LONG BEACH - Australia’s Will Power, driving the Team Penske #12 Verizon car, used a two-step strategy to perfection to take an exciting win over Frenchman Simon Pagenaud (Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports) and Canadian James Hinchcliffe (Team Andretti) in Sunday’s 38th Annual Grand Prix of Long Beach for the IZOD Indy Car Series.

It was a career best finish for both Pagenaud and Hinchcliffe.

Power, who started the race from the 12th position, inherited the lead on lap 70 when Pagenuad made his third and final stop of the 85-lap race.

“This is really sweet. I didn’t think it was possible to win here from the 12th place,” explained Power, who sat on the pole in the previous three races at Long Beach only to fall short of winning in the race. “ It came down to a good call to pit early and then saving enough fuel to go to the end. Great call and great strategy by my guys.”

It was Power’s second win of the season and 17th of his career in IndyCar and ChampCar.

“It was fantastic. The car was great from the beginning,” said Pagenaud, who was quickly closing on Power over the final laps. “Oh for one more lap! I would have tried for it I tell you.”

Power actually qualified in second on Saturday but a decision by Chevrolet to replace its engines for all 11 of its teams due to concerns the engines wouldn’t last throughout the race created havoc in determining the starting grid.

The IndyCar penalty for unapproved engine changes is a 10 spot drop on the starting grid, resulting in Saturday’s fast qualifier Ryan Briscoe of Team Penske starting the race from the 11th position. In all, Chevy drivers took seven of the top 10 spots causing a total reshuffling throughout the 26 car starting grid.

“I feel like we need to call in NASA to figure out who is starting where,” joked Hinchcliffe, who qualified sixth and started 16th.

Defending series champion Dario Franchitti, of Team Target Ganassi which uses Honda engines, qualified fourth and moved to the pole as the top non Chevy driver, starting along side Josef Newgarden, an IndyCar rookie, who jumped from seventh to second.

“It doesn’t bother me at all to start next to a rookie,” explained Franchitti with a smile on Saturday. “We have proved time and time again that anyone can screw up the start at Long Beach.”

When the green flag fell Newgarden made a move to the outside and Franchitti put him into the wall going into turn #1, ending his race faster than a North Korean rocket flight.

On the lap-four restart, Franchitti quickly lost the lead to England’s Justin Wilson.

That was just the first of many lead changes throughout the race. In all there were seven different leaders and nine lead changes.

 Ironically, an early pit stop on a lap 20 caution nearly ruined the race for both Pagenuad and Power. As Pagenaud was leaving his pit he hit a tire laid out for Power who was just coming in. Luckily, Pagenaud’s car was unscathed and the versatile Penske crew was able to recover to get Power out with only a minor loss of time.

“I thought Pagenaud should have gotten a penalty for that,” said Power. “I was so happy to beat because I was kind of angry at him for ruining another of my races.”

The IndyCar season will continue on April 29 when the series heads to Brazil for the Sao Paulo 300 on April 29 and then to Indianapolis for the month of May in preparation for the 95thd running of the Indy 500 on May 27.