Will Power leads Team Penske 1-2 at Watkins Glen

Will Power

Adriano Manocchia/AR1.com

After dominating qualifying at The Glen for years, Team Penske finally won on a beautiful Fourth of July afternoon.

Australian Will Power, who a day earlier gave Team Penske its sixth consecutive pole start at The Glen, held off teammate Ryan Briscoe by 1.2181 seconds and won the Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen. It was the team's first IZOD IndyCar Series victory at The Glen. It was Briscoe's second consecutive runner-up finish at The Glen.

Power swept past teammate Ryan Briscoe on the 44th lap and was never headed after that.

In all, Power led 45 of the 60 laps in today's contest, as he extended his drivers' championship lead to 32 points over defending series champion Dario Franchitti. Scott Dixon, who finished eighth in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car, is 40 points back.

Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves should have been contenders, but they got together on lap seven.

As Dixon climbed the hill in the esses, he misjudged Castroneves and clipped his left rear tire. The contact punctured Helio's the tire, while Dixon's car suffered a broken right front wing, and they both came to pit road for repairs.

For his part, Franchitti led one lap during an exchange of pit stops, but spent most of the day chasing the two leading Penske drivers. He moved up to second, ahead of Briscoe, following the last round of pit stops on Lap 41, but then surrendered the position following a momentary slide off the edge of the circuit on the penultimate lap. Franchitti then recovered to bring his Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda home third.

Will Power gets the jump into Turn 1 at the start

Adriano Manocchia/AR1.com

Seven teams were represented in the top 10 of the race that was slowed by only two caution periods.

Raphael Matos tied his season best with a fourth place in the No. 2 HP de Ferran Dragon Racing car. Mario Moraes improved his season best by one place, finishing fifth in the No. 32 KV Racing Technology car.

Power became the first driver to win this event from pole. Team Penske has won the pole each of the six years this event has taken place, but this is the team's first victory in this event. This is Will Power's second victory this season from pole. He also won from the top spot at St. Petersburg.

This is the fourth major open-wheel victory at Watkins Glen for Team Penske. Bobby Unser won here in 1979 in 1980 and Rick Mears in 1981 for the team in CART events. This is the team's first IZOD IndyCar Series victory at this track.

Adam Carroll finished 16th in his IZOD IndyCar Series debut.

The 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season continues July 18 with the Honda Indy Toronto at Streets of Toronto. The race will be telecast live in High Definition at 12:30 p.m. (ET) by ABC. The race will air live on the IMS Radio Network, XM channel 145 and Sirius channel 212. The race also will be carried on www.indycar.com.

QUOTES:

WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske, winner): "There were two different strategies there, but I'm so happy to win it. I wanted it really bad; I really wanted to win. I can't stand when you're the quickest in qualifying and then you have a bad race. Honestly, it was the first race that I pushed on every single lap. Never once that I didn't push. We have to get the fuel number the whole race, so I had to push really hard while saving fuel. I had to get the lap time while saving fuel. It was just a difficult race, but it was great. I loved it."

RYAN BRISCOE (No. 6 Team Penske, second): "Will was strong. We had a lot more downforce in the car. I was just a parachute going down the back straightaway. Both of these guys just came from nowhere and drove around me. It was a little bit frustrating, but with the downforce I was able to look after my red tires a bit more than Dario (Franchitti). He was hanging on for dear life at the end, and thankfully his went off about a lap sooner than mine did so I was able to get him. It's a great way to bring home a Penske one-two."

DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing, third): "I was catching Will, but I used up my tires too much to catch up to him. Just overused them. Ryan was getting closer to me. I was trying to make a gap to him and made a mistake, and he got past me. I'm disappointed with the last lap, but it was a fun race. It's a fun place to race." (If your tires hadn't gone off, did you have anything for Will Power?): "I'm not sure anyone had anything for him. Will did a great job. When the tires started to go off, he did a better job of managing his tires. I don't know. I think he did a great job."

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing, eighth): The Simona incident really hurt us with her causing that yellow. I think we were looking at a fourth- or fifth-place finish at that point. But with everything happening, it screwed our strategy. It was a tough day. Things were kind of going for us at one point, and then later on they didn't. To salvage an eighth out of it isn't too bad. We're still third in points and within striking distance of the championship."

