Team Penske's Will Power finally was able to cross the finish line in one piece and earned a fourth 2011 IndyCar victory at the City Airport circuit at Edmonton.
Polesitter Takuma Sato (KV Racing Technology) was able to take off at the start and led the opening 19 laps closely followed by Power and the Ganassi duo formed by Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti. But an error on lap 19 demoted the former Formula 1 driver to fourth place, only to lost another place to Penske's Ryan Briscoe during the opening pit stops. During a following restart, Sato was able to climb back the latter to second place but his teammate EJ Viso slid into Dixon in an incident that left the Venezuelan spun and stalled, forcing Dixon to pit for long radiator repairs, and also delayed Franchitti. Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay took advantage of the chaos to move into third, at least until lap 39, when he collided with Sato at Turn 5, dumping the Japanese driver a lap down and earning Hunter-Reay a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact. Running very long before his final stop allowed Franchitti to both recover the ground lost and jump Briscoe for third. He then made it a three-way lead fight, as Castroneves made the most of having an extra set of brand new soft red tires to really attack teammate Power for first place. Power was able to hang on and keep both his pursuers at bay, as the trio took the flag absolutely nose to tail. Briscoe looked set to resist KV's Tony Kanaan for fourth until a surprise fuel shortage forced him to come in for a splash with just a lap to go, dropping the Australian to 10th. Justin Wilson made it through from 15th on the grid to fifth for Dreyer & Reinbold, while Sebastien Bourdais had another relatively trouble-free run to take sixth for Dale Coyne Racing, his second straight top six finish.
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