Race Recap
Will Power, driving the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car, held off Ryan Hunter-Reay on a Lap 71 restart and won by 0.9045 of a second. Takuma Sato, who started 25th because of an unapproved Honda engine change and overcame a Lap 12 pit lane speed violation penalty, earned his first IZOD IndyCar Series podium finish.
Power is the first driver since Scott Dixon in 2007 to win three consecutive races (Watkins Glen, Nashville, Mid-Ohio). With Helio Castroneves winning at St. Petersburg, it's the first time in his 44-year motorsports career that team owner Roger Penske has won the first four races of a season.
There were five full-course cautions, including incidents on Lap 29 and Lap 67 restarts that bottled up six cars and eight cars, respectively, in the slow speed Turns 1-2 complex to mix up the running order (i.e. On Lap 34, all four Brazilian drivers were in the top 10. Only Rubens Barrichello remained there in the box score).
"(The final restart) was the key to winning," said Power, the series leader by 45 points heading into the Indianapolis 500. "Ryan got a really good jump. I knew I just had to go like you wouldn't believe through the first complex of corners because I knew he could get a run on me. Ryan is one of the hardest guys you will ever race; he never gives up.”
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