Power triumphs in Toronto carnage

With Wilson then spinning half a lap later having lost the lead to Power, Dario Franchitti came through to second ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Dreyer & Reinbold driver Wilson had held his pole advantage through a serene opening stint, while Power was bundled back from second to sixth behind his Penske team-mate Helio Castroneves, Franchitti (Ganassi), Andretti Autosport's Hunter-Reay and Ganassi's Scott Dixon in the opening corners.

But when the leaders all pitted under the first yellow - caused by Mario Moraes squeezing his KV team-mate Takuma Sato into the wall - Wilson fell behind Castroneves, Franchitti and the recovering Power.

They rejoined behind Paul Tracy (KV) and Vitor Meira (Foyt), who had both stayed out. Tracy would lead for 14 laps, but predominantly under yellow thanks to a string of incidents. First Castroneves clipped Meira and flew into the tyres at the end of the Turn 3 escape road, then Alex Lloyd crashed his Dale Coyne car at Turn 1, then on the next restart attempt Moraes dived past Dan Wheldon (Panther) at Turn 3 and speared Mario Romancini's Conquest Dallara-Honda into the tyres.

In one of the few moments of green flag racing between those incidents, Franchitti slipped past Tracy to reclaim the lead, and with both the Canadian legend and Meira finally making their stops under the fourth in the run of yellows, Franchitti, Power and Wilson were able to get on with leading when the incidents finally relented and green flag racing resumed.

Franchitti was the first of the lead group to make his last pitstop 32 laps from the end, and it looked like a masterstroke as Power and Wilson then encountered traffic.

But they dived straight in next time around and both managed to emerge just ahead of Franchitti, with Dreyer & Reinbold getting Wilson out in front of Power and back into the race lead.

He then pulled away rapidly, until another yellow with 20 laps to go. This time the cause was Alex Tagliani (Fazzt) punting Raphael Matos (De Ferran Dragon) into a spin, with KV's EJ Viso unable to avoid ploughing into Matos, while elsewhere on track Tracy had to be assisted back on course by the marshals after sliding into the Turn 3 tyres trying to pass Simona de Silvestro (HVM).

Disaster would strike for Wilson at the restart, as he slid sideways out of the final corner, giving Power a run towards Turn 1, where he swept around the outside. It got worse still for Wilson as he then spun at Turn 8 and tumbled to the rear of the pack.

Power then stayed ahead of Franchitti through one last yellow for Tomas Scheckter (Dreyer & Reinbold) tangling with Tagliani at Turn 1, before inching away to secure his fourth win of 2010 and stretch his points lead still further.

Hunter-Reay came through to third, surviving late contact with Dixon at Turn 3 that ended the Ganassi driver's race.

Tony Kanaan was fourth for Andretti Autosport, while Graham Rahal charged through to a superb fifth on his return to Newman/Haas - despite running into the back of Ryan Briscoe and spinning the Australian into the Turn 3 wall as he tried to defend his position.

Andretti had three cars in the top six thanks to Danica Patrick's strong run to sixth. She fended off the flying Wilson, who produced a spectacular string of passes to get back to seventh, ahead of Marco Andretti (Andretti), de Silvestro and Wheldon.

Pos  Driver               Team                    Time/Gap
 1.  Will Power           Penske             1h47m15.2554s
 2.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi               +  1.2757s
 3.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti              +  1.7605s
 4.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti              +  3.5382s
 5.  Graham Rahal         Newman/Haas           +  9.7349s
 6.  Danica Patrick       Andretti              + 11.9439s
 7.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold     + 12.3783s
 8.  Marco Andretti       Andretti              + 16.3360s
 9.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                   + 21.5321s
10.  Dan Wheldon          Panther               + 23.1537s
11.  Vitor Meira          Foyt                  + 25.8960s
12.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas           + 26.2878s
13.  Paul Tracy           KV                    +    1 lap
14.  Mario Moraes         KV                    +    1 lap
15.  Tomas Scheckter      Dreyer & Reinbold     +    1 lap
16.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest              +    1 lap
17.  Alex Tagliani        Fazzt                 +    1 lap
18.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske                +   2 laps
19.  EJ Viso              KV                    +   3 laps

Retirements:

     Scott Dixon          Ganassi            71 laps
     Raphael Matos        De Ferran Dragon   64 laps
     Mario Romancini      Conquest           31 laps
     Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         26 laps
     Helio Castroneves    Penske             21 laps
     Takuma Sato          KV                 15 laps
     Milka Duno           Dale Coyne         8 laps