The 2013 Pocono IndyCar 400 Fueled by Sunoco was the 11th round of the 2013 IndyCar Series season. The race was held on July 7, 2013, in Long Pond, Pennsylvania at Pocono Raceway. The race was contested of 160 laps. Scott Dixon won the race. Charlie Kimball finished 2nd, and Dario Franchitti finished 3rd. Will Power and Josef Newgarden rounded out the top five, and Simon Pagenaud, Justin Wilson, Hélio Castroneves, Ed Carpenter, and Marco Andretti rounded out the top ten.
Background Pocono Raceway held an IndyCar race from 1971–1989, though as a 500-mile race, with the event ending after Pocono owner Joseph Mattioli chose not to return, citing the rivalry between the USAC and CART as a factor. The final race at the track was won by Danny Sullivan.
On October 1, 2012, IndyCar announced that the Pocono race will make a return for 2013. However, the race was shortened by 100 miles to 400, as a request by ABC to fit the time window. The race became a part of the IndyCar Triple Crown of Motorsport, in which if a driver wins the Indianapolis 500, the Pocono IndyCar 400, and the season-ending MAVTV 500, they will win $1 million.
The first ten races of the 2013 season were split by Andretti Autosport and other teams, with Andretti drivers James Hinchcliffe winning three races and teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay winning two. The other five races were won by Takuma Sato (A. J. Foyt Enterprises), Tony Kanaan (KV Racing Technology), Mike Conway (Dale Coyne Racing), Simon Pagenaud (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) and Hélio Castroneves (Team Penske).
Entrants
KeyMeaningRookiePast winner DriverTeamEngine1 Ryan Hunter-ReayTeam PenskeChevrolet3 Hélio CastronevesTeam PenskeChevrolet4 Ryan BriscoePanther RacingChevrolet5 E. J. VisoTeam Venezuela/Andretti Autosport/HVMChevrolet6 Sebastián SaavedraDragon RacingChevrolet7 Sébastien BourdaisDragon RacingChevrolet9 Scott DixonChip Ganassi RacingHonda10 Dario FranchittiChip Ganassi RacingHonda11 Tony KanaanKV Racing TechnologyChevrolet12 Will PowerTeam PenskeChevrolet14 Takuma SatoA. J. Foyt EnterprisesHonda15 Graham RahalRahal Letterman Lanigan RacingHonda16 James JakesRahal Letterman Lanigan RacingHonda18 Pippa MannDale Coyne RacingHonda19 Justin WilsonDale Coyne RacingHonda20 Ed CarpenterEd Carpenter RacingChevrolet25 Marco AndrettiAndretti AutosportChevrolet27 James HinchcliffeAndretti AutosportChevrolet55 Tristan Vautier Schmidt Peterson MotorsportsHonda67 Josef NewgardenSarah Fisher Hartman RacingHonda77 Simon PagenaudSchmidt Hamilton MotorsportsHonda78 Simona de SilvestroKV Racing TechnologyChevrolet83 Charlie KimballChip Ganassi RacingHonda98 Alex TaglianiBarracuda RacingHonda
Practice + Top Practice Speeds Driver Team Engine Lap Time 1 25 Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport Chevrolet 40.5620 2 11 Tony Kanaan KV Racing Technology Chevrolet 40.7573 3 83 Charlie Kimball Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 40.7825First practice results
Qualifying Marco Andretti of Andretti Autosport won the pole position after recording a lap speed of , breaking the record set by Emerson Fittipaldi in 1989, who had a speed of . Andretti's teammates Ryan Hunter-Reay () and James Hinchcliffe () started second and third, respectively. The last time a team swept the front row in qualifying was in the 1988 Indianapolis 500 with Penske Racing. Will Power () started fourth, while Tony Kanaan () and Hélio Castroneves () started fifth and sixth, respectively. Scott Dixon (, Takuma Sato (), Simon Pagenaud () and Simona de Silvestro () rounded out the top ten.
