Having an IRL race at Barber became a possibility in 2007 when the league had testing session at the facility on October 12, 2007. The test would also serve in evaluating the track as a potential site for a race beginning in the
2009 season. By July 2008, IRL revealed its 2009 schedule with new races being held at
Long Beach and
Toronto, but not at Barber. However local officials indicated that Barber was under strong consideration for a 2010 date. Officials remained confident that the track would gain a race in the future due to the desire of the IRL to expand into
the South, as well as the location of the
Honda Manufacturing of Alabama plant in nearby
Lincoln,
Honda being an official engine supplier of IRL. Initially, Zoom Motorsports looked to have the Detroit race moved to Alabama for the 2009 season; however, the league decided in February 2009 to not replace the event on its schedule. With an open date available for 2010, Birmingham made its pitch to IRL officials and was selected to hold the event over
Cleveland (
Burke Lakefront Airport),
Houston,
Baltimore,
Nashville,
Charlotte and
Portland. IRL cited both strong support from both local and state government in addition to the large crowd that attended an IRL training session in March 2009 as factors in Birmingham being selected for the race. ==Past winners==