Perfection is what Verizon Team Penske’s Will Power performed throughout his three days driving around the streets of Baltimore.  In the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix, Power achieved the maximum points possible in a race that had its worrisome moments and its major highs.
The workers that set-up the Baltimore Grand Prix worked feverishly hard throughout Thursday evening and into Friday morning to set-up the track that surrounded Camden Yards for Friday’s practice.  There were many concerns over the track that delayed the Friday practice – and after a few chicane adjustments were made there was nothing that could stop Will Power – not even the officials.
Power dominated the Friday practice session, Saturday’s qualifying sessions, and capped it off with arguably the best driving and team performance of the 2011 season.  Power’s pit stops were the best in the field, the team’s strategy were brilliant, and the driving was perfection.  
“I gave it absolutely everything I had.  That was an unbelievable result.  One of my best races ever.  That’s exactly what we needed. We’re closing in (on Dario Franchitti),” said Power.
Power has quickly closed the driver’s championship gap to five points on last year’s winner from the Target Chip Ganassi team – Dario Franchitti.  Franchitti solidly finished respectfully fourth to stay in the lead of the championship race with three races to go which includes one street course and two ovals.  In a reversal from last year, it was Franchitti who trailed Power for the entire season to only catch him and win the driver’s championship in the final race.
Newman/Haas driver Oriol Server finished in second place, 10.2 seconds back, and GEICO-KV Racing’s Tony Kanaan finished third.  It was an incredible performance by both Servia and Kanaan, as they both dealt with difficult starting positions due to separate crashes before the race.  Servia had a crash in qualifying which sent him to the middle of the pack starting in 16th.  While, Kanaan’s dealt with brake-failure in the Sunday morning practice which caused him to crash into fellow Brazilian and Team Penske driver Helio Castroneves.  Kanaan’s #82 went airborne off the concrete and into the tire barrier.  For Servia and Kanaan being on the podium meant a lot to them after dealing with so many issues throughout the weekend.

A lot of the teams and drivers expected numerous crashes in Turn 1 as they went two-wide to start the race.  There were no crashes in Turn 1 as the drivers seemed to go single file after the back three rows in respect to the tight corner.  However, the race was not without incident – as the hairpin on Turn 3 half-way through the race set the tone for how the race podium would shape out.  Team Penske’s Ryan Briscoe started the collision by clipping the back tire of Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay going around the hairpin which spun Hunter-Reay around and caused a blockade where 12 other cars had to park their race cars.
The pile-up led to a long yellow caution which provided Servia and Kanaan, who pitted during yellow with an advantage to get to the finish line with one-less stop.  It rewarded those drivers who pitted under caution to the detriment to Service Central Ganassi car of Graham Rahal who ended up back in tenth.  Before the big collision, Rahal had been challenging Power lap-by-lap, but after some poor pit strategy and slower pit stops, Rahal got stuck behind many of those cars who pitted.  Rahal was disappointed with race officials for not dealing with the collision and oil spill in a quick manner; nor communicating to the team’s how long they would be under yellow.

In the end, Power couldn’t be stopped as he captured his sixth win of the season – the most he has had in a season in his career.  If Power can finish the year as strong as his last few races, there will be nothing Dario can do to stop the Verizon Team Penske’s well-oiled machine.  Overall, the Baltimore Grand Prix proved to be a great event with all of the grandstand and suites being full.  The race was a big success for the city as well as IndyCar as it looks like it will be a race to look forward to for years to come.