2012 Trackside - IZOD IndyCar Series Media Site - IndyCar.com

Grand Prix of Baltimore – Sunday, Sept. 2 at Streets of Baltimore
For the seventh consecutive year, the IZOD IndyCar Series championship will be decided in the
final race of the season. Ryan Hunter-Reay made sure of that with a stirring victory in the second Grand
Prix of Baltimore.
Hunter-Reay started 10th and overtook leader Ryan Briscoe on the front straight of a Lap 70
restart. A full-course caution on the same lap for a four-car pileup in Turn 4 gave Briscoe, who won a
week earlier at Sonoma, another shot. But Hunter-Reay used the last of his 90 seconds of push to pass on
the Lap 73 restart and went on to a 1.4391-second win over Briscoe.
Hunter-Reay made up 20 points on front-runner Will Power, who finished sixth in the 75-lap race
on the 2.04-mile, 13-turn temporary street circuit and takes a 17-point lead into the finale Sept. 15 on the
2-mile Auto Club Speedway oval.
Simon Pagenaud, who a week earlier clinched the Sunoco Rookie of the Year award, finished
third for the two time in the past three races and Scott Dixon was fourth in his 200th Indy car start.
Rubens Barrichello overtook Power on the final restart to claim fifth.
MAVTV 500 – Saturday, Sept. 15 at Auto Club Speedway
The IZOD IndyCar Series championship was Will Power's to lose entering the MAVTV 500
INDYCAR World Championships at Auto Club Speedway. After Lap 55, it became Ryan Hunter-Reay's
to win.
For the third consecutive year, contact in the season finale altered the title aspirations of the
Aussie. The No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car "caught a seam" in Turn 2 of the 2-mile oval, spun and
made contact with the SAFER Barrier while running 12th -- a few car lengths ahead of Hunter-Reay's No.
28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda car.
Andretti Autosport owner Michael Andretti relayed to a surprised Hunter-Reay, who 18 hours
before had signed a two-year contract extension, that he had to finish sixth to claim his first series
championship by one point.
But wait. In this season of surprises, ultra-tight competition and high drama, all three collectively
focused on the Team Penske garage as the crew converged to repair the Dallara chassis and collect 11
more laps to finish 24th and ahead of the retired car of E.J. Viso.
That's exactly what transpired, forcing Hunter-Reay to finish at least fifth. Crews from rival
teams cheered as the No. 12 entry was wheeled onto pit lane.
That went by the wayside as Alex Tagliani's engine expired with 20 laps left and then Tony
Kanaan's car made contact with the Turn 4 SAFER Barrier on Lap 241, creating a red flag with the restart
on Lap 244.
Ed Carpenter earned his second IZOD IndyCar Series victory for the second consecutive year in
the finale and with Dario Franchitti as the runner-up. Scott Dixon finished third and Helio Castroneves
was fifth.
Hunter-Reay was running third on the restart and lost two positions, but the 31-year-old Floridian
regained one spot when Takuma Sato's car crashed on the final lap. The points difference, in over 15
events on the most diverse set of racetracks in motorsports, was three points over Power.
Hunter-Reay also clinched the A.J. Foyt Trophy for most points scored on ovals. He entered the
race tied with Kanaan.