Power dominates at Barber

Penske driver Power was able to control the race from the outset, edging into a three-second lead over his team-mate Ryan Briscoe and Ganassi driver Scott Dixon's battle for second in the first stint, while Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) was stuck behind fourth-placed Oriol Servia.

Franchitti jumped the Newman/Haas car at the first stops, which also saw Dixon take second from Briscoe. The latter was then moved aside by Franchitti in a wheel-banging moment at a restart during a string of mid-race yellows.

The first of these cautions came with Alex Tagliani - who had been running in the top 10 for Sam Schmidt - spun and stalled. The new two-wide restart rule then again seemed to trigger incident, as the first restart lap saw EJ Viso (KV) spin and collect James Hinchcliffe (Newman/Haas), and also force HVM's Simona de Silvestro to come to a halt. Hinchcliffe had earlier spun to the tail of the field on the opening lap.

The next restart also brought drama, with Mike Conway crashing his Andretti Autosports car heavily, and contact between Justin Wilson and Takuma Sato leaving the KV Dallara with a broken wing and the Dreyer & Reinbold entry with a puncture.

A short green-flag period then followed until Ryan Hunter-Reay crashed into Briscoe on lap 58, the American having got into the top 10 on an alternate strategy and then surged up on the order as he made the most of being one of the few drivers on the softer 'red' tyres in the middle stint. The incident eliminated Briscoe and earned Hunter-Reay a penalty.

Hunter-Reay's team-mate Danica Patrick was on a similar strategy and then jumped up to third behind Power and Dixon as she only took on fuel, not tyres, when everyone pitted during the yellow called to retrieve Briscoe's car.

But the tactic did not pay off. On her worn tyres Patrick was easy prey for the drivers behind, and was down to sixth within a lap of the restart. Having eventually tumbled to 15th, she decided to take on more tyres before the flag.

After another quick yellow to tidy up a collision between Wilson and AFS' Raphael Matos, the race then ran green for the rest of the final stint, with Power keeping Dixon at a safe distance and Franchitti unable to keep up as he completed the podium.

Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosports) drove a strong race to fourth, just ahead of Servia and the spectacular Tony Kanaan (KV), whose jump from 24th to 14th on the opening lap alone set the tone for a hard-charging afternoon that eventually took him to sixth.

Penske's Helio Castroneves had a tough day, running wide and falling from third to ninth on an early restart, having a minor collision with Sato, and then going off in avoidance when Graham Rahal (Ganassi) tangled with lapped Panther driver JR Hildebrand. Castroneves managed to get his battered car home in seventh, just ahead of Simon Pagenaud as the sportscar star made a brilliant IndyCar debut with Dreyer & Reinbold in place of the injured Ana Beatriz.

De Silvestro and Ganassi driver Charlie Kimball completed the top 10, helped by Vitor Meira (Foyt) running wide at the last restart and Dale Coyne's Sebastien Bourdais banging wheels with Sato late on.

Results - 90 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team                    Time/Gap
 1.  Will Power           Penske             2h14m42.9523s
 2.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi                + 3.3828s
 3.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi               + 15.5243s
 4.  Marco Andretti       Andretti              + 28.9601s
 5.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas           + 29.8817s
 6.  Tony Kanaan          KV                    + 30.3853s
 7.  Helio Castroneves    Penske                + 30.7807s
 8.  Simon Pagenaud       Dreyer & Reinbold     + 31.2095s
 9.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                   + 32.5812s
10.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi               + 35.0038s
11.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dale Coyne            + 35.9883s
12.  Vitor Meira          Foyt                  + 42.6440s
13.  JR Hildebrand        Panther               + 44.2950s
14.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti            + 1m00.7427s
15.  Alex Tagliani        Sam Schmidt         + 1m10.6879s
16.  Takuma Sato          KV                  + 1m12.1719s
17.  Danica Patrick       Andretti                 + 1 lap
18.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi                 + 2 laps

Retirements:

     Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold        62 laps
     Raphael Matos        AFS                      62 laps
     Ryan Briscoe         Penske                   57 laps
     Mike Conway          Andretti                 45 laps
     EJ Viso              KV                       40 laps
     James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas              40 laps
     James Jakes          Dale Coyne               30 laps
     Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest                 27 laps