Colombia's Juan Pablo Montoya held off reigning
series champion Will Power of Australia over the final 27 laps to
capture the season-opening IndyCar St Petersburg Grand Prix.
Power,
the defending race champion, led 75 of the 110 laps over the 1.8-mile,
14-turn Florida street course but lost the lead to the former F1 racer
on an exchange of pit stops on laps 81 and 82.
In a battle
of Penske Racing team-mates, Montoya denied pole-sitter Power on a
10th-tun pass attempt in lap 101 where the cars made contact. Montoya
went on to win by .9930 of a second.
"He was way too far back and I wasn't going to give him the position," said Montoya. "It was a really good day."
Power
called his late attempt to retake the lead "kind of optimistic but it
wasn't impossible. It was my only chance. He was phenomenally fast."
Montoya,
the 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner who left US open-wheel racing for F1
in 2001, moved to US stock cars in 2006 and stayed there until returning
to IndyCar last year.
Brazil's Tony Kanaan finished third with two more Penske drivers -
three-time St. Petersburg winner Helio Castroneves of Brazil and
France's Simon Pagenaud, in fourth and fifth.
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