The 2013 GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma was an IndyCar Series race held on August 25, 2013 at Sonoma Raceway in

Sonoma, California Sonoma is a city in Sonoma County, California, United States, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Sonoma is one of the principal cities of California's Wine Country and the center of the Sonoma Valley AVA. Sonoma's p ...

. The race was the fifteenth of the

2013 IndyCar Series season The 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series was the 18th season of the IndyCar Series and the 102nd season of American open wheel racing. Its premier event was the 97th Indianapolis 500 held on Sunday, May 26. The 2013 season was the second to feature the D ...

, and was won by

Will Power William "Will" Steven Power (born 1 March 1981) is an Australian motorsports driver who currently competes in the IndyCar Series, driving for Team Penske. He is the 2014 and 2022 IndyCar Series champion and the 2018 Indianapolis 500 champion. ...

of Team Penske.

Report

Background

The previous race of the season, the Honda Indy 200 at

Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is a road course auto racing facility located in Troy Township, Morrow County, Ohio, United States, just outside the village of Lexington. Mid-Ohio has also colloquially become a term for the entire north-central regio ...

, was won by

Charlie Kimball Charles Newton Kimball (born February 20, 1985) is an American race car driver currently competing in the IndyCar Series with A. J. Foyt Enterprises He has scored a win, six podiums, and 13 top 5s. His best season result was ninth in 2013 and 201 ...

. The 2012 edition of Sonoma race was won by Ryan Briscoe. Entering the race, James Hinchcliffe and

Scott Dixon Scott Ronald Dixon (born 22 July 1980) is a professional racing driver from New Zealand, who competes in the NTT IndyCar Series for Chip Ganassi Racing. Dixon has won the IndyCar championship six times: in 2003, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2018 and 202 ...

were tied for the most wins with three. In the points race, Hélio Castroneves held the lead with 453 points, followed by Dixon (422), Ryan Hunter-Reay (388),

Marco Andretti Marco Michael Andretti (born March 13, 1987) is an American auto racing driver who drives the No. 98 car for Bryan Herta Autosport, Andretti Herta Autosport part-time in the IndyCar Series. He is the third generation of the famous Andretti racin ...

(377) and

Simon Pagenaud Simon Pagenaud (born 18 May 1984) is a French professional racing driver. He is contracted to drive the No. 60 Honda for Meyer Shank Racing in the IndyCar Series. After a successful career in sports car racing that saw him taking the top class ...

(350) rounded out the top five.

Qualifying

Dario Franchitti George Dario Marino Franchitti, MBE (born 19 May 1973) is a British former racing driver and current motorsport commentator from Scotland. He is a four time IndyCar Series champion ( 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011), a three-time winner of the Indiana ...

won his 33rd career and final

pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...

, his fourth of 2013 and third at the track, with a lap time of 1:17.5271. Teammate

started second with a time of 1:17.7196, Team Penske teammates

and Hélio Castroneves were in third and fourth, respectively. Ryan Hunter-Reay closed out the top five starting spots.

, Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal, James Hinchcliffe and

rounded out the starting top ten.

J. R. Hildebrand John Randal Hildebrand Jr. (born January 3, 1988) is an American race car driver. He currently competes in the IndyCar Series driving part-time in the No. 11 Chevrolet for AJ Foyt Enterprises. Hildebrand won the 2009 Indy Lights championship and ...

, making his return to IndyCar since the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

, started 18th, while Ryan Briscoe, running his final race of the season, started 22nd. Lucas Luhr started his IndyCar debut in 25th. The race was also

Tony Kanaan Antoine Rizkallah "Tony" Kanaan Filho (born 31 December 1974), nicknamed TK, is a Brazilian racing driver. He currently competes full-time in the Brazilian Stock Car Pro Series, driving the No. 6 Toyota Corolla E210 for Full Time Bassani a ...

's 311th, tying him with Jimmy Vasser for most consecutive IndyCar starts.

Race

The race featured a track record seven cautions, four of which came in turn 7. Meanwhile,

and

battled throughout the day, but during the final pit stops under caution, Dixon sped out of his pit box and struck Power's right rear tire carrier, sending the carrier into another pit member, while another was injured by an air gun. None of the three were seriously injured, and were treated with ice. As hitting pit crew members and pit equipment results in a penalty, Dixon fell back to 21st and finished 15th. The penalty became controversial after Dixon believed Power's crew member walked in front of Dixon's car intentionally. Dixon eventually called the ruling "pretty annoying"; IndyCar race director Beaux Barfield stated that replays Dixon hadn't seen of the incident showed him driving too close to Power's car, which was getting serviced at the time. As for Power, he led for the remainder of the race, and beat Justin Wilson by 1.2 seconds for his nineteenth career IndyCar victory and first in 25 races, while

and

closed out the top five. The win was Power's third at Sonoma in four years, as he continues to be the only IndyCar driver with multiple wins at the track. Sometime during the later portion of the race, Andretti made contact with Power, which led to a confrontation between Andretti and Power's car owner

Roger Penske Roger Searle Penske (born February 20, 1937) is an American businessman and entrepreneur involved in professional auto racing and a retired professional auto racing driver. He is most famous for his ownership of Team Penske, DJR Team Penske, t ...

after the race. The points standings featured Castroneves increasing his then 31-point lead over Dixon to a 39-point lead (479 points to 440), while Ryan Hunter-Reay (417), Marco Andretti (409), Simon Pagenaud (380) and Dario Franchitti (379) remained as the top six, Justin Wilson and Will Power leapt past James Hinchcliffe and

for seventh and eight, respectively, dropping Hinchcliffe and Kimball to ninth and tenth.

References

{{2013 IndyCar Series

GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma The Indycar Grand Prix of Sonoma was an IndyCar Series race held at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California. The USAC Championship Car circuit raced at the circuit in 1970. In 2005, American open wheel racing returned to the circuit with an IndyCar ...

Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma