Controversial Finish

Will Power was thwarted in his effort to win a third consecutive race yesterday at Edmonton, but he wasn't the one who was left fuming and raging at the series officals: That role was filled by his Penske teammate, Helio Castroneves, who found himself being issued a black flag when he thought that he would take the checkered.

When it came time to restart the Honda Indy Edmonton with just four laps remaining after Simona De Silvestro's car (she ran it out of fuel) had been cleared from the airport tarmac track, Castroneves was at the point with Power just behind. As the cars accelerated into Turn One, Helio let his car drift a bit wide to set up for the apex of the turn, which forced Power - who was trying to pass him on the outside - to also move so as to avoid a collision.

Helio maintained that he was simply chosing his line and not making a 'reactionary' move to block Power, but the IRL officals saw it differnetly and issued a blocking penalty, showing the Brazilian the black flag and calling him in for a stop-&-go penalty. When Helio failed - as in refused - to head the flag, he was given a twenty second time penalty after the race was over, which dropped him down to the tenth finishing spot.

Scott Dixon managed to slip by Power during the 'incident' with his teammate, and held on for the win - as determined by the officals after the fact. Power was intially classified in third behind Dario Franchitti, but the order between those two has since been swapped.

Always an emotional guy - although it is usually the happy side of him that the fans get to see - Castroneves went on an verbal 'rampage' after he climed out of his car and tracked down IRL technical director Kevin Blanch as well as the flagman and gave them both an earfull.  

Castroneves later made a public appology for his tirade. “Obviously, I disagree with the decisions made by the race officials on the last restart in today’s race, but there is no excuse for my actions after the checkered flag. I apologize to my team, our sponsors, the fans and the entire IZOD IndyCar Series community for my behavior. My actions were totally wrong and I acted inappropriately to some people who are my friends and people I respect very much. Obviously, I am a very emotional person and today I let my emotions get the better of me and I’m very sorry for that.”

Here are the complete race results: http://www.indycar.com/var/assets/HondaIndyEdmontonBoxScore.pdf

Earlier in the day, Candian James Hinchcliffe notched his second Firestone Indy Lights Series victory of the season by holding off JK Vernay for the win.

Next up for the IndyCar Series will be the Honda Indy 200, at the Mid-Ohio Sportcar Course on Sunday, August 8.