HIDEKI MUTOH (No. 06 Formula Dream/Panasonic, 12^th): "I'm pleased with the finishing position for the Formula Dream/Panasonic team, but on the last stint, I lost three positions to Dixon, Castroneves and Wilson. The positive thing is that I learned some things following them. I think I improved my driving during the race, and we found our weak points. In some corners, we were very slow, and in others, we were fast. It will be good for next year. I’m looking forward to racing with Newman/Haas Racing in the Honda Indy Toronto race. Last year, the team was good there and looked like they had a strong car. I have one week off and time to discuss the plan with the team. I'm looking forward to going back to Toronto. I love street courses."

RAPHAEL MATOS (No. 2 HP de Ferran Dragon, fourth): "It's been a really tough year for us. The guys have worked really hard putting the cars together after Indy. It's a great result for the whole team, and all the thanks go to them. This result is good for momentum for us. I'm sure we'll learn a lot from this weekend that will help us going to Toronto and Edmonton."

SIMONA DE SILVESTRO (No. 78 Team Stargate Worlds/HVM, 24^th): "I had a good pit stop, and I tried to make up too much time. I made a mistake. I feel really bad for HVM, and they did a really good job."

ALEX LLOYD (No. 19 Boy Scouts of America, 25^th): "We're not entirely sure. We started having some strange things happening after the first pit stop. We changed tires, and all of the sudden, the steering locked. It was almost like a road car when you lose your power steering. It's been a frustrating weekend with assorted issues here and there."

MARIO MORAES (No. 32 KV Racing Technology, fifth): "The last few races have been really hard for KV Racing Technology, so we needed this fifth-place result. Now we're heading to Toronto, where we can try to improve on it. I really need to work on my fuel mileage because I really couldn't use my push-to-pass, but it was a good day."

VITOR MEIRA (No. 14 ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt Racing, 19^th): "Not a very good day for Foyt Racing, ABC and myself. We had a good car – not the best car of the season, but it was a good car. We unloaded and made a lot of progress during the practices, but not enough time. Then we had troubles on the pit stops, which didn't help. It's been hard to pass here, so it's a weekend to take what we have and learn from it and go for the next one. There's not much else positive you can get out of this weekend. Still it's one race, one battle, and we have the whole war."

E.J VISO (No. 8 PDVSA-Jet Aviation-KVRT, 11^th): "It was a straightforward race for me. I just kept listening to my engineer, Bill Pappas, and driving as hard as I could. I was pretty much driving a blind race because we pitted early for a different strategy. I didn't have many people in front of me until the end, when I was able to make several overtaking moves. It was difficult to keep the pace throughout the race because I lost the readings on my dashboard. I didn't get any lap times or sectors on my screen. I just listened to Bill all day, and he is good at giving me information and strategy. It is a shame we didn't qualify because if I had been in the top 10 in qualifying, I think I could have been in the top four today. We had a good car all weekend. Just the (Saturday practice) incident hurt our overall weekend. Again, I had to pass a lot of cars. I passed 14 cars today. We passed 16 at Iowa. It would be good to start further up the grid for Toronto."

TAKUMA SATO (No. 5 Lotus-KV Racing Technology, 15^th): "I'm very disappointed. The race started very well. It was exciting, and I was able to move up a position. In the first stint, I was running fourth and comfortably with the leaders. But after the first pit stop, we lost positions and speed, and that then made it a very hard race to the end. I was hoping to have a very strong race, but we did still learn a lot today. I'm ready to get the Lotus car in to a strong position at the next race in Toronto."

DANICA PATRICK (No. 7 Team GoDaddy.com, 20^th): "It was a pretty tough day for the GoDaddy team. The car itself was solid, but we just couldn't make up any ground. My guys did a great job this weekend, so I wish we had more to show for it."

RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 37 Team IZOD, seventh): "All in all, it was a pretty good day. The IZOD guys gave me a good race car, but I dug myself quite a hole when we stalled in the pits. I think we had a fourth-place car. We were definitely better than seventh, but we had to come all the way from the back after the problem with the stall. We had to be careful with fuel at the end and we actually ran out on the cool-down lap, so it was close. I'm just happy to know that I'm here for the whole season. It's really special to be able to race in honor of my mom for the rest of the year and in support of 'RacingForCancer.org.' It's just really cool that this whole team pulled together like this."

