Dario Franchitti avoided multiple crashes and a drive-through penalty to win his third title at the Honda Indy Toronto Sunday and add to his lead in the IndyCar points standings. The Scot held off Graham Rahal on a late restart, then beat teammate Scott Dixon on the 1.75-mile temporary street course at Exhibition Place. Franchitti caught a break when his team successfully appealed the penalty he received for nudging rival Will Power into a spin that stalled the pole-sitter's car on the 57th lap. Franchitti kept going, while the defending race winner had to try to recover from 18th. “I'm always racing clean, he's always racing dirty. ...,” Power told the Versus network during the race. “He never gets a penalty from IndyCar. Just not right.” Ryan Hunter-Reay finished third. Marco Andretti, the winner in Iowa 15 days earlier, was fourth and Vitor Meira finished a season-high fifth. Power's day was over on the 66th lap after getting banged into the wall from behind by Alex Tagliani. The Australian placed 24th in the second straight race he failed to finish after suffering a mild concussion in a crash at Iowa. He trails Franchitti by 55 points in the standings going into the race in Edmonton in two weeks. Tagliani was launched into the air and slid on two wheels after Danica Patrick was pushed into his car on the 72nd lap. Tagliani had survived a collision with Helio Castroneves on the 29th lap, a hit that effectively took Castroneves out of the race after the Brazilian's car required repairs that dropped him several laps back. It also hurt Power, Castroneves' teammate, who had been leading but was forced to pit on the ensuing caution. That allowed Franchitti, who pitted right before the caution, to take his first lead of the race. Canadian Paul Tracy's hopes for a victory were dashed after he bumped into Vitor Meira on the 45th lap, dropping the 40-year-old driver three laps behind the pack. A five-car pileup resulted with nine laps to go when Andretti turned into Oriol Servia. Andretti escaped the crash that caught up James Hinchcliffe, Charlie Kimball and ended the day for Mike Conway.
