A Penske Perfect Weekend In Sonoma

Will Power celebrates his fifth 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series victory
Photo courtesy INDYCAR

We always say we're looking for a "good, clean" race before a contest starts.  It's one of those things you wish on your friends who are driving or crewing.

In Sunday's Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma on the 2.303-mile, 12-turn Infineon Raceway Sears Point in Sonoma, CA, a good clean race amounted to a snoozer--unless you were driving or crewing for Team Penske.

After taking a 1-2-3 sweep of qualifying on Saturday afternoon, Will Power, Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe finished in the same order after 75 laps of racing that was punctuated by a single caution flag late in the going when Chinese driver Ho-Pin Tung slid off-course trying to avoid Alex Tagliani. His stricken No. 88 Dragon Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone racecar was quickly back on the hook and racing resumed with six laps to go after only three of yellow.

That allowed only the second double-file start of the contest and gave the Penske trio its first podium sweep since Paul Tracy, Al Unser Jr and Emerson Fittipaldi finished for Penske in the same order at Nazareth Speedway in 1994. At that time, winner Power was only 13, Briscoe was 12 and Castroneves was still in his teens, racing in his home country of Brazil.

The victory by Power--his fifth of the season from his sixth pole position--cut into point leader and fourth finisher Dario Franchitti's lead; the Scot now has a 26-point advantage over the Aussie heading into this weekend's inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix. "Now we have a legitimate shot" at the title, Power declared.

There are two road/street courses and two ovals remaining on the IZOD IndyCar Series calendar, which concludes on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway 1.5-mile oval the second weekend of October.

Franchitti finished fourth and his Target Chip Ganassi teammate, Scott Dixon took fifth place. The most interesting battle of the race was between Briscoe and Franchitti as the former tried to keep the latter behind him.

Power led the most laps 71--of this 75-lap race--while Briscoe held the lead during pit stop exchanges. Of 28 starters, there were only two retirements: Tung and Tony Kanaan, out after 38 laps with a mechanical problem that was never explaied. Giorgio Pantano was originally classified as sixth but fell to 17th when cited for blocking Sebastien Bourdais on the final lap--Bourdais finished sixth.

Rookie James Hinchcliffe closed the gap on JR Hildebrand in the newcomers' standings with his seventh place result from a heady sixth grid slot, with Graham Rahal, EJ Viso and Ryan Hunter-Reay completing the top ten. Fully 17 cars were on the lead lap. A second penalty fell to HVM super-sub Simon Pagenaud for passing under caution, relegating him to 15th place.

In addition to the triple play win here in Sonoma, Team Penske owner Roger Penske celebrated his NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski's victory on the Bristol high banks Saturday night.

© 2011 Anne Proffit