Dario Franchitti has won the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. After an action-packed 85-lap IndyCar race on the legendary street track, Franchitti held off Will Power and Tony Kanaan for victory. Danica Patrick and Dan Wheldon rounded out the top-five.
Starting from second, Franchitti made the best of his strategy to take control of the race. The Ganassi driver came in for his first pitstop right before rookie Mike Conway hit the tyres in turn one and caused a full-course caution. Franchitti jumped polesitter Will Power and soon enough blasted away from the rest of the pack, despite several other safety car periods undoing his advantage. As the checkered flag dropped, the 2007 champion edged out Will Power (Penske) by three seconds.
Meanwhile, the Andretti-Green drivers significantly upped their game compared to Saturday's qualifying. Lead by Tony Kanaan, the AGR's strategic gambles paid off, vaulting them to the front of the grid by mid-race. Kanaan finished third, ahead of a strong Danica Patrick who started from 22nd. Marco Andretti was kept from fifth by Dan Wheldon (Panther) and posted one of the quickest laps of the race.
The story of the weekend was Helio Castroneves' dramatic return to the series after being acquitted of tax evasion charges. After a long trial in Miami, last year's runner up scrambled back to Long Beach on Friday night to reclaim his number 3 Penske car. Castroneves wasted no time getting back up to speed. The Brazilian finished in seventh, with an unlucky strategy preventing a better result.
Behind Castroneves, Raphael Matos (Luczo Dragon) crossed the line in eight after qualifying in third, ahead of fellow rookie Robert Doornbos from Newman/Haas/Lanigan. Conquest's Alex Tagliani passed St. Pete star Ryan Hunter-Reay (Vision) on the final lap of the race to complete the top-ten.
Not unlike the season opener in St. Peterburg, the Long Beach proved to be an incident-packed affair. Several isolated incidents saw drivers including Mike Conway, Ed Carpenter, Mario Moraes and Stanton Barrett all making contact with the tyre barriers around the 2-mile track.
A quarter into the race, five cars (Wilson, Mutoh, Manning, Wheldon and Moraes) got caught in a traffic jam in the tight hairpin before the start-finish line, ending Justin Wilson's race on the spot.
Graham Rahal was on for a good result when a disastrous pitstop ended his Long Beach ambitions. Rahal was sent out too early by his Newman/Haas/Lanigan crew while the fuel hose was still attached to the car. Rahal was subsequently handed a drive-through penalty and dropped back to 12th.
Series champion Scott Dixon didn't have the best of races either. After bumping E.J. Viso out of the race early on, he got hit by Ryan Briscoe under yellow. His 15th place is only one place better than at St. Petersburg. St. Pete winner Briscoe was too given a drive-through penalty and finished down in 13th.
Dario Franchitti now leads the point standings with 84 points out of two events. Will Power trails by 15 points, just ahead of Ryan Briscoe (-17) and Tony Kanaan (-19). Reigning champ Scott Dixon is down in 17th, 55 points behind team-mate Franchitti.
Next weekend, the IndyCar Series heads off to Kansas for a race on the 1.5-mile oval.
Filip Cleeren
Written: Sun, 19 Apr 2009 22:31:04
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- October 11, 2009Franchitti claims second IndyCar crown
- August 24, 2009Franchitti wins in Sonoma
- July 12, 2009Franchitti grabs classic Toronto win
- July 12, 2009Franchitti takes Toronto pole
- June 22, 2009Franchitti claims Iowa win
- June 06, 2009Franchitti takes Texas pole
- April 19, 2009Franchitti wins at Long Beach
- April 17, 2009Franchitti tops Long Beach practice
- (April 19, 2009)View all headlines from this date
