Castroneves Wins At Edmonton

{fshare id=2817}

EDMONTON, Alberta (Sunday, July 22, 2012) – Helio Castroneves earned a bit of redemption at Edmonton’s City Centre Airport.

The Team Penske driver held off Takuma Sato by .8367 of a second to win the caution-free Edmonton Indy on the 13-turn, 2.224-mile temporary airport circuit.

Will Power, who started 17th because of a 10-grid spot penalty for an unapproved engine change, charged to third and Graham Rahal tied his road/street course best finish of the season in fourth. Alex Tagliani, who led a field-high 49 laps after starting fourth, finished fifth.

Castroneves had been the runner-up in three of the past four Edmonton races, and was leading late in the 2010 contest when he incurred a penalty for blocking. Scott Dixon went on to win the race and Castroneves was credited with 10th place.

The last Indy car street/road course caution-free race was Portland in 2007 under Champ Car sanction. The last caution-free oval race was 2011 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Castroneves, who was celebrated with his usual exuberant fence climb, gained one position in the championship standings with his 27th Indy car victory (second of the season) — 23 points behind Ryan Hunter-Reay, who finished seventh. Power is third in the standings (26 points back) heading to the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio on Aug. 5.