Dario Franchitti won last year’s IndyCar championship with flair, overhauling Will Power in the finale after trailing most of the season.
Franchitti didn’t wait nearly that long to take command of Sunday’s Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
The two-time defending series champion passed Power for first place on a Lap 5 restart and went on to lead 94 of 100 laps for his first victory on the 1.8-mile downtown street course. Tampabay.com
“You see how close the field is, so every point matters,” said Franchitti, who tied three-time Indianapolis 500 champion Johnny Rutherford for 10th on the Indy car list with 27 victories. “This is a great championship, with a lot of quality teams and drivers. So you’ve got to fight all the way, and that’s exactly what this team does time after time. The key to our race was making the outside pass on Will on the second re-start.
“When I got a gap I was able to kind of control it; not abuse the tires too badly. I wanted to save something for the end just in case there was a last, three-laps-to-go restart or something. The car was running like a dream. It’s a great time to be an IndyCar driver, the series is on the ‘up’ and this will be a fantastic season.”
Power, the 2010 championship runner-up and Mario Andretti Road Course Championship Award winner, was 7.1612 seconds back.
“Dario was just crazy fast,” said Power, who led the first four laps. “Shortly after he passed me, someone hit me from behind. That damage took a bit of downforce off the car and it took a while to work our way back up to second, with some great pit stops from the team. But Dario was untouchable, so we’ll take a solid second as a good start to our season.” IndyCar.com
Tony Kanaan, the 2004 series champion who joined his new team Monday, held off Simona de Silvestro over the final few laps for third. De Silvestro enjoyed her best finish in 18 career starts.
A few hours after teammates Sebastien Bourdais and James Jakes crashed during a warmup session, five cars — all of them from the sport’s top three teams — found trouble in the first turn.
Penske teammates Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe were involved, as were two-time series champion Scott Dixon and Andretti Autosport teammates Mike Conway and Marco Andretti.
Andretti drove into Dixon from behind, sending Andretti for a wild ride. He flipped and landed upside down. He escaped without injury, walked toward his pit, paused to watch a huge replay board, then blamed three-time Indy 500 champion Castroneves for the melee.
“Helio just drove it in on all of us,” Andretti said. “He missed his braking point by a decent chunk. It’s unfortunate.” SunHerald.com
Castroneves accepted blame, saying he locked up his brakes.
“I feel terrible for the team, but you’ve got to move on,’’ Castroneves said.
Patrick was 12th, a disappointing start to her seventh IndyCar season. Patrick, who drove four races in NASCAR’s second-tier series before resuming her full-time IndyCar gig, was penalized one spot on the final lap for making “avoidable contact’’ with JR Hildebrand. SI.com
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IZOD IndyCar Series: Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg - Race Results
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