Ryan Hunter-Reay drives the No. 1 Andretti Autosport DHL Chevrolet ahead of the field during the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, Sunday. (Inset) Ryan Hunter-Reay celebrates in victory lane. — AFP

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Ryan Hunter-Reay ended Penske Racing's domination at Barber Motorsports Park by holding off New Zealand's Scott Dixon to win the IndyCar Series race Sunday.



Penske drivers Helio Castroneves of Brazil and Australia's Will Power won IndyCar's three previous races at Barber, but Hunter-Reay beat both for the pole.



The defending IndyCar champion ran a steady race, holding strong in one intense battle for position with both Penske drivers, to claim his first win of the season.



Dixon finished second for the fourth consecutive year on the Alabama road course.



“I was dragging my tail off trying to hold off Dixon,” Hunter-Reay said.



Castroneves was third and Charlie Kimball was a career-best fourth. Power was fifth.



AJ Allmendinger ran seventh for most of his IndyCar debut but finished 19th after stalling his car during his final pit stop.



It was a huge turnaround for Hunter-Reay, whose previous best finish at Barber was 12th and he opened the season with an 18th-place finish at St. Pete in a race plagued by mechanical problems. But he left with his 10th career victory, and put the No. 1 car into Victory Lane at an IndyCar race for the first time since Sebastien Bourdais won at Mexico City in 2007.



It left team owner Michael Andretti beaming after two IndyCar wins to open the season, and Carlos Munoz's victory earlier Sunday in the Indy Lights race.



“It was great to get 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, when you start on the pole and lead almost all the laps, it's just how to do it.”



It wasn't all roses for Andretti, though: James Hinchcliffe, winner of the season-opener at St. Pete for Andretti, never got a chance to contend for a second consecutive victory.



A poor qualifying result put him at the back of the field at the start, where he was stuck in heavy traffic when the green flag waved. As cars jockeyed for position on the first lap, Graham Rahal and Oriol Servia made contact that collected Hinchcliffe and damaged his car. It left him with what he believed to be a tire issue, but the caution period wasn't long enough for IndyCar officials to tow him back to pit lane.



So Hinchcliffe's disabled vehicle sat broken down on the course as the race went on around him. His Andretti Autosport team was powerless to do anything except wait for another caution flag to get Hinchcliffe towed back to them so they could attempt a repair.



They never got another yellow flag, and Hinchcliffe was stuck the entire race sitting inside his idling car.



When it became clear his day was over with roughly 20 laps remaining, he stood up in the cockpit and did an exaggerated stretch that showed some humor in what was clearly a frustrating afternoon — he ran just three laps and left Alabama with a last-place finish.



Also frustrated was Dario Franchitti after a second consecutive disastrous race for the four-time series champion.



Franchitti went to pit lane 41 laps into the race with an electrical issue after driving from the back of the field into the top-10.



He wound up 25th and is last in the IndyCar Series standings. — AP