Dario Franchitti and pole sitter Will Power were among those who kept their cars' noses clean at the start and subsequent side-by-side restarts through 100 laps on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn street circuit by the bay, and that's the way they completed the season opener. Franchitti made a strong start in his bid for a third consecutive series championship (only two others in Indy car history have accomplished it) by running away from Power and the remnants of the 24-car field to win for the first time at St. Pete. He added two bonus points to the 50 for the victory by leading the most laps (94).
"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.”
Kanaan, who had only four practice sessions in the No. 82 GEICO KV Racing Technology-Lotus car since joining the team midweek, finished third and Simona de Silvestro finished a career-best fourth by advancing 13 positions in the No. 78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy/HVM Racing car.
"She did a great job and made me run for my money," said the 2004 series champion, who finished 0.4571 of a second ahead of the second-year driver. "It's a great start for me and my new team."
Takuma Sato also recorded an IZOD IndyCar Series-best fifth-place finish in the No. 5 KV Racing Technology-Lotus car. Alex Tagliani, driving the No. 77 Bowers & Wilkins car for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, wound up sixth. Raphael Matos, the '09 series Rookie of the Year, produced a seventh place for AFS Racing in its initial IZOD IndyCar Series start, advancing nine spots.
“I have to thank (team owner) Gary Peterson and everyone that believed in me," said Matos, who re-joined the team with which he won the 2008 Firestone Indy Lights Championship. "It was a very difficult race, but I was able to keep my nose clean … sort of. I pushed very hard that last stint on the (Firestone Firehawk alternate) tires, trying to get that sixth position. We had a goal of finishing in the top 10, so I’m really happy for the whole team.”
Speaking of starts, that's where the real news of the race was made. As Power led the field into Turn 1 at the green flag, the cars on Rows 2-5 bunched together as they converged on the tight right-hander with predictable consequences.
No. 3 Guidepoint Systems Team Penske car of two-time St. Pete race winner Helio Castroneves and Marco Andretti's No. 26 Venon Energy Drink car made contact, which resulted in Andretti's car banging with the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racig car of Scott Dixon and landing upside down.
Also involved were the Nos. 6 (Ryan Briscoe, who was quickest in the morning warm-up), 02 (Oriol Servia) and 27 (Mike Conway). Conway, who started fourth in his first race since suffering injuries in the Indianapolis 500 last May, and Andretti (Andretti Autosport teammates) were eliminated right off the bat.
After repairs, Dixon, Servia, Castroneves and Briscoe, his Team Penske teammate, re-entered the race, with Servia (ninth in the Telemundo Newman/Haas Racing car) the highest finisher. Interestingly, Castroneves recorded the fastest race lap (1 minute, 3.8683 seconds) on Lap 74.
“I took the green and had a good run going on the inside of (Ryan) Briscoe and then Helio (Castroneves) misjudged his breaking point and ran up into the back of me," said Andretti, who started seventh. "It was all a chain of events from there. I think having the cars start so close together is great for the fans but it was no good for me today.”
Added Castroneves: "As far as the incident, I'll have to look and see what happened, but it seems like I locked up the rear on the car. It's very disappointing, but we never gave up and we know we'll have better results next race."
Contributed Servia: “The two-wide restarts were not a problem for me. It's just that the two-wide restarts at this track are tricky because the inside line here is so dirty because this is an airport, there is paint, there is oil and that is why we had so many problems. If you look at the replay, it wasn’t just the restarts, it was the start itself too and we always start two-wide. It’s was just that the inside line here is one of the dirtiest of the season. It won’t be the case at Barber (April 10).”
Vitor Meira rose from 13th on the grid to eighth in the No. 14 ABC Supply car for A.J. Foyt Racing, while Justin Wilson (No. 22 TransSystems/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing) also was in the top 10. Rookie JR Hildebrand, driving the No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing car was one place ahead of Danica Patrick's No. 7 Team GoDaddy entry for Andretti Autosport in 12th. She was docked one position for avoidable contact on the final lap for bumping Hildebrand's car from behind.
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