The streets of Long Beach

The Indy Racing League was back in action this past weekend for the 38th running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, and did they put on a show. To start off the weekend it was announced that after a test session in Sonoma, Ca that Chevrolet found a concerning issue in the motor of the number 27 GoDaddy.com of James Hinchcliffe, and as a result Chevy told all 11 teams (who use Chevy engines) to change them. Since the teams had changed the motors before the engines had reach there mileage point all 11 teams received a 10 spot grid penalty after qualifying. This was just the start of the weekend, as Friday approached so did the heavy rains that essentially washed out Fridays practice due to flooding in the turns. Since Friday was a wash out the Indy teams were down to one practice session on Saturday before qualifying later in the day. The final practice session was a mess with 5 red flags due to accidents, 3 of which came in the first 7 minuets of the one hour practice. Franchitti received the pole, since the Chevy's were dropped 10 positions, but soon after the green flew on Sunday’s race Franchitti dropped. Ryan Hunter-Reay was the first driver to take charge leading a number of laps, rookie Simon Pagenaud was the second to take charge. The race soon turned into a strategically races Will Power opted to only make

2 pit stops and gain a huge 12 second lead over rookie Pagenaud. Power was told he needed to save fuel and Pagenaud took his opportunity to pounce and closed the lead to 8 tenths of a second, but Will Power was able to hold off the hard charging rookie and take his second win of the year in only three races. Powers win on Sunday brought Penske Racing there third win of the year, rookie Simon Pagenaud took his first Podium of his career and James Hinchcliffe came home in third for his first podium finish and his third top 5 of the season. The IRL is off to an impressive start with the new car and different manufactures, it is proving to be a great season.