Dario wins at St. Pete

Dario Franchitti won the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Season opener on the Streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. Will Power, who started on the pole was second, and new KV Racing addition Tony Kanaan finished third. HVM Racing Simona de Silvestro impressed the impressive crowd with a fourth place finish.

Double file restarts came into play right away as five cautions took place within the 11 laps of the race, but once the field settled down, Dario dominated the race.

Marco Andretti, similar to 2010, flipped in the first turn and his car came to halt upside down. With his grandfather barley out of the two seater ride, and looking on, Marco walked away from his car and back to the pits, as Mario chased him down pit road.

The wreck in turn one of the first lap, took out contenders Ryan Briscoe of Team Penske, and Scott Dixon of Target Chip Ganassi Racing.

Double file restarts will be the topic among INDYCAR fans throughout the next two weeks, as Bobby Rahal said to Chip Ganassi as they exited pit plane, “they might need to rethink those restarts”

In the post-race press conference , Tony Kanaan on double file restarts “ I am with Will Power, I don’t really like it”

Dario Franchitti moved into 10th place all-time with the victory as he tied Johnny Rutherford
Full restarts below:

1 Dario Franchitti(leads on lap 100) 10 Honda
2 Will Power 12 Honda
3 Tony Kanaan 82 Honda
4 Simona De Silvestro 78 Honda
5 Takuma Sato 5 Honda
6 Alex Tagliani 77 Honda
7 Raphael Matos 17 Honda
8 Vitor Meira 14 Honda
9 Oriol Servia 02 Honda
10 Justin Wilson 22 Honda
11 Danica Patrick 7 Honda
12 J.R. Hildebrand 4 Honda
13 Sebastian Saavedra 34 Honda
14 Ana Beatriz 24 Honda
15 James Jakes 18 Honda
16 Scott Dixon 9 Honda
17 Graham Rahal 38 Honda
18 Ryan Briscoe 6 Honda
19 E.J. Viso 59 Honda
20 Helio Castroneves 3 Honda