Australian Will Power wins Long Beach Grand Prix for second time

Australian Will Power held off a charging Simon Pagenaud to win the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday, Power’s second consecutive win in the Izod IndyCar Series.

Pagenaud finished second, James Hinchcliffe was third and Tony Kanaan took fourth.

With five laps left in the 85-lap race on Long Beach’s seaside streets, Power was about five seconds ahead of Pagenaud. But Power was running low on fuel, and as he slowed slightly in the final laps to conserve fuel Pagenaud slashed his lead to less than one second.

But Power had enough to win the Long Beach race for the second time; he also won in 2008.

Power, who drives for Chevrolet-powered Team Penske, also won two weeks ago at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala. Another Penske driver, Helio Castroneves, won the season opener in St. Petersburg, Fla., so Penske has swept the first three races this season.

Power, 31, also overcame a penalty applied to all 11 of the drivers using Chevrolet engines. The drivers were docked 10 starting spots from their qualifying positions because Chevrolet made unapproved engine changes in the cars, so Power started 12th.

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