Briscoe takes home victory at Surfers

For the third year in a row, Power's race ended in an accident after he had taken a commanding pole. But unlike his previous Surfers disappointments, this time Power's incident was a solo mistake rather than a collision.

The KV driver's crash on lap 16 left Briscoe (Penske) leading from Dixon (Ganassi), where he would remain until the flag.

Power immediately opened a four-second advantage at the start, as Dixon had to back off and hand second to Briscoe having cut the first chicane to hold the position on the opening lap.

An early yellow for a crash by Dale Coyne Racing's Mario Moraes, who had already tangled with Vitor Meira (Foyt) at the start, brought Briscoe and Dixon back onto Power's tail, but the Australian had little trouble pulling away again at the restart.

Although Briscoe began chipping away at his lead, Power was still two seconds in front when he misjudged the Turn 5/6 chicane on lap 16 and smashed his left-front suspension on the wall.

"I just clipped the inside wall," said Power. "Just a very bad mistake, very unfortunate. We were saving heaps of fuel, I wasn't pushing hard and it just caught me out."

That put Briscoe in the lead ahead of Dixon, Ryan Hunter-Reay (Rahal Letterman), Alex Tagliani (Conquest), Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) and EJ Viso (HVM) going into the first pit stops.

The second yellow came out on lap 21, when early-stopper Graham Rahal tapped Ed Carpenter into a spin, with AJ Foyt IV, Dan Wheldon and Danica Patrick all getting caught up in the subsequent traffic jam.

This was bad news for Franchitti, who was the only one of the leaders not to have pitted before the caution, and consequently fell to 13th when he stopped under yellow.

While trying to fight back, the former champion spun and stalled at Turn 6, causing the third caution and putting himself a lap down.

Briscoe and Dixon dominated the second half of the race, with the Penske driver able to hold a steady two-second advantage over the current champion.

That gap was reduced to almost nothing with five laps to go, when Briscoe was badly held up lapping Patrick, but the Australian was able to resist huge pressure from Dixon and claim his third win of the year.

"What a way to finish the year and kick off 2009," said Briscoe. "It's a dream to win in my home country."

Hunter-Reay fell behind Tagliani at the first stops and remained there - despite strenuous efforts to pass - until they pitted again. The American tapped the Canadian's Conquest car going into the pits in his hurry to get ahead, then benefited from a quicker stop to leap in front and clinch third.

Tagliani briefly lost fourth to Viso, who gained several places by running a long middle stint, but the rookie was ordered to let both Tagliani and KV Racing's Oriol Servia through after race control adjudged that he had been blocking unfairly. Tagliani duly fended Servia off to take a fine fourth.

Viso held on to sixth, just ahead of Penske's Helio Castroneves, who had pitted out of sequence under the first yellow, then lost a lot of ground when a brush with Patrick left him with a puncture.

Hideki Mutoh was Andretti Green's top finisher in eighth, followed by Rahal and Wheldon, but his teammate Tony Kanaan had been on course for a top five finish until his rear suspension broke at half-distance.

Newman/Haas/Lanigan's Justin Wilson, who had been a match for Power in practice, was forced to start at the back following pre-race gearbox problems. He carved through the field early on - making up 11 places in six laps - but would drop right out of contention after a tangle with Bruno Junqueira at a restart.

Pos  Driver             Team                 Time
 1.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske               1h45:50.3868
 2.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi               +    0.5019
 3.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Rahal Letterman       +    9.1179
 4.  Alex Tagliani      Conquest              +   19.9844
 5.  Oriol Servia       KV                    +   20.4376
 6.  EJ Viso            HVM                   +   33.7249
 7.  Helio Castroneves  Penske                +   34.4931
 8.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green        +   55.7467
 9.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan   + 1:20.0592
10.  Dan Wheldon        Panther               + 1:31.9002
11.  Justin Wilson      Newman/Haas/Lanigan   + 1:31.9353
12.  Buddy Rice         Dreyer & Reinbold     + 1:33.9068
13.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green        + 1:38.3970
14.  Vitor Meira        Foyt                  +     1 lap
15.  Bruno Junqueira    Dale Coyne            +     1 lap
16.  Dario Franchitti   Ganassi               +     1 lap
17.  AJ Foyt IV         Vision                +    2 laps
18.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green        +    2 laps
19.  Jaime Camara       Conquest              +    2 laps

Retirements:

     Driver             Team                 Laps
     Ed Carpenter       Vision               57
     Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green       34
     Will Power         KV                   16
     Townsend Bell      Dreyer & Reinbold    8
     Mario Moraes       Dale Coyne           7