Munoz breaks Indy drought in rained out Detroit

Colombian Carlos Munoz claimed his maiden IndyCar Series win as officials cut short the opening race at the double-header meeting in Detroit.

Munoz found himself with a huge 28s lead as the changing conditions played havoc with strategy ahead of the race being neutralised under caution for the eighth time on lap 46 when rain began to lash the Belle Isle circuit.

The race was then red flagged on lap 47 of 70 due to lightning in the area, which saw the 23-year-old record his first win after 28 starts in the series.

Fellow Andretti Autosport driver Marco Andretti was second with Simon Pagenaud, the slowest of the four Team Penske runners in qualifying, finishing third when proceedings were brought to an end.

It was Pagenaud’s maiden podium in his first year with the powerful Penske operation.

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Polesitter Will Power recovered well after finding himself outside the top 10 to be classified in fourth.

Scott Dixon was fifth ahead of Helio Castroneves, Jack Hawksworth, Josef Newgarden, Luca Filippi and Juan Montoya.

Filippi caught a lucky break with the race being stopped as he had fired into the tyre barrier under yellow, a lap before officials stopped the race.

Power had reclaimed the lead by half-race distance but was then summoned into the pits on lap 37 to take on wet tyres ahead of the rain returning to the circuit by lap 44.

As many runners were already burning up their wet rubber on a largely dry circuit, Andretti had argued strongly against his team bringing him in for service.

Andretti was finally ordered to pit on lap 41 for fuel with Munoz remaining out on the course.

The result now means Power moves to within 11 points of the series lead from Montoya.

The second of the 70-lap double-header races is scheduled for tomorrow.

See below for full results of Detroit Race 1

Pos	Car #	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Running / Reason Out
1	26	Carlos Munoz	Honda	47	Running
2	27	Marco Andretti	Honda	47	Running
3	22	Simon Pagenaud	Chevrolet	47	Running
4	1	Will Power	Chevrolet	47	Running
5	9	Scott Dixon	Chevrolet	47	Running
6	3	Helio Castroneves	Chevrolet	47	Running
7	41	Jack Hawksworth	Honda	47	Running
8	67	Josef Newgarden	Chevrolet	47	Running
9	20	Luca Filippi	Chevrolet	47	Contact
10	2	Juan Pablo Montoya	Chevrolet	46	Running
11	14	Takuma Sato	Honda	46	Running
12	7	James Jakes	Honda	46	Running
13	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Honda	46	Running
14	11	Sebastien Bourdais	Chevrolet	46	Running
15	4	Stefano Coletti (R)	Chevrolet	46	Running
16	8	Sage Karam (R)	Chevrolet	46	Running
17	19	Tristan Vautier	Honda	46	Running
18	98	Gabby Chaves (R)	Honda	46	Running
19	5	Conor Daly (R)	Honda	46	Running
20	10	Tony Kanaan	Chevrolet	33	Running
21	18	Rodolfo Gonzalez (R)	Honda	25	Mechanical
22	83	Charlie Kimball	Chevrolet	13	Contact
23	15	Graham Rahal	Honda	5	Contact