after he suffered season-ending injuries in an accident at the track
last year.
He capped a picture perfect return to the track by becoming the sixth
different winner at Infineon Raceway in as many IZOD IndyCar Series
races on the 2.303-mile, 12-turn natural-terrain course. Power held
Scott Dixon of Target Chip Ganassi Racing by 0.7432 of a second in the
Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma.
Power, the pole sitter in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car, increased
his series championship points lead over third-place finisher Dario
Franchitti to 59 with four oval races remaining in the season. Power was
also officially crowned the first Mario Andretti Road Champion by the
award's namesake, racing legend Mario Andretti, in Victory Lane after
the event.
Franchitti finished third, with Team Penske teammates Ryan Briscoe and
Helio Castroneves next across the line. Justin Wilson was sixth and Tony
Kanaan finished seventh. Ryan Hunter-Reay, Graham Rahal and Alex Lloyd
(season-best road/street finish) completed the top 10.
Also on Aug. 22, J.K. Vernay recorded his fifth victory of the season
(all on road/street courses) to increase his Firestone Indy Lights
championship points lead to 71.
Vernay, the pole sitter in the No. 7 Lucas Oil/CJ/Sam Schmidt
Motorsports car, held off Charlie Kimball in the No. 26 Levemir FlexPen
car for AFS Racing Andretti Autosport over the final 10 laps to win the
Carneros 100 by 3.4245 seconds.
James Hinchcliffe finished third in the No. 2 TMR-Xtreme Coil Drilling
car. The final three races of the season are on 1.5-mile ovals.
