The Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was the opening round of the 2009 IndyCar Series on April 5, 2009. It was the first time in IndyCar Series history that the season begins on a road course and not an oval. The race saw 4 drivers make their debuts in the championship: Stanton Barrett, Mike Conway, Robert Doornbos and Raphael Matos. The race was contested over 100 laps of the 1.80 mile street course.
Graham Rahal started from the pole but a poor start meant that he dropped back and out of contention for the victory. Defending champion Scott Dixon crashed out on lap 80, a poor start to his defence of the title, which left Penske's Ryan Briscoe to take the chequered flag from Ryan Hunter-Reay who finished 2nd and Justin Wilson who came home 3rd.
Race Pos No. Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Laps Led Points 16 Ryan BriscoeTeam Penske1002:12:26.838744650 221 Ryan Hunter-ReayVision Racing100+ 0.461914040 319 Justin WilsonDale Coyne Racing100+ 0.949025237 410 Dario FranchittiChip Ganassi Racing100+ 1.52305032 511 Tony KanaanAndretti Green Racing100+ 2.32143030 63 Will PowerTeam Penske100+ 3.46226028 702 Graham RahalNewman/Haas/Lanigan Racing100+ 4.06721027 823 Darren ManningDreyer & Reinbold Racing100+ 4.728310024 914 Vítor MeiraA. J. Foyt Enterprises100+ 5.955917022 1034 Alex TaglianiConquest Racing99+ 1 Lap 7020 1106 Robert Doornbos (R)Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing96+ 4 Laps13019 1298 Stanton Barrett (R)Team 3G96+ 4 Laps21018 1326 Marco AndrettiAndretti Green Racing94Contact18217 144 Dan WheldonPanther Racing86Contact11016 1527 Hideki MutohAndretti Green Racing86Contact19015 169 Scott DixonChip Ganassi Racing80Contact8014 1713 E. J. VisoHVM Racing75Mechanical16013 1820 Ed CarpenterVision Racing71Contact22012 197 Danica PatrickAndretti Green Racing31Contact15012 202 Raphael Matos (R)Luczo-Dragon Racing31Contact9012 215 Mario MoraesKV Racing Technology31Contact20012 2224 Mike Conway (R)Dreyer & Reinbold Racing1Contact12012 Sources:
The race exceeded road racing's traditional two-hour time limit. No reason was given for this.
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