Ryan Hunter-Reay sensed that Sunday would finally be the day when he joined the list of IndyCar Series winners when he found a clear route through the incident that accounted for polesitter Ryan Briscoe and points leader Scott Dixon behind the safety car.

Having started from a career-best third on the grid, the Rahal Letterman Racing driver proved himself the equal of anyone in the 26-car field over the 60 lap distance, but got the sort of break that had eluded him in other races this season when Dixon made a mistake behind the safety car and included Briscoe in the ensuing accident.

Running third for most of the day, Hunter-Reay was sitting in fourth, behind the two pacesetters, as Darren Manning led the field behind the safety car, having opted not to stop under the yellow for Enrique Bernoldi's lap 41 spin. At the time, Manning was not expected to have the fuel to make it to the end without pitting again, but the caution was twice extended by accidents under the caution, the second when Dixon spun while warming his tyres and left Briscoe nowhere to go.

Both were demoted outside the top ten, promoting Hunter-Reay to second behind Manning, and the Floridian wasted no time in bidding for the lead, plunging to the inside of Manning into turn one on the lap 52 restart.

“When [the Dixon-Briscoe incident] happened, it was like a scene out of Days of Thunder," he joked later, "I couldn't see where it was, where the opening was or cars - nothing. It was just black and dirt in front of me, a cloud of it.

"So I picked far left and, luckily, it was open. That was when I knew it was my day and I had to do something with it. I tried to get a good run on Darren and went to the inside. From there, we checked out.”

He had to fend off one more challenge before the end, as Jaime Camara's spin brought out another caution with nine laps to go, but the restart threat ended at the green flag as the Ethanol-backed RLR car roared away from Manning and left the Briton to deal with third-placed Tony Kanaan. Victory was the 20th in Rahal Letterman's open-wheel history, but its first since Buddy Rice won at Michigan in 2004.

“This is big for momentum, and this is only going to be better as we go forward," Hunter-Reay commented, "I'm just so happy to give a win to some of these guys - they work so hard. It's unreal. The guys that are getting me spots on pit-lane are the same guys that go back home and repair the cars. It's amazing how hard they work, so to give them a win is huge - and to do it with Ethanol on the side of the car is awesome.”

The win lifts Hunter-Reay, who has been the victim of crashes in recent ovals events, into ninth in the IndyCar Series standings and leaves him just 21 points out of the top five, but the Rahal Letterman team has little time for celebration as the schedule heads straight to Nashville's concrete oval this weekend.

“This is a brutal series in terms of the timing of the races, the tempo every weekend, so I'm so happy for our team,” co-owner Bobby Rahal noted, “What it boils down to is that you have to have the right person in the driver's seat - and Ryan, since the day he came on to the team almost a year ago now, elevated the performance immediately.

"We've just come off a big shunt at Richmond, and we had to repair the car, but these guys work like you can't believe.For so many of our guys, this is their first win, and that even makes it even more special. I'm just so pleased for them.”