Power dominates at Barber

Will Power opened his win account for 2011 with a comfortable victory in the Honda Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park, second round of the IZOD IndyCar Series. He admitted he'd barely broken a sweat most of the afternoon.

"It was a rather relaxing day, actually," said Power, who took the points lead heading into next weekend's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. "I was just cruising, but had to push, push toward the end."

Penske driver Power was able to control the race from the outset, edging into a three-second lead over his teammate Ryan Briscoe and Ganassi driver Scott Dixon's battle for second in the first stint, while Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) was stuck behind fourth-placed Oriol Servia. 

Franchitti jumped the Newman/Haas car at the first stops, which also saw Dixon take second from Briscoe. The latter was then moved aside by Franchitti in a wheel-banging moment at a restart during a string of mid-race yellows.

The first of these cautions came with Alex Tagliani – who had been running in the top 10 for Sam Schmidt – spun and stalled. The new two-wide restart rule then again seemed to trigger incident, as the first restart lap saw EJ Viso (KV) spin and collect James Hinchcliffe (Newman/Haas), and also force HVM's Simona de Silvestro to come to a halt. Hinchcliffe had earlier spun to the tail of the field on the opening lap.

The next restart also brought drama, with Mike Conway crashing his Andretti Autosports car heavily, and contact between Justin Wilson and Takuma Sato leaving the KV Dallara with a broken wing and the Dreyer & Reinbold entry with a puncture. Rafa Matos (AFS) was also involved in the incident and forced to retire (RIGHT).

A short green-flag period then followed until Ryan Hunter-Reay crashed into Briscoe on lap 58, the American having gotten into the top 10 on an alternate strategy and then surged up on the order as he made the most of being one of the few drivers on the softer " red" tires in the middle stint. The incident eliminated Briscoe and earned Hunter-Reay a penalty.

Hunter-Reay's teammate Danica Patrick was on a similar strategy and then jumped up to third behind Power and Dixon as she only took on fuel, not tires, when everyone pitted during the yellow called to retrieve Briscoe's car. But the tactic did not pay off. On her worn tires, Patrick was easy prey for the drivers behind, and was down to sixth within a lap of the restart. Having eventually tumbled to 15th, she decided to take on more tires before the flag.

After another quick yellow to tidy up a collision between Wilson and AFS' Raphael Matos, the race then ran green for the rest of the final stint, with Power keeping Dixon at a safe distance and Franchitti unable to keep up as he completed the podium. Afterward, Dixon expressed some unhappiness at Power's restart technique.

"It was a tough day for us," admitted Dixon. "We cruised around and saved a bit of fuel and I gave it all I could. I was trying to give as much pressure as I could on the restart with 20 laps to go and he [Power] just didn't give any.

"I felt that during the restart, Will was in my line because there was rubber on the left. But he picked to be on the left at the restart and I feel that he can't have the best of both worlds. He said during the race that he didn't know it was going on, but I feel that Will should have been corrected for taking my line during the restarts."

Franchitti, on the other hand, was pleased with how his restarts went.

"We had some good racing on the restart. That's what we've got to play with now and we've got to find ways to make positions – or not lose positions – on those side-by-side restarts. We did a good job today making positions and making things happen. I'd gone a bit longer on a tank of fuel than the guys we were racing against, and still keeping the same pace. From seventh to third, not a bad day for the Target team and we'll take it."

Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosports) drove a strong race to fourth, just ahead of Servia and the spectacular Tony Kanaan (KV), whose jump from 24th to 14th on the opening lap alone set the tone for a hard-charging afternoon that eventually took him to sixth. Afterward, he singled out teammate Sato for praise in helping him find a setup.

"I want to thank Takuma. He helped me out a lot with his setup. It is great to have someone who really cares and respects you," declared the Brazilian. "Thanks to him and his engineer we were able to turn the situation around and we ended up pretty strong. So, I am very pleased. We are just building it up here, and we are eventually going to get it."

Penske's Helio Castroneves had a tough day, running wide and falling from third to ninth on an early restart, having a minor collision with Sato, and then going off in avoidance when Graham Rahal (Ganassi) tangled with lapped Panther driver JR Hildebrand. Castroneves managed to get his battered car home in seventh, just ahead of Simon Pagenaud as the Champ Car veteran turned sports car driver made a brilliant IndyCar debut with Dreyer & Reinbold in place of the injured Ana Beatriz.

De Silvestro and Ganassi driver Charlie Kimball completed the top 10, helped by Vitor Meira (Foyt) running wide at the last restart and Dale Coyne's Sebastien Bourdais banging wheels with Sato in the closing stages.

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