Power led 38 of the day’s 68 laps, and benefited from a fuel problem that befell early-race leader Paul Tracy to roll to his first win. He ended up beating rookie Robert Doornbos to the line, while Tracy rounded out the podium with a third-place finish. Tracy took the lead in the first turn of green-flag racing, rolling around the outside of polesitter Power heading into the first turn and leading through the back half of the course. Tracy would stay in front through a pair of caution periods but Power fought back and reclaimed the point on Lap 11 while Alex Tagliani held third. The first part of the race saw four caution flags in the first 14 laps, but Dan Clarke’s contact with the tires on Lap 14 would end up being the last misstep of the day as the remainder of the event turned into a straight-up street fight.

Sebastien Bourdais as the first heavyweight to get knocked out, as his charge from his 16th-place qualifying spot was blunted after wall contact on Lap 24. Bourdais had come all the way to third in 23 laps, but a flat tire led to a pit stop that led to his retirement six laps later. Power and Tracy made their first stops on Lap 27, handing the lead to Tagliani, but the stops were more important for what didn’t happen on them – rather than what did. Tracy’s Forsythe Championship Racing crew struggled with the fueling mechanism and got just a few laps’ worth of methanol in the car, forcing Tracy to pit again on Lap 33, leaving his hopes for a win riding on a caution flag that never came. Doornbos capitalized and put himself in the second spot before starting the final cycle of stops on Lap 43, while Power made his final trip down Pit Lane just two laps later. The lead cycled to Tagliani and Bruno Junqueira before Tracy took the point on Lap 49. But his die had been cast with his extra stop, meaning that he had to refuel with 14 minutes to run in the timed event, giving Power the advantage that he would carry to the finish. Doornbos had a comfortable margin ahead of Tracy as his second-place finish gave the new Minardi Team USA a podium in its Champ Car debut, while Tracy outdistanced Tagliani for the final spot on the podium. Tagliani took fourth while former Macau GP winner Tristan Gommendy rounded out the top five in his debut.

Katherine Legge came home in sixth, matching her career-best finish and setting a new Champ Car record for the best finish by a female on a road or street course. Her DCR teammate Junqueira finished seventh while Pacific Coast Motorsports rookie Alex Figge not only finished eighth, but the American-born driver also scored the championship point for making up the most positions in the event. Mario Dominguez was the last car running and finished ninth while rookie contender Neel Jani rounded out the top 10. Bourdais started his pursuit on a record-breaking fourth consecutive title with a 13th-place finish, while last year’s series runner-up Justin Wilson ended up 14th after a driveshaft problem. Rookie Graham Rahal ended up 17th after contact on the second lap. The series will pack up and roll to Southern California for next week’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, which will be the second of three races in three weeks.
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Champ Cars

Will Power On Las Vegas Champ Car Pole
Team Australia’s Will Power led a Champ Car youth movement in winning the pole for tomorrow’s season-opening Vegas Grand Prix. Power’s second career pole was just the beginning of the youth movement as rookies Robert Doornbos and Simon Pagenaud scored top-five starting spots while established stars struggled to find results on a warm Saturday afternoon in Vegas. Power’s track-record time of 1:17.629 (113.154 mph) around the 2.44-mile Vegas street course was nearly a full second ahead of second-placed Doornbos, who will start third in his first-ever Champ Car event. Power and Doornbos were joined in the top three by veteran star Paul Tracy, who earned a front-row grid position by virtue of leading Friday’s qualifying. The guaranteed starting spot ended up being a blessing to Tracy, who ran only the ninth-quickest time in Saturday’s final round.

Power needed just four laps to eclipse Tracy’s Friday-leading time, but nearly saw it all go for naught as his gearbox pressure caused him to roll to a stop on the course with 10 minutes left on the session clock. Luckily, Power’s grinding halt came after action had already been halted, having been stopped by a red flag flown for Sebastien Bourdais. -- Bourdais had been running second in the order and had posted a time that would have put him sixth on the final grid, but right-side contact not only left him unable to continue, it cost him his best time of the day and left him 17th on tomorrow’s race grid – the worst starting spot in Bourdais’ 60-race Champ Car career. To seal the deal, Power came out after being towed back to the pits and ran his best lap of the day, setting the new track record. Doornbos used his 12th lap of qualifying to post his best time, stopping the clocks at 1:18.515 (111.877 mph) to snare the third spot.

Alex Tagliani gave his new RSPORTS mount a strong ride, carrying it to a fourth-place starting spot, matching his best effort from 2006. Tagliani hung his best time of 1:18.850 (111.401 mph) on the last of his 10 laps while Pagenaud jumped into the fifth position on the grid by scoring his best lap on the last of his 11 track trips. Dale Coyne Racing had its best qualifying result in more than two seasons today as Bruno Junqueira qualified sixth with a time of 1:19.102 (111.046 mph), giving Coyne its best starting spot since Oriol Servia started fifth at Mexico City in 2004. Junqueira was followed by Mario Dominguez and Justin Wilson, with rookies Neel Jani and Graham Rahal rounding out the top 10.
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