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Will Power gave Team Penske its second victory of the two-race-old IZOD IndyCar Series season Sunday when he won the Honda Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham.

Power beat Scott Dixon on a restart with 16 laps left to get the victory.

Power’s victory comes one week after teammate Helio Castroneves opened the 2012 season with a victory in the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

“Yeah that was an awesome race,” Power said. “Tim Cindric (president of Team Penske) kept putting me in such a good position so we could use our speed. That last restart was kind of hairy. I knew Scott (Dixon) was going to be really quick and hounded me for a couple laps there. It’s good to get the Verizon 12 car in victory lane with a Chevy engine. It was awesome.

Finishing second was Dixon of Target Chip Ganassi Racing. He was 3.3 seconds behind.

Castroneves finished third.

Right behind Castroneves was Graham Rahal.

Finishing fifth was Simon Pagenaud, one spot ahead of James Hinchcliffe.

Power started the St. Pete race from the pole and Castroneves started from the pole at the 2.7-mile, 17-turn Barber road circuit. Power won last year’s race in Alabama.

Former Formula 1 star Rubens Barrichello was eighth.

“I am learning to race with this car,” Barrichello said.

“I first need to say thank you to the crew and thank you for my first top-10 finish. It’s hard to be happy with a top-10, but starting so far back (14th) and at some points in the race even further back, I think it was a positive that I was able to work my way back through the field. By the end of the race, I had one of the fastest running cars, so I think it was enjoyable to watch and for me to race. People race hard over here, but they were fair. I had many knocks and bumps, but the cars are so robust in this series that we can luckily get away with it.”

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Results Sunday of the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama IZOD IndyCar Series event on the 2.3 mile Barber Motorsports Park, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (9) Will Power, Dallara-Chevrolet, 90, Running

2. (3) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 90, Running

3. (1) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevrolet, 90, Running

4. (8) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 90, Running

5. (10) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 90, Running

6. (2) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Chevrolet, 90, Running

7. (4) Mike Conway, Dallara-Honda, 90, Running

8. (14) Rubens Barrichello, Dallara-Chevrolet, 90, Running

9. (17) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Lotus, 90, Running

10. (18) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 90, Running

11. (13) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Chevrolet, 90, Running

12. (11) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Chevrolet, 90, Running

13. (26) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Lotus, 90, Running

14. (12) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Chevrolet, 90, Running

15. (5) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Chevrolet, 90, Running

16. (20) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 90, Running

17. (15) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 90, Running

18. (7) EJ Viso, Dallara-Chevrolet, 89, Running

19. (19) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 89, Running

20. (21) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Lotus, 89, Running

21. (6) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevrolet, 89, Running

22. (23) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevrolet, 88, Running

23. (24) Katherine Legge, Dallara-Lotus, 85, Running

24. (16) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 52, Mechanical

25. (22) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 45, Mechanical

26. (25) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Lotus, 0, Mechanical

Race Statistics

Winners average speed: 102.081

Time of Race: 02:01:40.1127

Margin of victory: 3.3709 seconds

Cautions: 2 for 10 laps

Lead changes: 9

Lap Leaders:

Castroneves 1 – 24

Hinchcliffe 25

Rahal 26

Dixon 27 – 47

Castroneves 48 -49

Dixon 50 – 65

Castroneves 66 -67

Power 68 – 73

Dixon 74

Power 75 – 90

Point Standings: Castroneves 86, Dixon 84, Power 77, Hinchcliffe 60, Pagenaud 58, Hunter-Reay 53, Rahal 50, Briscoe 46, Conway38, Barrichello 37.

(This story will be updated shortly)

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