Meanwhile, the fourth Andretti driver, E. J. Viso, was in position to start in fourth until he hit the wall during qualifying; Alex Tagliani had also hit the wall while qualifying. Viso and Tagliani started 22nd and 24th, respectively. For Dixon, despite qualifying in seventh, was penalized ten spots due to conflicts between manufacturer Honda and IndyCar regarding the engine change rule. Dixon was not the only driver penalized for unapproved engine changes; among those forced to move back were: Dario Franchitti, Pippa Mann, Justin Wilson, Viso and Tagliani. Qualifying classification Driver Team Engine Time LapsLap 1Lap 2125 Marco AndrettiAndretti AutosportChevrolet40.692640.6547121 Ryan Hunter-ReayTeam PenskeChevrolet40.730840.75692 3 27 James Hinchcliffe Andretti Autosport Chevrolet40.8861 40.7722 3 4 12 Will Power Team Penske Chevrolet 40.711341.0005 4 5 11 Tony Kanaan KV Racing Technology Chevrolet41.0099 40.9478 5 6 3 Hélio Castroneves Team Penske Chevrolet 40.952541.0217 6 7 9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda41.0182 40.9862 7 8 14 Takuma Sato A. J. Foyt Enterprises Honda41.0777 41.0676 8 9 77 Simon Pagenaud Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports Honda41.1539 41.0909 9 10 78 Simona de Silvestro KV Racing Technology Chevrolet 41.156541.1893 10 11 55 Tristan Vautier Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda41.1808 41.1708 11 12 7 Sébastien Bourdais Dragon Racing Chevrolet 41.162941.2106 12 13 83 Charlie Kimball Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 41.202641.2357 13 14 16 James Jakes Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda41.2435 41.2345 14 15 20 Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet 41.176641.3544 15 16 67 Josef Newgarden Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda41.4925 41.1399 16 17 15 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda41.4483 41.3266 17 18 10 Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing Honda41.5270 41.4044 18 19 18 Pippa Mann Dale Coyne Racing Honda41.5280 41.4290 19 20 19 Justin Wilson Dale Coyne Racing Honda 41.454741.5434 20 21 6 Sebastián Saavedra Dragon Racing Chevrolet41.9821 41.5176 21 22 5 E. J. Viso Team Venezuela/Andretti Autosport/HVM Chevrolet40.9180 — 22 23 4 Ryan Briscoe Panther Racing Chevrolet — — 23 24 98 Alex Tagliani Barracuda Racing Honda — — 24Full qualifying results
Practice (post-qualifying) Final practice + Top Practice Speeds Driver Team Engine Lap Time 1 25 Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport Chevrolet 41.0734 2 14 Takuma Sato A. J. Foyt Racing Honda 41.1308 3 27 James Hinchcliffe Andretti Autosport Chevrolet 41.1412Final practice results
Race
Singing the National Anthem was Christian Porter, a Pennsylvania-native and contestant on season 4 of The Voice. The command to start engines was given by Fuzzy Zoeller, winner of the 1979 Masters Tournament, whose company Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka was sponsoring IndyCar's Triple Crown Award. NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon was in attendance after racing in the 2013 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway the night before.
When the green flag was waved, the front row got into single file formation by the end of the frontstretch. After starting third, James Hinchcliffe lost control in turn one and impacted the wall with the left side of the car. Hinchcliffe was checked by the medical crew and joined the ABC broadcast booth to call the rest of the race on television.
When the race restarted, Andretti extended his lead. By leading the race and not conserving fuel, Andretti was forced to refuel earlier than other teams. He made his first pit stop on lap 29 and returned to lead when all other cars pitted by lap 35.
On lap 61, Ryan Hunter-Reay was hit from behind by Takuma Sato while entering pit lane, suffering right front wheel and right wing damage, and was forced to go to the garage. It brought out the second and final caution of the day.
Tony Kanaan took the lead by virtue of being on pit road at the moment the caution flag was displayed. He exited pit road before Andretti passed him on the race track. The lead was short-lived as Andretti passed Kanaan as soon as racing resumed. Andretti held the lead for the next 23 laps until making a green flag pit stop. During the cycle of pit stops, Kanaan passed Andretti for the lead. Scott Dixon took the lead after Kanaan pitted. Dixon entered pit road on lap 101 and returned to the track in the lead.
Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan led portions of the race, but at lap 109 he clipped his front wing passing Scott Dixon for the lead. While Kanaan was able to continue, the team was forced to change the front wing under green flag conditions, ending any chance Kanaan had at winning the second leg of the Triple Crown. Kanaan finished a disappointing 13th.
