Australian Power wins rain-shortened IndyCar season-opener on streets of Sao Paulo

Power wins rain-shortened IndyCar opener in Brazil

SAO PAULO — Will Power made a late overtaking move to take the lead from Ryan Hunter-Reay to win the rain-shortened IndyCar season opener on the streets of Sao Paulo on Sunday.

The Australian passed the American with three laps to go, clinching the inaugural Sao Paulo Indy 300 for his second career victory.

Power crossed the line 1.858 seconds ahead of Hunter-Reay when the race ended at the two-hour time limit with only 61 of the 75 scheduled laps completed.

The race had to be red-flagged near its halfway point after heavy rains made track conditions unsafe, marking another setback for the track which was initially being hailed as one of the highlights of the season but faced problems throughout the weekend.

Home crowd favorite Vitor Meira was third, followed by compatriot Raphael Matos at the 2.6-mile, 11-turn Anhembi temporary circuit in South America’s biggest city.

Danica Patrick lost control of her car as it started raining, finishing 15th.

Power, whose other victory was last year in Edmonton, got out of his car and celebrated with the thousands of fans packing the grandstands of the stadium-like Sambadrome where the race took place.

“I feel awesome,” the Penske driver said. “We battled it out, it was a great day.”

There were only about three minutes left when Power overtook Hunter-Reay, breaking late to make the pass at the end of the long backstretch.

The win was extra special for Power, who last year sustained a season-ending back injury in a crash in Sonoma and only landed a full-season deal with Penske late.

“It’s been a tough recovery,” he said. “I’m very grateful to be given this opportunity. I laid in bed at the hospital and never thought it was going to happen.”

Hunter-Reay dominated much of the race with his Andretti Autosport car, but was not able to contend at the end.

“I had a blast all day,” said Hunter-Reay, who led for the first time since Watkins Glen in 2008. “I had so much fun with conditions changing all the time, that’s what racing is about.”

Power’s Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe got past Hunter-Reay for the lead late in the race, but he crashed with about 13 minutes left after missing a corner. Both had been battling each other for several laps until Briscoe lost control.

It was the first time in IndyCar Series history that the race was run on the same day as qualifying, which was postponed from Saturday because the front straight was too slick and drivers complained it made racing unsafe. Officials added grooves to the track overnight and fixed the problem in time for qualifying.

Defending series champion Dario Franchitti earned his 13th career pole earlier in the day. He led the race after it was interrupted, but eventually fell to seventh at the end after sticking with rain tires longer than the other drivers.

The race had to be red-flagged when pouring rain created deep puddles throughout the newly built street track.

Just before the red flag, Alex Tagliani — who led early in the race — crashed with Brazil’s Tony Kanaan after being touched from behind by Dan Wheldon.

The start of the race was marked by a scary incident involving U.S. driver Marco Andretti, who escaped injury after his car was hit from behind.

The car of Brazilian driver Mario Moraes finished on top of Andretti’s and they slid tangled for several yards. The bottom of Moraes’ car appeared to be touching Andretti’s helmet, and it took more than five minutes for officials to remove Moraes’ car so the medical team could attend to Andretti.

Andretti and Moraes were slowing down as other cars made contact in front of them, including former Formula One driver Takuma Sato, Franchitti’s teammate Scott Dixon, three-time Indy 500 Helio Castroneves and even Briscoe.

It was extremely dusty where the grooves were added and dirt was being constantly thrown into the air, causing visibility problems.

The Sambadrome straight stretches for about a third of a mile and was the only part of the track with concrete instead of asphalt, which was what caused the grip problems and forced officials to work overnight to allow drivers to race hard in qualifying and the race.

The street circuit was set up in about three months and was expected to be one of the highlights of the season, with the Sambadrome and the series’ longest ever straight, which is just short of a mile and allowed for a lot of overtaking on Sunday.

But the problems on the track this weekend dampened much of that enthusiasm.

IndyCar officials were hoping for a clean race as the series tries to expand in the United States and abroad, looking to carry the momentum from a thrilling season a year ago when three drivers reached the final race with a chance to take the title.