Australian driver Ryan Briscoe leads the IndyCar championship after winning a thrilling and crash-strewn season-opener in St Petersburg, Florida.
In his third season for highly-rated Team Penske, 27-year-old Briscoe grabbed the lead from a restart with 14 of the 100 laps to go and held out a fierce challenge from American Ryan Hunter-Reay to win by just 0.4619s.
It was Briscoe’s third Indycar series win, following two last season when he finished fifth in the championship.
Click Here For More IndyCar Series Photos
And it was especially satisfying for Briscoe as he’d failed to finish this race in his previous two attempts.
“Finally,” Briscoe said as he emerged from his No. 6 Dallara-Honda car.
“This place has been bad to me. It feels so good to finally get to the end of this race.
“It’s great to start off the year like this.”
Penske driver Briscoe overtook England’s Justin Wilson for the lead on a re-start 14 laps from the finish of a race littered with crashes.
Briscoe stayed in front as Hunter-Reay, pressing on new tyres, got around Wilson and tried to chase down the Aussie.
Wilson making his debut with Dale Coyne Racing, dominated much of the race.
“I couldn’t quite get the re-start there at the end,” he said. the British driver said. “But it was a good day, a good way to get started with this team.”
Former series champion Dario Franchitti, returning to IndyCar after spending part of last year in NASCAR, ran a solid race and finished fourth.
Click Here For More IndyCar Series Photos
Graham Rahal, who won his IndyCar debut here last year and then won his first series pole this week, was spun out by Tony Kanaan in the first turn of the race as all the leaders bunched up. Rahal and Kanaan both had to pit for repairs and wound up charging from the rear of the 22-car field.
Kanaan wound up fifth and Rahal followed Will Power, Briscoe’s new teammate, across the finish line in seventh.
The 20-year-old Rahal, son of three-time series champion and 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal, was still upset after the race.
Fan favorite Danica Patrick and reigning series champion Scott Dixon both had forgettable days.
Patrick wound up 19th after a crash involving rookie Raphael Matos. Dixon, who was 22nd here a year ago, finished 16th after making contact with Hideki Mutoh and then slamming into the wall.
| 
|