Power led for the majority of the race, but was passed by teammate Hélio Castroneves with eighteen laps left.

On the race's final restart, lap 92, Power attempted to retake the lead from Castroneves, but the latter defended his position and was penalised with a drive-through penalty.

[7] Having dominated the 2009 Indy Edmonton, Power said he felt he could repeat the success and believed it would be "very competitive" in the qualifying session and "very tough" in the race.

[11] The session was stopped twice: once for Milka Duno, who lost control of her car and collided with the turn ten tyre barrier, damaging her front wing, and again for Bertrand Baguette, who spun after hitting a chicane kerb and driving through an advertising hoarding.

[13] Three caution flags came out; Baugette crashed, Duno stalled after she spun and Tomas Scheckter slid into a tire barrier.

[14] In the final practice session, Castroneves set the fastest lap time of 1 minute, 1.6642 seconds, ahead of Team Penske teammates Power and Briscoe.

Several drivers experienced high-speed spins without causing damage to their vehicles, prompting the display of caution flags.

[13] Duno was barred from qualifying because her practice lap times did not meet the required performance standards, but she was permitted to start the race.

[17] Power led the first group of twelve runners, nearly three-tenths of a second faster than teammate Briscoe, with Castroneves third.

[18] Simona de Silvestro set her fastest lap of the day in the second group of twelve drivers.

The other top six competitors were Hunter-Reay, Dixon, Viso, Mutoh, and Scheckter, who advanced to the second qualifying round.

Dixon and Franchitti of Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) finished third and fourth, respectively, with Briscoe taking fifth ahead of Viso.

[21] Power led Castroneves at the end of the first lap, with Dixon, Franchitti, Briscoe, de Silvestro, Viso, Hunter-Reay, Wilson, and Matos completing the top ten.

Scheckter's front wing was damaged on lap 10, prompting him make a pit stop for a replacement nose cone.

Wilson spun under braking on the 36th lap at the end of the backstretch at turn ten due to a right-rear shock absorber failure and drove slowly to his pit box to repair damage to his vehicle.

On lap 39, Danica Patrick attempted to pass Baugette on the inside, but lost control of her car and ran wide into the infield grass, rejoining the circuit in 17th without damaing her suspension.

On the following lap, Alex Lloyd spun into the grass and stalled his engine, necessitating the event's first full course caution.

Soon after, de Silvestro was hit from behind by Viso, who overheated his brakes and crashed into the turn one tyre barrier, prompting the second caution.

The third caution of the race was issued shortly after the restart when Kanaan made light contact with the side of Tagilani, who spun.

Ten laps later, de Silvestro's car ran out of fuel and pulled over to the side of the track onto the infield grass to retire from the race, prompting the fourth (and final) caution.

[21][28] The move was immediately reviewed by IndyCar chief steward and competition president Brian Barnhart, which resulted in Castroneves being black-flagged for being deemed to have blocked Power a minute later.

[29] Castroneves was informed of a drive-through penalty, but chose to remain on the track for the final two laps and crossed the start-finish line first on the road.

[29] Gordon Kirby of Motor Sport Magazine opined that Castroneves' move was fair and sportsmanlike and noted that several fans perceived it as "good, hard racing".