(Almost) Flag-To-Flag
By Andrew Cutler
August 23 2010
After winning a series-record eighth season Pole on Saturday, Will Power continued his domination of the Indycar road/street course venues by leading all but two laps of the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma on Sunday. The only time that he surrenderd the lead - to eventual second place finisher Scott Dixon - was during the last pit stop cycle.
Other than that, Power was untouchable, winning his fifth event of the 2010 season. After his terrifying crash here last year, this victory had special meaning for him. "It's unreal. What a perfect weekend. I just have to thank the Verizon guys and Roger (Penske) and Tim (Cindric) for giving me this opportunity. To come back and win it from the pole is just fantastic. I’ve said it all season, I wanted to come back here and win this race.”
By gaining not only the fifty points for the win, but also the three 'bonus' points for capturing the Pole and leading the most laps, Power was able to increase his championship lead over Dario Franchitti, who had to settle for thirty-five points for finishing third. Will heads into the season-ending stretch of four consecutive oval races - were his average finishes to date have not been nearly as strong - with a fifty-nine point cushion.
Here are the complete race results from Sunday: http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/IndyGPofSonomaOfficialBoxScore.pdf
Earlier in the day, JK Vernay increased his championship lead in the Firestone Indy Lights Series by claiming his fifth win of the year.
Next up for the IndyCar Series will be the Peak Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway, this Saturday evening at 7pm ET/Midnight Sunday GMT.