Will Power has led home a Penske 1-2-3 at the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma and, in doing so, has considerably narrowed Dario Franchitti’s lead in the IZOD IndyCar Series.
After qualifying on pole, Power pulled away early, didn’t have any issues on pit lane, withstood the lone restart challenge and went on to become the first two-time winner in seven years on the road course.
With the bonus points for the pole start and leading the most laps (71 of 75), Power pulled the title gap to 26 points of front-runner Dario Franchitti of Target Chip Ganassi Racing, who finished fourth.
“It was just a perfect race,” said Power, who earned his fifth victory of the season.
“This one is pretty important.”
Power’s Penske team-mates Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe finished second and third. It was the first time since Nazareth in 1994 when Penske took its last podium clean-sweep. (At Nazareth ’94, it was Paul Tracy, Al Unser Jr. and Emerson Fittipaldi).
Scott Dixon, who is third in the standings, finished fifth. Giorgio Pantano, making his debut with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing in place of the injured Justin Wilson (back), advanced five spots to finish sixth ahead of Sebastien Bourdais, James Hinchcliffe, Graham Rahal and E.J. Viso.
There are four races remaining (two ovals, two road/streets), with the Baltimore Grand Prix first up next weekend.
Check out the race highlights
See below for the full race result
| 1 | Will Power | Penske | 1h47m29.7619s |
| 2 | Helio Castroneves | Penske | 3.2420s |
| 3 | Ryan Briscoe | Penske | 6.4494s |
| 4 | Dario Franchitti | Ganassi | 7.6540s |
| 5 | Scott Dixon | Ganassi | 14.4755s |
| 6 | Sebastien Bourdais | Dale Coyne | 17.1257s |
| 7 | James Hinchcliffe | Newman/Haas | 17.2713s |
| 8 | Graham Rahal | Ganassi | 17.7900s |
| 9 | Ernesto Viso | KV | 21.6276s |
| 10 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti | 22.1731s |
| 11 | Oriol Servia | Newman/Haas | 22.9512s |
| 12 | Martin Plowman | AFS/Sam Schmidt | 24.2602s |
| 13 | Ana Beatriz | Dreyer & Reinbold | 29.7207s |
| 14 | Sebastian Saavedra | Conquest | 41.1146s |
| 15 | Simon Pagenaud | Dreyer & Reinbold | 41.7526s |
| 16 | Mike Conway | Andretti | 1m.2912s |
| 17 | Giorgio Pantano | Dreyer & Reinbold | 1m14.2922s |
| 18 | Takuma Sato | KV | + 1 lap |
| 19 | James Jakes | Dale Coyne | + 1 lap |
| 20 | Alex Tagliani | Sam Schmidt | + 1 lap |
| 21 | Danica Patrick | Andretti | + 1 lap |
| 22 | Vitor Meira | Foyt | + 1 lap |
| 23 | JR Hildebrand | Panther | + 1 lap |
| 24 | Marco Andretti | Andretti | + 1 lap |
| 25 | Ed Carpenter | Sarah Fisher | + 1 lap |
| DNF | Charlie Kimball | Ganassi | 66 laps |
| DNF | Ho-Pin Tung | Sam Schmidt Dragon | 63 laps |
| DNF | Tony Kanaan | KV | 38 laps |
See below for the updated championship standings
| Pos | Driver | Pts |
| 1 | Dario Franchitti | 475 |
| 2 | Will Power | 449 |
| 3 | Scott Dixon | 400 |
| 4 | Oriol Servia | 327 |
| 5 | Ryan Briscoe | 312 |
| 6 | Tony Kanaan | 305 |
| 7 | Marco Andretti | 282 |
| 8 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 281 |
| 9 | Helio Castroneves | 277 |
| 10 | Graham Rahal | 264 |
| 11 | Takuma Sato | 250 |
| 12 | Danica Patrick | 247 |
| 13 | JR Hildebrand | 246 |
| 14 | James Hinchcliffe | 243 |
| 15 | Vitor Meira | 241 |
| 16 | Alex Tagliani | 238 |
| 17 | Mike Conway | 214 |
| 18 | E.J. Viso | 202 |
| 19 | Charlie Kimball | 192 |
| 20 | Justin Wilson | 183 |
| 21 | Simona de Silvestro | 181 |
| 22 | Ana Beatriz | 174 |
| 23 | Sebastian Saavedra | 161 |
| 24 | Sebastien Boudais | 150 |
| 25 | James Jakes | 150 |
| 26 | Ed Carpenter | 113 |
| 27 | Alex Lloyd | 75 |
| 28 | Paul Tracy | 68 |
| 29 | Raphael Matos | 67 |
| 30 | Dan Wheldon | 59 |
| 31 | Simon Pagenaud | 56 |
| 32 | Tomas Scheckter | 40 |
| 33 | Bertrand Baguette | 30 |
| 34 | Martin Plowman | 30 |
| 35 | Jay Howard | 27 |
| 36 | Davey Hamilton | 26 |
| 37 | Townsend Bell | 21 |
| 38 | Pippa Mann | 20 |
| 39 | Buddy Rice | 20 |
| 40 | John Andretti | 16 |
| 41 | Giorgio Pantano | 13 |
| 42 | Wade Cunningham | 10 |
| 43 | Ho-Pin Tung | 10 |
| 44 | Scott Speed | 0 |
| 45 | Bruno Junqueira | 0 |
