In a thrilling 23 lap side by side battle with new points leader Dario Franchitti, the 30 year old Carpenter edged out the Scotsman by .009 seconds to win his first career IndyCar race. Not only was it the first win for the veteran, but it was also the first IndyCar win of any kind for team owner Sarah Fisher. In one of the most emotional moments in recent IndyCar memory, the new mother Fisher finally broke through to victory lane in a track in which she also had some driving success.
The 200 lap was ran pretty clean on the track throughout, but was marred by several incidents on pit road. Entering the race as the points leader, Will Power had the dominant car for the first 80 laps of the race, until he collided with Ana Beatriz. The contact put a large hole in the side of the number 12 Team Penske machine, but he was able to finish the race in 19th. Other drivers who had their day affected by pit late crashes were Marco Andretti, JR Hildebrand, EJ Viso, Simona de Silvestro, and Alex Lloyd.
In the Indy Lights race, Stefan Wilson took advantage of his P1 starting position to hold off Josef Newgarden for the win. A first lap crash took out 5 of the 13 competitors, but the show still proved to be very entertaining. As a result of his 2nd place finish, Newgarden clinched the 2011 Indy Lights Series Championship with 1 race still to run.
The Izod IndyCar Series has 1 more race to decide it's champion, October 15th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Dario Franchitti leads Will Power by 18 heading in to the final round of the season.
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