St. Petersburg, FL (My Sportsbook) - Ryan Briscoe passed Justin Wilson with 13 laps remaining and never looked back en route to capturing the inaugural race of the 2009 IndyCar Series on the streets of St. Petersburg. The No. 6 Team Penske driver crossed the finish line 0.4619 seconds ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay of Vision Racing.

The victory was Briscoe's third of his IndyCar Series career. Briscoe's win gave Team Penske their 30th win in the series.

This was the first time in the history of the series that the opening race has been held on a street course. It was also the first time that the inaugural race of the season was on the Streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. After holding down the number two stop on the schedule the past three years, St. Petersburg became the third Florida venue to host the opener.

The 2008 IndyCar Series champion, Scott Dixon, crashed in turn three with just 19 laps remaining. Dixon wasn't having a good day prior to the crash and settled for a disappointing 16th-place finish.

Wilson led Briscoe, Hunter-Reay, Dario Franchitti, and Tony Kanaan to the restart with 13 laps to go. Briscoe made the eventual race-winning pass as he used the outside lane to get around Wilson in turn one. Hunter-Reay also got by Wilson, dropping him to third.

Just moments later, Dan Wheldon, Robert Doornbos, and Hideki Mutoh were involved in a multi-car wreck to bring out the caution.

Briscoe led Hunter-Reay, Wilson, Franchitti, and Kanaan to the green flag with eight laps left. Briscoe opened up a one-second gap before Marco Andretti and Alex Tagliani crashed with four laps to go.

The race went back to green flag conditions with just two laps remaining. Briscoe had a solid restart and maintained around a half-second margin over Hunter-Reay for the remainder of the race to secure the victory.

Wilson, Franchitti, and Kanaan rounded out the top-five.

After becoming the youngest pole winner in the IndyCar Series, Graham Rahal led the 22-car field to the green flag for 100 laps of racing.

Rahal, the defending race winner, failed to make it through the first turn cleanly. The 20-year-old Rahal was hit from behind and went spinning onto the infield grass to bring out the first caution flag of the afternoon. Rahal dropped to 21st, ahead of rookie Mike Conway, who also spun during the accident.

It was last year at this race when Rahal became the youngest race winner in the series at age 19 when he took the checkered flag. But Rahal never really recovered from his early wreck this year, giving him a seventh-place finish.

Wilson, Franchitti, Briscoe, Will Power, and Kanaan assumed the top-five spots following the incident.

Wilson was still the race leader when Raphael Matos collided with Danica Patrick on lap 33 to bring out the caution. Dixon and Power had an incident on pit road under the caution.

Briscoe, Wheldon, E.J. Viso, Hunter-Reay, and Doornbos rounded out the top- five following a round of pit stops. Wilson found himself in the seventh position.

After the restart, Briscoe built around a two-second gap over Wheldon. Meanwhile, Wilson eventually made his way into the third spot and Rahal settled into the seventh position.

Briscoe led Wheldon, Wilson, Hunter-Reay, and Franchitti after a Stanton Barrett crash on lap 55. Briscoe and Wheldon started a final round of green flag pit stops on lap 68.

Once all the stops were complete, it was Wilson that held onto the first position. Briscoe, Wheldon, Hunter-Reay, and Franchitti followed behind.

Ed Carpenter's hard crash brought out the caution flag with 27 laps to go. The caution period was lengthy because the tire barrier that caught Carpenter had to be repaired. And Dixon's accident shortly followed.

The next race is scheduled for Sunday, April 19, at Long Beach, CA.