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WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – After 25 years, Dale Coyne finally knows what it’s like to win a race.
Justin Wilson gave car owner Coyne that breakthrough victory Sunday with a dominant performance at Watkins Glen International.
Wilson passed pole-sitter Ryan Briscoe early and easily held on after a late restart to win the Camping World Grand Prix by nearly 5 seconds. Wilson led 49 laps of the 60-lap race around the 11-turn, 3.4-mile circuit.
“It took too long,” Coyne, three days shy of 55, said smiling in his pit stall. “We’ve been trying hard. We knew Justin was a good road racer. We almost showed it at St. Pete, and we showed it here today.”
As a driver or owner, Coyne had entered 558 races over 25 years without winning.
Penske and Target Chip Ganassi drivers had won the previous eight races this season, 10 straight overall dating to last season, and 15 of 16.
“To dominate like we did is fantastic,” said Wilson, who started second and finished third in the season opener in April at St. Petersburg, Fla. “I was grinning from ear to ear on the last lap. It just felt so good to do that for Dale.”
It was Wilson’s second IndyCar win. His first came at Detroit on Labor Day weekend last year for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, making him the only driver to break through against the Penske-Ganassi juggernaut in that span.
“We’ve been trying to build this team up, and we’re coming,” said Wilson, 30, who had four wins in five seasons in Champ Car before moving to the IndyCar Series after the two series merged. “This is my most important win in my career, winning with Dale and showing what we can do. It’s a fantastic feeling.”
Wilson started on the front row alongside Briscoe and had the strongest car from the outset. Wilson slipped past Briscoe on the fourth lap.
Wilson caught a nice break on the first caution when Briscoe pitted for a splash of fuel. Briscoe already was committed to stop when the yellow came out and had to pit again the next time around, dropping him out of the top 10.
“We got caught out by the yellow,” Briscoe said. “We went a lap further than him in the first stint. That was going to get us the lead back, but unfortunately the yellow came and we had to make two pit stops. That put us back.”
Briscoe fought his way back to second behind Wilson on lap 46 but never challenged for the lead.
Ganassi’s Scott Dixon was third, followed by Penske’s Helio Castroneves and Marco Andretti. Series points leader Dario Franchitti was involved in an early crash and finished 15th. That dropped him into a second-place tie with Briscoe, 19 points behind Dixon.
