDY NXT™ by Firestone season on the streets of St. Petersburg, Irish driver James Roe looks to get his season rolling this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park for round two of the INDY NXT™ by Firestone series.

The 24-year-old Irish driver showed his pace in his No. 29 Topcon Andretti Autosport Dallara in pre-season testing. Unfortunately, neither he nor the No. 29 crew got to show their strong potential in the opening round in St. Petersburg as Roe retired with an unfortunate mechanical issue.

Opportunity awaits at Barber for Roe, who announced a partnership with The Ireland Funds earlier this week. With  17 turns and 80 feet of elevation changes, the flowing 2.3 mile road course offers lots of surface for Roe to find a great result for his partners in Topcon, CES Power, Strong Roots, Ring Power Corporation along with The Ireland Funds.

“I’m looking forward to getting back in the No. 29 Topcon car and getting our season going again,” Roe said. “After the large gap from St. Pete, we have been working away extremely hard in the background and there is a lot of positive energy in the team at the moment. It is time to put it all to good use.”

If recent showings are anything to go by, It should be a fierce battle Sunday afternoon, as the top 20 drivers in the field were separated by less than nine tenths of a second during qualifying at round one.

ABOUT THIS RACE

Race: INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Alabama

Season: Race 2 of 14

Date: 12:55 p.m. ET Sunday, April 30

Track: Barber Motorsports Park (17-turn, 2.3-mile road course)

Other Sessions: Practice, 2:40-3:25 p.m. ET Friday, April 28 and 11-11:45 a.m. Saturday, April 28. Qualifying, 2:20 p.m. Saturday, April 30.

Broadcast: Race live on Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network (U.S.), INDYCAR Live! (outside of U.S.). Practice and qualifying on INDYCAR Live!, INDYCAR Radio Network (globally). Sky F1 UK (Europe).

ABOUT JAMES ROE

Hometown: Naas, Co. Kildare, Ireland

Residence: Indianapolis

Age: 24

2023 Car: No. 29 Topcon Andretti Autosport Dallara

Social: @jamesroe_ie (Instagram), @jamesroe_IE (Twitter), @JamesRoeJr (Facebook)