Will Power dominated the Grand Prix of Sonoma at the Infineon Raceway course and driving much like Franchitti did a year earlier at the natural-terrain Californian course managed to keep his competitors on his back, although the hard pressure he experienced from both Chip Ganassi Racing drivers. That was Power's 5th victory of the season which gives him a clear 59-point advantage over Franchitti with four ovals races left and makes him the sixth different winner in as many IZOD IndyCar Series races at Infineon.Power commented:
"It's unreal. What a perfect weekend. I just have to thank the Verizon guys and Roger (Penske) and Tim (Cindric) for giving me this opportunity. To come back and win it from the pole is just fantastic. I’ve said it all season, I wanted to come back here and win this race.”
Following the final round of pit stops between Laps 54 (Franchitti) and 57 (Dixon), Power (who pitted on Lap 56) held a 3.6153-second advantage over Franchitti, who was on the Firestone primary tires for the final part of the race. However, Dixon, riding on the alternates, closed the gap against his team-mate and moved into second on Lap 62 in an effort to reach in Power.
A full-course yellow on Lap 66 was quite tricky for the leader as after returning to green Dixon was almost racing on Power's rear wing with a 0.3959 gap but wasn’t able to force Power into a mistake or complete a pass in the fast turning course.
Dixon commented:
“The unfortunate part is that we really only get one set of stickers for the race with the red tires. They were night and day quicker so we had to take used at the end. We really needed to be ahead of the 12 car, and I pushed it as hard as I could at the end. I just couldn’t even get close enough to have a look. He was definitely hooked up and saving his tires earlier in the day. It’s still a good result. We’re happy to come from sixth all the way to second."
Franchitti, who won two weeks earlier at Mid-Ohio to close to 41 points in the championship, finished 6.6 seconds back in 3rd after allowing Dixon to slide into second cost Franchitti five points in the title race in order Dixon to give his shot over Power.
Franchitti commented:
"We did the best with what we had today. We took a gamble on blacks at the end and it didn’t work for us, unfortunately. Scott was definitely quicker on reds and I let him go there, hoping he was going to hunt down Will. Scott really tried to get past him. There was such a speed difference on the blacks that we couldn’t get close to them at the end."
Team Penske teammates Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves had a quite indifferent race and finished 4rth and 5th as their title chances fading. Justin Wilson in the No. 22 Z-Line Designs car for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing was 6th and Tony Kanaan finished 7th in the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven/Dr Pepper Cherry car. Andretti Autosport teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay was 8th in the No. 37 IZOD entry and Graham Rahal notched 9th position for Newman/Haas Racing in the No. 02 Quick Trim car after starting 16th.
Rahal commented:
"This was definitely not an easy weekend. I think we all have to be pretty pleased with the end result. Now we’ve got Chicagoland next week and it’s a place that we know we could have potentially won the race last year. There’s no reason we can’t do it this time."
Alex Lloyd was race pleasant surprise completing the top 10 – a season best on a road/street course in the No. 19 Boy Scouts of America car for Dale Coyne Racing -- and increased his points lead in the Rookie of the Year race although he actually took advantage of Danica Patrick and Takuma Sato collision 2 laps before the end of the race who obliged both of them to finish in the back of the field.
