IndyCar: Power takes charge at St. Petersburg

Two times during his career Will Power has lost the lead on an outside pass in Turn 2 here at the airport circuit. But Sunday afternoon he used the same maneuver to take charge of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and made it stand.

Power passed polesitter Takuma Sato for the lead diving into Turn 1 on lap 31, made it stick in Turn 2, and drove away with the season opener – beating Ryan Hunter-Reay by 1.9 seconds. It was the perfect start for Roger Penske's ace as his Dallara-Chevy is sponsored by Verizon, which is also the new title sponsor of the IndyCar series.

"Man, I am drained mentally, that was a tough race," said the 33-year-old Aussie. "But it's a great way to start the season and the series relationship with Verizon."

Asked about his winning move, Power responded: "Yeah, Helio (Castroneves) and Dario (Franchitti) both got me before with that move so I used it to my advantage this time.

"I got in there side by side and made it stick, so I was hoping he (Sato) would back off and he did. He raced me hard and clean but I had the line."

From that point, other than a couple of routine pit stops, Power was in command as he led 74 of the final 80 laps. His only dramas came on a couple of late restarts.

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After a torrid pace that saw the first 75 laps run under green, the yellow finally waved for Charlie Kimball's excursion into the tire wall. On the single-file restart on lap 82, Power came off the last turn at a slower-than-average pace but then hesitated before taking off. There was no trouble up front but in the back rookie Jack Hawksworth locked up his brakes and spun into the path of Marco Andretti.

"We hadn't reached the restart zone yet and Helio was up alongside me so I backed off and then I accelerated," explained Power, who collected his 18th victory for Roger Penske.

Hunter-Reay said it was the discretion of the leader when to go and he had no problem with the restart, but Castroneves smiled when asked and said: "I'm not sure what Will did but he got me and that's fair, he's the leader."

On the lap 87 restart, Power got the jump on Castroneves and RHR out-braked him going into Turn 1 on Lap 88 and set sail for the leader.

"I was running qualifying laps every time at the end and matching Will on times but he was just a little bit ahead and I couldn't get him," said the 2012 IndyCar champion following his debut with Honda power in his DHL Dallara.

Besides his pace, Power was aided by good pit strategy.

With Sato comfortably ahead for the first 26 laps, Power (in third) pitted early (lap 22), had a great stop and was able to start carving into the deficit. When Sato finally stopped on lap 27, he rejoined the race with Power on his tail.

Castroneves, who had inherited the top spot, finally pitted on lap 28 to give first back to Sato but he was only able to stave off Power for three laps before being gobbled up.

Defending IndyCar champ Scott Dixon came home fourth and Simon Pagenaud parlayed good strategy and driving to come from 14th to fifth. Sato settled for seventh.