Conway beats Power in chaotic Long Beach GP

Mike Conway came through an incident packed race to lead Will Power home for his second Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach victory.

The Brit, only hired to compete in IndyCar’s street/road events by Ed Carpenter, stayed out of trouble to win the 40th running of the iconic event after starting from a lowly 17th on the grid.

New Zealand’s Scott Dixon appeared to have done enough to take victory but the  Ganassi driver was forced to pit for fuel with two laps remaining which handed Conway the win.

Power, who endured a disappointing qualifying, came from 14th on the grid to follow Conway over the finish line with Carlos Munoz in third.

Ryan Hunter-Reay made strong start from pole to lead the field into the first corner.

Sebastien Bourdais slotted into second with James Hinchcliffe third and Simon Pagenaud in fourth.

The poleman built a comfortable 3.2s lead before Bourdais brought out the first caution when he hit the barriers at turn 8 on lap 33.

On the restart, Hunter-Reay continued to lead from Hinchcliffe before Bourdais brought out the yellow flags again after burying his car deep in the barriers this time.

Hinchcliffe pushed Hunter-Reay hard when racing resumed while Power applied pressure on Newgarden in third.

The next round of pit stops proved crucial as Newgarden emerged from the pits in the lead and ahead of Hunter-Reay.

The 2012 IndyCar champion immediately tried to pass Newgarden but a misjudged move sent them both into the barriers.

Hinchcliffe was left with no where to go and joined the pair along with Tony Kanaan, Takuma Sato and Jack Hawkswoth.

However, Dixon, Power and Conway, who had made good progress during the race, managed to find a way through the carnage to inherit the top three positions.

Conway managed to pass Power on the restart and he soon latched on to the back of leader Dixon.

A caution for a spinning Graham Rahal gave Dixon, who was quickly running out of fuel a reprieve.

But it wasn’t enough as Dixon was forced to pit from the lead for fuel allowing Conway the chance to take the chequered flag for the second time at Long Beach.

Power boosted his championship lead by coming home in second ahead of Munoz.

Australian Ryan Briscoe finished 20 laps down in 17th spot after his Chip Ganassi entry suffered from engine issues.

See below for full result

1	Mike Conway	Carpenter/Chevy	1:54.41.6418
2	Will Power	Penske/Chevy	+0.9005
3	Carlos Munoz	Andretti/Honda	1.5591
4	Juan Pablo Montoya	Penske/Chevy	2.0226
5	Simon Pagenaud	Schmidt/Honda	2.8169
6	Mikhail Aleshin	Schmidt/Honda	3.8574
7	Oriol Servia	Rahal/Honda	4.9621
8	Marco Andretti	Andretti/Honda	8.1948
9	Sebastian Saavedra	KV/Chevy	8.9029
10	Carlos Huertas	Coyne/Honda	24.2295
11	Helio Castroneves	Penske/Chevy	30.0552
12	Scott Dixon	Ganassi/Chevy	30.7310
13	Graham Rahal	Rahal/Honda	+1 lap
14	Sebastien Bourdais	KV/Chevy	+3 laps
15	Jack Hawksworth	Herta/Honda	+3 laps
16	Justin Wilson	Coyne/Honda	64 laps
17	Ryan Briscoe	Ganassi/Chevy	60 laps
18	Tony Kanaan	Ganassi/Chevy	55 laps
19	Josef Newgarden	Fisher/Honda	55 laps
20	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti/Honda	55 laps
21	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti/Honda	55 laps
22	Takuma Sato	Foyt/Honda	55 laps
23	Charlie Kimball	Ganassi/Chevy	41 laps

Standings after two rounds

Pos Driver Points 1 Will Power 93 2 Mike Conway 66 3 Simon Pagenaud 60 4 Hélio Castroneves 55 5 Ryan Hunter-Reay 54 6 Scott Dixon 51 7 Carlos Muñoz 48 8 Juan Pablo Montoya 47 9 Mikhail Aleshin 46 10 Sebastian Saavedra 42 11 Tony Kanaan 40 12 Justin Wilson 38 13 Takuma Sato 36 14 Josef Newgarden 34 15 Ryan Briscoe 33 16 Graham Rahal 33 16 Sébastien Bourdais 33 18 Marco Andretti 32 19 Carlos Huertas 32 20 Oriol Servià 26 21 Jack Hawksworth 24 22 James Hinchcliffe 20 23 Charlie Kimball 17