Ryan Hunter-Reay takes victory in Watkins Glen!

It was a wild race, especially the last 20 laps, but Ryan Hunter-Reay maintained composure to win his first-career victory in the IndyCar Series. This is his first victory in an openwheel car since dominating the Champ Car race at the Milwaukee Mile in 2004. Through pit strategy and clean racing Darren Manning raced his way up to second. He was leading toward the end, but Hunter-Reay passed him on a restart. Driving with an injured race from a crash in morning practice Tony Kanaan also ran a smart race and stayed out of trouble to finish third.

The difference between the first half of the race and the second half was like night and day. Ryan Briscoe, who started on pole, led from the start and only lost the lead during pit stops. Scott Dixon was not too far behind him and Hunter-Reay was running in third during the first half. There was only one caution when Helio Castroneves had a steering issue and stopped on track right before pit-in. Through the help of corner workers, Marty Roth's crew and his own crew he was able to make it back to his pit box and eventually back on track.

The carnage began on lap 48 when Vitor Meira and EJ Viso made contact. That brought out the second full-course caution and it also opened up the pits for what was, for some drivers, their final stops. Briscoe went into the pits with the lead, but came out third behind Dixon and Hunter-Reay. Danica Patrick had another pit incident. Her stop was done and she was waved to go, but she accelerated too fast. She lost control, spun, lost her front wing and ended up in a Ganassi Racing pit. Her crew rescued her and she went back out, but she later had to serve a drive-through penalty for her incident.

No sooner had the track gone back to green when Enrique Bernoldi went off track and another caution came out. Dixon still held the lead, but made a mistake. He spun a complete 360, but unfortunately Briscoe had nowhere to go and the two made light contact. Both drivers had to go into the pits and lost valuable time and track position. By this time Manning had worked his way up to third, but because of the incident between Dixon and Briscoe he now found himself in the lead.

The field was about to go green when another incident happened, this time between Milka Duno and AJ Foyt IV. This helped drivers who were running low on fuel. However, a few still had to make splash-and-gos. After that was cleaned up the track finally went back to green. Hunter-Reay had a fantastic restart and passed Manning. Manning was looking to take the lead back when the final caution came out. Jamie Camara was the victim this time. Luckily it was a short caution and with six laps to go the field went back to green. Hunter-Reay shot off like a cannon and never looked back until he crossed the line to take the checkered flag.

Quotes from the top finishers:

Ryan Hunter-Reay
"It's a dream come true - American kid winning with ethanol on the side of the car. It's an American team - Bobby Rahal gave me the job and now we're in victory circle. I can't tell you how happy I am. This is amazing," said Hunter-Reay. "I just got a good run on Darren (Manning), stuffed it down in there, and said I'll deal with it when it happens. Then I got to the top of the hill, Darren popped to the outside so I stuck to the inside and we held on to it from there. For all the bad luck that's gone our way, for it to finally go our way a little bit, that's huge. Great timing too."

Darren Manning
"Ryan Hunter-Reay was pretty fast. I think I was fast in the straightaways and he had a bit more downforce. Once we got settled in we were kind of doing the same pace, but I was kind of a sitting duck," said Manning. "I think he learned off of my restarts not to go too late and get one done early and go through the dirt that the guys had brought up a few laps earlier. But it's good for us. It's good for ABC Supply. We've been struggling the last couple races, and we know we're always quick on these road courses, so it's good there's a few coming up."

Tony Kanaan
"It was a weird race. Sometimes it's good to see another face in victory lane. I'm always happy to see someone who hasn't won a race yet win, so congratulations to Ryan," said Kanaan. "We did all we could. I have to thank my guys for putting my car back together after the suspension failure in warm-up. My wrist kind of gave up on me a little bit. I'm in a lot of pain right now, but we'll be fine. It's good to be in pain on the podium. We took what we got, and it was good for the championship, so we are getting closer now."

The drivers race next Saturday night at the Nashville Superspeedway for the Firestone Indy 200. The race gets underway at 7:00 p.m. local time.

Full results of the race on Watkins Glen

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