2009 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

  2009 St. Petersburg

Race details
1st round of the 2009 IndyCar Series season
Date	April 5, 2009
Official name	Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
Location	Streets of St. Petersburg
Course	Temporary Street Circuit 1.800 mi / 2.897 km
Distance	100 laps, 180.000 mi / 289.682 km
Weather	86°F, Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Graham Rahal	N/H/L Racing
Time	1:02.4110
Fastest lap
Driver	Justin Wilson	Dale Coyne Racing
Time	1:03.2440 (on lap 54 of 100)
Podium
First	Ryan Briscoe	Penske Racing
Second	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Vision Racing
Third	Justin Wilson	Dale Coyne Racing

The Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was the opening round of the 2009 IndyCar Series on April 5, 2009. It was the first time in IndyCar Series history that the season begins on a road course and not an oval. The race saw 4 drivers make their debuts in the championship: Stanton Barrett, Mike Conway, Robert Doornbos and Raphael Matos. The race was contested over 100 laps of the 1.80 mile street course.

Graham Rahal started from the pole but a poor start meant that he dropped back and out of contention for the victory. Defending champion Scott Dixon crashed out on lap 80, a poor start to his defence of the title, which left Penske's Ryan Briscoe to take the chequered flag from Ryan Hunter-Reay who finished 2nd and Justin Wilson who came home 3rd.

Race

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Laps Led	Points
1	6	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske	100	2:12:26.8387	4	46	50
2	21	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Vision Racing	100	+ 0.4619	14	0	40
3	19	Justin Wilson	Dale Coyne Racing	100	+ 0.9490	2	52	37
4	10	Dario Franchitti	Target Chip Ganassi	100	+ 1.5230	5	0	32
5	11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Green Racing	100	+ 2.3214	3	0	30
6	3	Will Power	Team Penske	100	+ 3.4622	6	0	28
7	02	Graham Rahal	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	100	+ 4.0672	1	0	27
8	23	Darren Manning	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	100	+ 4.7283	10	0	24
9	14	Vitor Meira	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	100	+ 5.9559	17	0	22
10	34	Alex Tagliani	Conquest Racing	99	+ 1 Lap	7	0	20
11	06	Robert Doornbos (R)	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	96	+ 4 Laps	13	0	19
12	98	Stanton Barrett (R)	Team 3G	96	+ 4 Laps	21	0	18
13	26	Marco Andretti	Andretti Green Racing	94	Contact	18	2	17
14	4	Dan Wheldon	Panther Racing	86	Contact	11	0	16
15	27	Hideki Mutoh	Andretti Green Racing	86	Contact	19	0	15
16	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi	80	Contact	8	0	14
17	13	E. J. Viso	HVM Racing	75	Mechanical	16	0	13
18	20	Ed Carpenter	Vision Racing	71	Contact	22	0	12
19	7	Danica Patrick	Andretti Green Racing	31	Contact	15	0	12
20	2	Raphael Matos (R)	Luczo-Dragon Racing	31	Contact	9	0	12
21	5	Mario Moraes	KV Racing Technology	31	Contact	20	0	12
22	24	Mike Conway (R)	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	1	Contact	12	0	12

• The race exceeded road racing's traditional two-hour time limit. No reason was given for this.