Britain’s Mike Conway secured his maiden IZOD IndyCar victory at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. The Andretti Autosport driver snatched the lead after the final Safety Car period, and went on to take the chequered flag with a margin of 6.3 seconds back to Ryan Briscoe in second. In fact Briscoe appeared to be struggling in the final turn of the track and Conway made quick work of him, slicing past under braking. Reigning Champion Dario Franchitti completed the podium and gained a championship lead over Will Power who finished 10th after being tapped by his Brazilian team-mate Helio Castroneves.
Conway crossed the line 6.3 seconds ahead of Briscoe to cruise to a surprise win for he and the Andretti Autosport team. After the race he commented:
"What a great result! It looked a bit difficult here earlier this weekend, but this morning I knew the car would be fast. It was really tough to overtake here, but they just told me to hang in there. The team did a great job; good strategy. I can't thank the guys at Andretti Autosport enough, as well as everyone at Window World Cares and DHL, for putting their faith in me."
Team owner Michael Andretti had nothing but praise for the newest member of his team.
"Mike just didn't give up. After the hiccup in the pits, you'd think the race was over for him. But he just hung in there, made some beautiful passes and did what it takes to be a winner. From the moment he came here, he showed signs of brilliance. He's been a great addition to the Andretti Autosport team."
Briscoe, who was taken out in the first two races, was thankful to get to the finish, and after leading from Lap 32 to 55 and Lap 61 to 71, though he might have a victory in hand when a gamble by Roger Penske to start Briscoe on Firestone Blacks while the majority of the field chose Reds nearly paid off, as the Aussie had fresh Reds for the final two parts of the race.
After a busy day of racing and a track filled with marbles, Briscoe said he was unable to halt Conway's progress due to having built up so much debris on his tires after running off-line.
"It took me six or seven laps to get my tires cleaned, and I think Conway stayed on the racing line on that last restart [and avoided the marbles]."
Long Beach marked Franchitti's third consecutive podium appearance from the three rounds run in 2011 and was honest in his assessment of how the race went for the No. 10 Target car.
"We'll take it as it's a points scoring day, but we've got to improve our straightline speed. I don’t think I did a very good job of telling my engineer what I needed from the car."
Hinchliffe and Tagliani secured fourth and fifth respectively, while Oriol Servià followed closely for Newman/Haas Racing. Danica Patrick is the first American driver in the top-10, finishing a strong 7th, as Tony Kanaan, Vitor Meira and Power completed the top ten.
The first part of the race was uneventful, although the first period of caution was initiated by Simona de Silvestro after a spin on Lap 25. This came at the right time for Alex Tagliani and Briscoe who had just visited the pit lane, and therefore the pair moved to the front when the rest of the field made their stops.
The 4-time CART champion in his American return Sébastien Bourdais and Marco Andretti collided in the pit lane when exiting their respective pit boxes. The American was released by his piststop crew when Bourdais approached, and he failed to see the Frenchman, therefore pushing him into the wall. After the debris was cleared up, the race got back underway on Lap 32.
The Lap 66 restart, Power was able to find the speed required to launch an attack on Hunter-Reay, but it all went wrong for the Australian under braking for Turn 1. Penske team-mate Castroneves ran straight into the back of his car, causing a similar situation to the crash he triggered at St. Petersburg, struck Power from behind under braking causing both drivers to spin and lose valuable time. Scott Dixon could not avoid the now stranded Castroneves, and broke his front wing after making contact with the 19-times IndyCar winner.
Briscoe leading Hunter-Reay, Power, Servia and Conway, but Castroneves, . As a result Power Power spun and stalled his Team Penske car, that caused him to fell to 15th before eventually finishing 10th. Afterwards, the normally jovial 30-year-old was unimpressed with being hit by his teammate.
"It's pretty blatant. But I got back to 10th. That's racing and that's double-file restarts."
A dejected Castroneves was quick to take ownership of the incident.
"It was a huge mistake. I really don't understand. I wasn't even trying to pass will. I apologized to the team. It wasn't a smart thing. It was not on purpose. This was a very tough one."
There were two further incidents at the back of the field, as Takuma Sato speared into the wall, having another troubled IndyCars race, while seconds later Graham Rahal and Sebastián Saavedra collided.
