By Adrew Cutler
March 30 2010

After seeming untouchable during the practice & qualifying sesssions for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, it would have been no great suprise if Will Power had cleared the first corner of the first lap in the lead, and then checked out from the rest of the pack. But that didn't happen.

While he would lead roughly 1/2 of the event, there were a record-tieing eight different drivers who spent time at the point thoughout the day. Widely varying tire/pit strategies (the track was still fairly slick from the previous day's rains at the start) helped to jumble the field thoughout the 100 laps. 

With about twenty-five laps remaining, it appeared that KVRT's E.J. Viso was going to be the man to beat, but transmission troubles sidelined him. Given his pit stop cycle, this put Power back up front. He held on from there, but was hounded all of the way home by D&R's Justin Wilson. Power's Penske teammates, Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves, would finish third & fourth, respectively.

“It’s just great,” Power remarked afterwards. “It’s Verizon’s first year, and we’re out to win the championship. Perfect pit stop, good race. Perfect weekend – pole and a win. Can’t get much better than that.”

Next up for the IZOD IndyCar Series will be the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, on April 11 at 3pm ET/8pm GMT.