While it was Scott Dixon who came away with the victory, there are three people who perhaps deserve the most credit.  Without the efforts of Tony George, Gerald Forsythe, and Kevin Kalkhoven, we’d only have seventeen or eighteen cars on the grid.

Instead, twenty-five cars took the green flag at the first post-unification race at Homestead Miami Speedway.  Starting from nearly the rear, it took eight laps for three-time defending race winner Dan Wheldon to reach the top ten.  Scott Dixon took the lead through the first lap, but Tony Kanaan was quickly there to challenge, taking the lead shortly thereafter.

On lap 17, the first yellow flag of the season was thrown for debris, as Buddy Rice, whose Dreyer & Reinbold car lost one of its mirrors.  Pit stops ensued, and Dixon recaptured the lead with a pit stop that was 0.4 seconds quicker than Kanaan.  Hideki Mutoh’s day turned sour, as it appears he stalled his car and missed his pit stall.  He withdrew from the race a few laps later.

On the restart, there was contact between the front of Will Power’s car and Justin Wilson’s rear tire.  Wilson’s tire went flat, but Power’s suspension was damaged and his day was finished.  At lap 40, Bruno Junqueira withdrew with an ill-handling car.  Jay Howard and Marty Roth would withdraw at laps 50 and 53 respectively.

Around lap 38, Helio and Kanaan went side-by-side.  Too side-by-side, as Kanaan’s car put a nice tire mark on Helio’s sidepod in a fascinating demonstration of 360° on-board camera technology. 

By lap 66, Marco Andretti had worked his way up to second the hard way to challenge Dixon for the lead.  Certainly a change from last season, where Marco kept parking or crashing cars.  After a cycle of green flag pit stops where position near the front was unchanged, Andretti passed Dixon at lap 75 to take the lead.

At lap 126, Milka Duno lost control in Turn 2.  As she went backwards towards the wall, she just clipped Penske driver Ryan Briscoe’s rear wing, ending the day for both drivers.  Roger Penske said there was "a lot of inexperience" on the track.  Enrique Bernoldi withdrew at Lap 149.

At Lap 160, Marco got caught behind Mario Moraes, allowing Kanaan to pass him for the lead.  At lap 172, Kanaan was the first to pull off for the final round of green flag pit stops, handing the lead to Marco Andretti.  His stop was just a little slow, though, as Dixon was able to gain a position on him. 

The car which was the class of the field was not meant to be the race winner, though.  Ernesto Viso lost control of his car on Lap 192.  Tony Kanaan, trying to avoid Viso, clipped the car with his right front wheel, destroying the suspension.  Kanaan deserves a lot of credit, though, as his quick reaction prevented the first test of the side-intrusion safety upgrades on the Dallara.  A less experienced driver could have very easily speared the Viso car head on, and there could have been tragic consequences. 

Kanaan remained on track until the drop of the green flag at the start of Lap 196 to gain every position possible.  With the green flag, though, came an immediate black flag, as Scott Dixon regained the lead.  Marco Andretti was second, but couldn’t get close enough to Dixon to challenge.  Scott Dixon takes the checkered flag to win his second race at Homestead Miami Speedway and the first race under the banner of a unified American open wheel series.

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