BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) a' Andretti Autosport kept great on the year Sunday when protecting IndyCar Series success Ryan Hunter-Reay snapped Penske Racing's winning streak at Barber Motorsports Park. Hunter-Reay became a threat for the glory when he beat both Will Power and Helio Castroneves for the post. The Penske people had swept every pole and all three races in IndyCar's previous trips to the Alabama road course. Hunter-Reay then ran a steady race, and held strong in one strong fight for position with both Penske individuals, to maintain his first win of the growing season. He then had to hold off Scott Dixon, who finished second for the fourth consecutive year. "I was pulling my tail off trying to hold off Dixon," Hunter-Reay said. Castroneves was third to dominate the IndyCar factors cause, and Charlie Kimball, Dixon's teammate at Chip Ganassi Racing, was a career-best final. Power was fifth. AJ Allmendinger ran seventh for many of his IndyCar debut but completed 20th after slowing his car all through his final pit stop. But he was acknowledged over repeatedly by team owner Roger Penske, even after the error in the sets. "Finish this and just learn, learn, learn. You are doing fine," Penske radioed Allmendinger. It was a huge turnaround for Hunter-Reay, whose prior best finish at Barber was 12th and the season was opened by him with an 18th-place finish at St. Pete in a competition suffering from physical problems. But he left with his 10th career victory, and put the No. 1 car into Victory Lane at an IndyCar competition for the first time since Sebastien Bourdais won at Mexico City in 2007. It left group owner Michael Andretti glowing after two IndyCar wins to open the season, and Carlos Munoz's victory earlier in the day Sunday in the Indy Lights race. "It was great to obtain that win with Carlos this morning and for Ryan to come back, they did a great job with strategy," Andretti said. "Just a perfect weekend, whenever you start the rod and lead virtually all the laps, it's how to do it." It was not all flowers for Andretti, though: James Hinchcliffe, champion of the season-opener at St. A chance never was never got by pete for Andretti, to claim for another straight win. Where he was trapped in heavy traffic once the green flag waved, a poor qualifying effect set him at the back of the area at the start. As vehicles jockeyed for position on the initial lap, Graham Rahal and Oriol Servia made contact that collected Hinchcliffe and destroyed his car. It left him in what he considered to be a tire situation, but the caution period was not long enough for IndyCar authorities to pull him back once again to pit lane. Therefore Hinchcliffe's handicapped vehicle lay separated on the program whilst the race went on around him. His Andretti Autosport staff was helpless to accomplish such a thing except wait for another warning flag to have Hinchcliffe towed back to them so they can attempt a repair. Another yellow flag never was never got by them, and Hinchcliffe was stuck the entire battle sitting inside his idling car. When it became obvious his time was over with around 20 laps outstanding, he stood up in the cockpit and did a high stretch that showed some humor in what was obviously a frustrating evening a' he ran just three laps and left Alabama with a last-place finish. Also frustrated was Dario Franchitti after having a second consecutive disastrous race for the four-time series champ. Franchitti went along to hole lane 41 laps into the race by having an situation after driving from the back of the area into the top-10. He wound up 25th and is last in the IndyCar Series standings. Through two races, Franchitti is easily off to the start of his career; he wrecked early in the season-opener to leave St. Pete last in factors for the very first time in IndyCar. Franchitti's past worst start was 2005 when an failure in the opener at Homestead caused him to keep the competition ranked 18th in the standings. "A podium was definitely possible. We were moving forward, passing vehicles and I considered to myself the Mark vehicle was quick," Franchitti said.
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