Ryan Briscoe celebrates in victory lane after winning the GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma on Sunday. Photo courtesy IndyCar/LAT USA
Ryan Briscoe had finished second, third and fourth at Sonoma in the past four years. Needless to say, he was due to visit Wine Country Winners Circle at the raceway at Sonoma.
Briscoe, who started next to Team Penske teammate and pole sitter Will Power, held off Power on a pair of late restarts and won the GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma by 0.4408 of a second for his first victory since Texas in 2010. He became the seventh different winner in 13 IZOD IndyCar Series races this season.
Briscoe gained the lead on a pit stop sequence on lap 65 when he hit the blend line ahead of Power, who had pitted a lap earlier but was caught behind traffic during the first full-course caution in more than 2½ races.
“It’s big,” said Briscoe. “I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to win again. It has been too long. Especially here in Sonoma, I’ve always done so well at this track and I got my first ever pole position here and we’ve been top-five every year pretty much for the last five years so it’s great to finally get the win. I look forward to drinking the red wine. Great battle with Will at the end there. He definitely had some bad luck in the pits, but we were there all day. I’m really excited and I hope to be able to work on my burnouts a little bit more in the future.”
Power, who clinched the Mario Andretti Road Course Trophy for the third consecutive year, increased his championship points lead from five to 36 over Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport with two races remaining.
“At the end of the day, I had a bunch guys that didn’t understand that we had to get to the blend line,” said Power. “Although there was a big crash. I was surprised the pits stayed open. I can’t win. If I go long on yellow, I get screwed by a yellow and if you go short, you get screwed by yellow. It’s tough. When you lead so many laps and have the quickest car. The delay on the push-to-pass cost me, too. I couldn’t engage it. It kept undoing every time I got on the power. Still a good day. Just disappointed to lead so many laps and I haven’t won in so long. Excellent for Ryan (Briscoe). His first win, and he’s a bloody good driver. He’s a had a tough time, but he’s definitely one of the fastest drivers in the series.”
Hunter-Reay was running third behind the Team Penske duo when the No. 28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda car was bumped from behind by the No. 98 Barracuda Racing car driven by Alex Tagliani in turn 7 on Lap 75 and stalled. The turn of events dropped Hunter-Reay to an 18th-place finish.
Dario Franchitti finished third and Rubens Barrichello posted a season-high fourth place after starting 11th. Graham Rahal placed fifth and Helio Castroneves was sixth. Simon Pagenaud clinched the Sunoco Rookie of the Year award with a seventh-place finish.
The top eight drivers are mathematically eligible for the championship heading to the Grand Prix of Baltimore on Sept. 2.
Izod IndyCar Series
Sonoma Raceway – Sonoma, CA
GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma – Aug. 26, 2012
1. Ryan Briscoe
2. Will Power
3. Dario Franchitti
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5. Graham Rahal
6. Helio Castroneves
7. Simon Pagenaud
8. J.R. Hildebrand
9. Alex Tagliani
10. Tony Kanaan
11. Justin Wilson
12. James Jakes
13. Scott Dixon
14. Mike Conway
15. Sebastian Saavedra
16. E.J. Viso
17. Somona de Silvestro
18. Ryan Hunter-Reay
19. Oriol Servia
20. Ed Carpenter
21. Charlie Kimball
22. Sebastien Bourdais
23. Josef Newgarden
24. Katherine Legge
25. Marco Andretti
26. James Hinchcliffe
27. Takuma Sato
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