The race took place on March 14, on the 2.536-mile (4.081 km) temporary street circuit in São Paulo, Brazil, and was telecast by Versus in the United States.

Power was making his race return after an incident during a practice session at the 2009 Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma, which left him with two broken vertebrae in his back.

[12] Power topped this extra session, ahead of Kanaan and Ryan Hunter-Reay, with Justin Wilson—a new arrival at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing—in fourth position.

[11] Hunter-Reay topped the Sunday morning warmup before qualifying, setting the fastest lap time by over half a second ahead of second-year driver Mike Conway in another Dreyer & Reinbold car.

Franchitti saved his best lap of qualifying to the last possible moment, taking his thirteenth career IndyCar Series pole position, and his 24th in American open-wheel racing.

Dario Franchitti and Alex Tagliani led the field to the line, with the circuit still being dusty from the previous night's repair work.

Takuma Sato misjudged his braking into the first corner and clipped the rear of Will Power's Penske machine, which spun him into Scott Dixon.

After many drivers went down the escape road to avoid being involved in the crash, a separate accident took place between Marco Andretti and Mario Moraes.

[20] Franchitti led the field to the restart on lap eight, ahead of Tagliani, Hunter-Reay (up from fourth), Kanaan (up from sixth), and Matos, who advanced seven positions while avoiding the mêlée at turn one.

The top five remained the same until lap 15 when Dan Wheldon passed the De Ferran Luczo Dragon Racing car of Matos for fifth place.

When the race returned to green flag conditions on lap 26,[21] de Silvestro held the lead ahead of Franchitti, Hunter-Reay and Kanaan with Tagliani in fifth position.

Alex Lloyd aquaplaned into the wall in the second Dale Coyne car, bringing out the caution for the third time, and with rain falling relentlessly, series officials brought out the red flag to allow the weather conditions to pass.

Some cars gambled on wets thinking that the circuit would not dry quickly enough for their tyres to drop off compared to the slicks.As the green flag flew on lap 38,[21] Chip Ganassi Racing held a one–two with Franchitti leading Dixon, with two of the Dreyer & Reinbold cars—Conway and Wilson—holding third and fourth places, with the only remaining KV car of E. J. Viso holding fifth, the Venezuelan disposing of Castroneves just after the restart.

[20] Briscoe's luck would run out, however, when he overcooked it into turn five on lap 54,[4][20] and nudged the barriers with his nose assembly, bringing out the fourth and final caution of the race.

Meira soon passed his fellow Brazilian for third on Lap 57, and began to chase down the lead duo, who had changed positions after Power used the slipstream to overtake Hunter-Reay into the final corner.

Viso finished twelfth ahead of top rookie Beatriz, a recovering Briscoe, Danica Patrick and de Silvestro, the final two off the lead lap.