Briscoe opens the scoring

He started the 2009 season as he had finished the previous one: with a victory. Certainly, the success achieved last October, at home, on the streets of Surfers Paradise in Australia, did not count for the championship. The fact remains that Ryan Briscoe had demonstrated his formidable talent when it came to slipping between the walls of an urban track to climb to the highest step of the podium.

During a large part of the race, it was believed that Justin Wilson would emerge victorious and write a beautiful page in the history of theIndyCar. Discarded during the winter by the Newman stable-Haas-Lanigan who preferred the name and emerging talent of the young Graham Rahal and the sponsors of the experienced Robert Doornbos, Wilson owed his salvation only to the confidence placed in him by Dale Coyne a few weeks before the start of the season. Rightly so since the Briton climbed onto the first row of the starting grid alongside Rahal (his former NHL teammate) and was a candidate for victory for a long time. After leading the race, he lost to Briscoe and the American Ryan Hunter Ray.

For his return to the championship after a difficult attempt in Nascar, Dario Franchitti (IndyCar champion and Indy 500 winner in 2007) took 4th place in the final ahead of Tony Kanaan.

As for Graham Rahal, who started from pole position, he was hit in the first corner of the first lap by Tony Kanaan and finally finished in 7th place.

Note that only nine cars out of twenty-one at the start finished on the leader's lap.