Just two corners into Sunday's 95-lap Grand Prix of Cleveland polesitter AJ Allmendinger was spinning into the grass, his chances of victory seemingly over. However some two hours later he was celebrating one of the most unlikely victories in recent series history.
Allmendinger emerged victorious in one of the craziest races seen in many a long season to become the first American born driver since Michael Andretti in 1996 to win back to back races and move into a clear third place in the championship standings.
The 23-year old American crossed the line more than three-seconds clear of Bruno Junqueira to the line by 3.279 seconds to take the win with PKV Racing's Oriol Servia following closely behind in third spot.
A large Cleveland crowd, more than 50,000 according to the series, were on their feet from the word go as cars were sent spinning in every direction on the run out of the first turn, led by Allmendinger himself, who later admitted to his own mistake.
Andrew Ranger and Charles Zwolsman spun, Cristiano da Matta was clipped and Alex Tagliani suffered light damage as he avoided Zwolsman. Farther ahead, Paul Tracy tried to split the Newman/Haas cars of Junqueira and
Sebastien Bourdais, but ended up flying up and over the Bourdais car as the three got together leading into turn three.
Having been smacked in the head by one of Tracy's tyres, the championship leader was briefly knocked unconscious and it took several laps for the Champ Car Safety team to remove him from his car. However after a precautionary trip to the hospital Bourdais was released in time for the finish of the race with no apparent injuries.