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 26 Team Venom Energy, 13^th): "The Venom car was strong today, but we made the wrong tire choice for the last stint. We put a qualifying set of reds on, and the fronts were totally grain. It felt like I was driving in the wet. By the finish, the tread was gone. Had we made a different choice, I think we could have held our own and challenged for a top-five finish."

ADAM CARROLL (No. 27 Team Boost Mobile, 16^th): "Well, that was pretty eventful. Because the race was so long, sometimes I found that I struggled with the balance, in general. In the middle, the car felt really good, and I was able to run with a lot of the guys up front. I struggled after that last stop. The main thing is that I got the experience, got more time in the car and got a pretty good start. We'll go back, see where I can improve, and come back stronger at Mid-Ohio."

HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Team Penske, ninth): "I think I proved I was the fastest car on three wheels out there. Unfortunately, we had the flat tire. I think it was a little impatience by the No. 9 car. He had a fast straight-line car and probably could have made the pass without causing that contact, but we were both able to recover and finish in the top 10. It was a great job by Team Penske today with a one-two finish, and congratulations to Will and the Verizon team for getting the win and finally breaking through for Team Penske at Watkins Glen."

DAN WHELDON (No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing, sixth): "First and foremost, it's very special to represent to the National Guard on the Fourth of July, and I wanted to say hello to all the soldiers representing this country overseas and also here in the United States. It was a fantastic job by the National Guard Panther Racing team today. We were very strong on the first day, and we had a little problem yesterday that we didn't find until after qualifying. The race was very eventful to start with. We got bumped by Alex Lloyd. I could see he was having a little bit of a go at me and I tried to leave him some room, but he obviously wasn't right alongside of me and we touched. It's unfortunate but one of those things. I knew once we got to the pit stop, the team would get me some spots. And fortunately because the car was so good, we were able to overtake people. And soon as we got on the red Firestone tires, I was able to come through the field. That was a very strong team performance today by the Panther boys."

ALEX TAGLIANI (No. 77 FAZZT Race Team, 17^th): "Today was a tough day. We haven't had our best weekend, and the entire FAZZT team were hoping that we could pull out a good result with race strategy, but that just didn't happen. Rob (Edwards) and the guys tried to do their magic, but when the yellow came out (on Lap 38), we were just done. At that point, I just tried to keep out and gain some positions and gain some points to help us gain in the championship hunt. I'm looking forward to the next races in Canada, and I know we will recover and come back strong in Toronto."

JUSTIN WILSON (No. 22 Team Z-Line Designs/DRR, 10^th): "It was a lot of work to finish 10^th today. Everybody on the Z-Line Designs car worked hard, but we were fighting all the way through just trying to make something happen. The Firestone reds were graining pretty badly during that first stint, but that was the gamble we made starting on them. Unfortunately, we lost several more spots in that first pit-stop which put us on the back foot. After that, we were just working hard to make those positions back and move forward. We were reasonably quick, but just had too much work to do. We're looking forward to Toronto now."

PAUL TRACY (No. 24 Honda Indy Toronto/DRR, 14^th): "It wasn't the day we were hoping for with the DRR/Honda Indy Toronto/Motegi Wheels car, but we kept fighting at it all day and got the handling better on the car and ultimately ended up with a 14^th-place result. We had some issues in the race with the radio and not having communication at times, which made it difficult at times. Also, I think Justin struggled with the same thing as me, which was the balance. It's not what we wanted, but we brought the car home and got some points, and that's all that matters. I had a great time working with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, and I hope that I get the opportunity to do it again and get to work with Robbie and Dennis and the rest of the team. Overall, it was a great group of guys, and I would like to do some more."

Results

Race Statistics
Time of Race: 1:40:27.4391
Winners average speed: 120.768
Margin of victory: 1.2181 seconds
Cautions: 2 for 5 laps
Lead changes: 5 among 4 drivers
Lap Leaders:Power 1-18, Dixon 19-28, Power 29-38, Franchitti 39, Briscoe 40-43, Power 44-60.
Point Standings: Power 327, Franchitti 295, Dixon 287, Briscoe 280, Castroneves 273, Hunter-Reay 251, Tony Kanaan 241, Wilson 211, Wheldon 211, Andretti 201.