In the first 6 laps of the Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland, Paul Tracy was involved in two separate incidents that required him to change his front wing in the early stages of the race, but the 2003 Champion and his team played the fuel strategy game correctly and claimed victory in Cleveland.

Tracy's wild day began on the fourth lap when Graham Rahal and Tracy collided and brought on a full course caution. On the re-start Tracy ran into problems one more time as he hit Bruno Junqueira in turn 1 and forced Bruno out of the race and himself back into the pits for another front-wing change.

While Tracy was having a crazy day, Sebastian Bourdais, Will Power and Simon Pagenaud managed to pull away from the rest of the field and it seemed as they were on their way to podium finishes. Bourdais and Power had a good battle going nose to tail through the early stages of the race until Bourdais dove into the pit-lane and that's when Power took the opportunity of the extra-lap and quick stop to gain the lead. Power held on to the lead through the second round of pit stops as he once again was able to stay out a lap longer the the rest of the leaders.

The leaders might have had their strategy but the group running in the middle took advantage of the early yellows to fill up on methanol and a full course caution on lap 67 set the stage for the finish. Clarke spun in between turns 7 and 8, Bourdais was forced to retire due to mechanical problems. Power and Pagenaud were forced to go into the pits for a last bit of methanol giving up their spots in the top 5.

Tracy then inherited the lead and kept it for the remainder of the race while champ car rookies, Robert Doornbos and Neel Jani, were able to conserve enough fuel to make it to the finish coming in second and third respectively.