2009 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
# 2009 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

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 | Chip Ganassi Racing | 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 | Vítor 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 | Chip Ganassi Racing | 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.

| Previous race: 2008 Nikon Indy 300 | IndyCar Series 2009 season | Next race: 2009 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach |
| - | - | - |
| Previous race: 2008 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg | 2009 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg | Next race: 2010 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg |
