St. Petersburg, FL (My Sportsbook) - Nineteen-year old Graham Rahal won Sunday's Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on the streets of St. Petersburg in his first IndyCar Series race. He is the youngest driver to win an IndyCar event. The No.06 crossed the finish line 3.5192 seconds ahead of Helio Castroneves.
The key to winning the race was the decision by his pit crew to stay out on lap 56 when everyone else pitted for fuel. Rahal got around Ryan Hunter Reay (the only other car to stay out) on lap 65 and had enough fuel to make it to the checkered flag.
"What a job for the team, its been a struggle the last couple of weeks," said proud papa Bobby Rahal, the 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner. "To come out like this after not being able to race last week in Homestead...wow."
With rain falling, the race began under yellow and continued that way for 10 laps before actual racing began. It likely meant the race would not complete the 100-lap distance before the two-hour racing limit was reached.
Finally the "real" racing began on lap 11. Within three laps, three cars had spun, Danica Patrick, Marco Andretti and Mario Moraes.
Meanwhile, up front it was Tony Kanaan, Justin Wilson and Castroneves leading the way. Then Kanaan pitted on lap 17 and was penalized for a pit road infraction. It left him back in 11th place as the field went back to green on lap 20.
Wilson inherited the lead and the former CART driver was showing his wet weather prowess. Wilson built the lead to more than two seconds on Ryan Briscoe as they hit the 30-lap mark. But a debris caution flag slowed the field and erased Wilson's big lead.
Wilson elected to pit giving up the lead to Briscoe as only half the field pitted. He came back in 12th place.
Briscoe quickly built the lead to 2.5 seconds over Franck Perera at lap 36 after only two green flag laps. But Kanaan was coming and up to third place. Wilson was also moving back through the field, already up to 10th. By lap 41 Wilson had passed four more cars and was up to sixth place.
Lap 42 saw Andretti's day end with a broken half shaft.
The drivers began to change over from rain tires to slicks because they saw that the could safely make it around the track. Those that gambled early benefited from the gamble and the top of the charts was jumbled with an interesting mixture of drivers.
Enrique Bernoldi was the race leader with Ernesto Viso, Vitor Meira and Darren Manning the top-four. Bernoldi didn't last long, as Viso passed him on lap 48. Meanwhile Briscoe was in sixth and Kanaan in eighth. Viso's lead was up to three seconds by lap 53 as he was really showing off his abilities.
Briscoe was still sixth when on lap 56 he clipped in corner and slid off line. With all the water he had no chance to keep it off the wall and his race was done. The accident would give the almost the entire field a chance to make their final stops.
Ryan Hunter-Reay and Rahal stayed out to lead the race with Viso in third after an 8.7-second stop. Castroneves and Wheldon jumped to third and fourth, respectively.
Hunter-Reay and Rahal were gambling on enough caution flag laps to be able to reach the end of the race. Rahal got around Hunter-Reay on lap 65 and the on the next lap they both got some help when Ed Carpenter spun to bring out a yellow flag.
They went back to green and on the first lap Castroneves slid past Hunter-Reay for second place. He now had about 22 minutes left to track down Rahal, who held a 2.7-second lead.
But he wasn't gaining as Rahal put up his fastest lap of the race on lap 70 to extend the margin to 3.7 seconds. The gap was 4.6 seconds just three laps later.
Lap 74 saw Scott Dixon limp slowly into his pits with what appeared to be a wheel problem. Two laps later the caution flag came out again this time for a three-car incident involving Townsend Bell, Vitor Meira and Franck Perera. It would be a lengthy cleanup leaving little time for Castroneves to catch the rookie. On the other hand, the Brazilian was right on Rahal's rear bumper for the restart.
When they got the track clean it looked like there were maybe four laps left to race. Rahal got a good restart and opened up three lengths on Castroneves. Two laps to go and Rahal built the lead to more than one second. All he had to do on the last lap was keep it off the walls. Rahal did and become the youngest IndyCar Series driver, winning in his first start.
Kanaan, Viso and Bernoldi completed the top-five. Castroneves' second-place finish will give him a 10-point lead over Dixon as they held to Twin Ring Motegi on Sunday, April 20th for the next event.
