Power returns to winning ways at Edmonton

Will Power got his IndyCar title bid back on course after two non-finishes by winning at Edmonton.

The Penske driver held off intense late pressure from teammate Helio Castroneves and points leader Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) to secure his fourth victory of the year.

Polesitter Takuma Sato had led the opening 19 laps under pressure from Power, Scott Dixon (who swapped places twice early on) and Franchitti. When the KV driver locked up and slid slightly wide on lap 19, Power, Dixon and Franchitti all managed to pounce and demote him to fourth.

Sato lost another place to Penske's Ryan Briscoe during the opening pit stops, which happened under yellow after Mike Conway (Andretti) punted Newman/Haas' Oriol Servia into the tires while the Spaniard was on an out-lap.

At the spectacular restart that followed, Sato managed to slice back through to second behind Power under braking for the Turn 5 hairpin, while just behind, his KV teammate EJ Viso slid into Dixon in an incident that left the Venezuelan spun and stalled, forced Dixon to pit for long radiator repairs, and also delayed Franchitti.

Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay took advantage of the mess to move into third, at least until lap 39, when he collided with Sato at Turn 5, dumping the Japanese driver a lap down and earning Hunter-Reay a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact.

An out-of-pit-sequence Alex Tagliani (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) ran among the leaders mid-race, but once he pitted for the last time Penske had a 1-2-3, with Power leading while Castroneves and Briscoe fought for second.

Running very long before his final stop allowed Franchitti to both recover the ground lost in the Viso/Dixon incident, and jump Briscoe for third. He then closed in to make it a three-way lead fight, as Castroneves made the most of having an extra set of brand-new soft red tires to really attack teammate Power for first place. Despite Castroneves' best efforts, Power was able to hang on and keep both his pursuers at bay, as the trio took the flag absolutely nose to tail.

"It was so bloody hard there at the end with Helio and Dario pushing me along," said Power, who posted his fourth win of the year, matching Franchitti's league-leading total. "I just couldn't gap them. When I came out of the pits I had on reds [tires] and thought, 'I have to look after them, so I will really be gentle.' Then Helio was right there and I'm like, 'Man, I've got to go.'  I had to ask Tim [Cindric] if that was for the lead. He said, 'Yeah, go!'  I just held on there at the end."

Said Castroneves, "This is a great result. I wanted to win so bad but at the end of the day, after the season we've been having this is like a victory. We had awesome pit stops and everything went smoothly. We finally fixed the brakes because I was quite busy in Turn 1 during our practice sessions. Once we had good balance in the car, then I knew what I needed to do. I was able to avoid a lot of accidents. It was just fantastic to be up at the front in the end."

Franchitti wound up reasonably pleased with what had started out looking to be a bad day for him.

"I was trying to make a pass on EJ [Viso] and he comes over toward me. I thought he was way too far behind the guy in front of him to make a move, and sure enough he speared into him. I was very lucky there because I clutched it and I waited for somebody to ram me. I got very lucky at that point in the race, but then I screwed up the restart. I had it in my head that I couldn't pass the car in front of me on green until the start/finish line and I lost out on that one. The Target car was quick in clean air and we moved from 10th to third. 

"It could have been better but Will and Helio drove clean races. I think the Target car was quicker but they had the track position and they didn't screw up when I did. I was going as quick as I could behind Helio but he was very strong on the brakes right behind Will. Not a bad day for the championship and the EJ incident could have really screwed the whole thing up, so I am pleased with my finish."

Briscoe looked set to resist KV's Tony Kanaan for fourth until he was forced him to come in for a splash with just a lap to go, dropping the Australian to 10th. Justin Wilson made it through from 15th on the grid to fifth for Dreyer & Reinbold, while Sebastien Bourdais had another relatively trouble-free run to take sixth for Dale Coyne Racing, his second straight top-six finish.

Hunter-Reay fought back to seventh after his penalty, ahead of Andretti teammates Conway and Danica Patrick. Conway also had a drive-through for his clash with Servia, as the officials took a harder line on contact following the carnage of Toronto.

This started from the outset, with Tagliani penalized for a late first-lap dive at Turn 5 that saw him clip Graham Rahal and give the Ganassi car a puncture. Rahal then lost control at the next corner and spun into Dragon Racing's Paul Tracy, eliminating them both and also trapping Conquest's Sebastian Saavedra.