The Australian driver started the race very well and held on to the lead through his entire first stint, ahead of Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti and Team Penske's Will Power. The Australian driver managed to pass the Scot before the first round of pit stops, but Franchitti made the best out of the first box visits and emerged as top contender for the win until the caution caused by Simona de Silvestro in Lap 97.
The HVM drivers crashed heavily in the aforementioned lap, and the debris caused by her car was picked up by Power's challenger, causing the Australian to make an unscheduled visit to the pit stop. This enabled Briscoe to return to 2nd spot and start chasing Franchitti for the lead.
More than 30 laps later, after a yellow flag caused by an incident between Mario Moraes and Hellio Castroneves – which resulted in the Brazilian driver hitting the wall and calling it a day – Fazzt's Alex Tagliani decided to stay out on the track and briefly got into the lead, same as Penske's Power. However, once both pitted for refuel later on, the race resumed with Briscoe and Patrick fighting for the lead.
Franchitti had chosen to pit under yellow and emerged on the track in 13th place, losing a lot of time in traffic. The same thing happened to his teammate Scott Dixon, although he did managed to get out on the track sooner.
For the last round of pit stops, Patrick opted to change her tires and do a refuel one lap earlier than Briscoe, which got her the lead with a few laps to go. Once Briscoe made his stop, he got out on the track behind the Andretti Autosport driver, but was able to get up to speed in time to re-clinch the lead.
From that point on, he managed to build a comfortable lead up front, eventually taking the chequered flag some 1.4 seconds ahead of Patrick. Third place belonged to Marco Andretti, who benefited from Will Power's late “splash and go” pit stop and managed to fend off Ganassi's duo Scot Dixon and Dario Franchitti for the podium.
Andretti Autosport got 4 drivers inside the Top 10, as Tony Kanaan and Ryan Hunter-Reay finished the race in 6th and 7th respectively, ahead of Daly Coyne Racing's Alex Lloyd, Panther Racing's Dan Wheldon and Foyt's Vitor Meira.
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