Marco Andretti, led a race high 88 laps, but was informed by his crew to begin saving fuel with 39 laps remaining. It was unclear if Andretti could make it to the finish with just one pit stop. He pitted for the final time with 33 laps remaining. He was forced to conserve fuel to make the finish but ran out of fuel as he took the checkered flag.
Scott Dixon made his final pit stop with 29 laps remaining and did not need to save fuel to reach the finish. He was followed on track by his teammates Charlie Kimball and Dario Franchitti.
Scott Dixon, who had led only one lap all season (at the Indianapolis 500), led 38 laps, including the final 28 laps, and won the race by less than half a second.
It was the 100th win for Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda's 200th win in Indy car racing, and Dixon's 30th career victory. The win was Dixon's first since 2012 at Mid-Ohio. His teammates Charlie Kimball and Dario Franchitti finished second and third, marking the first time a team swept the podium since 2011, when Team Penske had Will Power, Hélio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe in the top three at Sonoma Raceway, and at a Triple Crown race since Bobby Unser, Rick Mears and Mario Andretti of Team Penske finished in the top three spots at Ontario Motor Speedway in the 1979 California 500. Power finished fourth, Josef Newgarden fifth, Simon Pagenaud sixth, Justin Wilson, Castroneves, Ed Carpenter, and Andretti closed out the top ten. Hunter-Reay finished 20th, and Hinchcliffe finished 24th.
Race classification Driver Team Engine Laps Time/Retired PitStops Grid LapsLed 1 9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 160 2:04:26.4178 4 17 38 51 2 83 Charlie Kimball Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 160 +0.4572 4 12 4 41 3 10 Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 160 +1.1989 4 20 0 35 4 12 Will Power Team Penske Chevrolet 160 +5.6320 4 4 15 33 5 67 Josef Newgarden Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda 160 +7.1949 5 15 0 30 6 77 Simon Pagenaud Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports Honda 160 +9.4074 4 8 0 28 7 19 Justin Wilson Dale Coyne Racing Honda 160 +13.3012 4 22 0 26 8 3 Hélio Castroneves Team Penske Chevrolet 160 +13.9376 4 6 0 24 9 20 Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet 160 +15.5500 5 14 0 22 10 25 Marco Andretti Andretti Global Chevrolet 160 +18.4584 4 1 88 24 11 78 Simona de Silvestro KV Racing Technology Chevrolet 160 +32.0478 5 9 0 19 12 16 James Jakes Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda 160 +36.2536 4 13 0 18 13 11 Tony Kanaan KV Racing Technology Chevrolet 160 +41.5507 5 5 15 18 14 4 Ryan Briscoe Panther Racing Chevrolet 159 +1 Lap 5 19 0 16 15 18 Pippa Mann Dale Coyne Racing Honda 159 +1 Lap 5 21 0 15 16 7 Sébastien Bourdais Dragon Racing Chevrolet 159 +1 Lap 5 11 0 14 17 98 Alex Tagliani Barracuda Racing Honda 158 +2 Laps 5 24 0 13 18 15 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda 158 +2 Laps 4 16 0 12 19 55 Tristan Vautier Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda 158 +2 Laps 6 10 0 11 20 1 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Chevrolet 121 Handling 5 2 0 10 21 5 E. J. Viso Team Venezuela/Andretti Global/HVM Chevrolet 104 Handling 6 23 0 9 22 14 Takuma Sato A. J. Foyt Racing Honda 61 Contact 1 7 0 8 23 6 Sebastián Saavedra Dragon Racing Chevrolet 2 Mechanical 0 18 0 7 24 27 James Hinchcliffe Andretti Global Chevrolet 0 Contact 0 3 0 6Fastest lap: Takuma Sato (A. J. Foyt Racing) – 41.2239 (lap 56) Official race results
Broadcasting The race was broadcast by ABC with lead announcer, Marty Reid, and color commentators Scott Goodyear and Eddie Cheever Jr. Reporting from pit lane were Jamie Little and Vince Welch. After his crash on lap one, James Hinchcliffe joined the broadcast booth to call the conclusion of the race.