Track Walk: Texas 2013

Simon Pagenaud heads to Texas as the most recent winner in the Izod IndyCar Series while Helio Castroneves and Marco Andretti are tied for the points lead. Six different drivers have won this season of which Ryan Hunter-Reay is the only one to have won a race in 2012. Justin Wilson won last year at Texas.

Serviá and Mann Return
Oriol Serviá and Pippa Mann return to the IndyCar grid this weekend. Serviá will jump behind the wheel of the National Guard Chevrolet for Panther Racing while Mann will drive CyclopsGear.com Honda for Dale Coyne Racing. Serviá was ninth in the points after Indianapolis but missed the two Detroit races after Dreyer & Reinbold Racing shut it's doors. Mann will be making her second start of the season and her first career appearance at Texas Motor Speedway. Mann finished thirtieth at Indianapolis.

Serviá has been announced as the driver of the #4 Chevrolet for Texas and Iowa in a fortnight. No announcement has been made on who will drive the car at Milwaukee next week. No driver has been announced for the #18 Dale Coyne entry past Texas.

More Turbo For Kanaan
Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan will be driving the Sunoco/Turbo Chevrolet at Texas this weekend and at three more races in 2013. The DreamWorks Animation film "Turbo" follows the story of a snails in pursuit of making his dream come true of competing in the Indianapolis 500. The film and Sunoco sponsored Townsend Bell in the Indianapolis 500. "Turbo" will be released on July 17.

Coverage and Forecast
This year's Firestone 550 from Texas Motor Speedway will be the first IndyCar race shown live in primetime. ABC's coverage begins Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. ET with the command to start engines at 8:40 p.m. Forecast for Friday calls for a high of 85 degrees Fahrenheit with partly cloudy conditions and zero percent chance of rain. Saturday calls for mostly sunny with a high of 89 degrees Fahrenheit and ten percent chance of rain.

Track Facts
Alex Tagliani has won the last two poles at Texas. He looks to tie Tomas Scheckter for most poles at Texas Motor Speedway with three. Last year Justin Wilson won from seventeenth, the furthest back a winner has come from at Texas. In 25 races at Texas Motor Speedway, the winner has come from pole position six times and from the front row twelve times. Helio Castroneves leads all active drivers with three wins at Texas, his last coming in 2009. There has never been a back-to-back winner at Texas Motor Speedway

Prediction
We will have a seventh different winner in 2013 at Texas. Last year saw a lot of passing and I expect that to continue in 2013. Only six cars finished on the lead lap last year, I expect more this year but no more than twelve. Scott Dixon led 130 laps last year before having an accident with just a little more than 50 laps to go. Dixon should be a contender. I am pulling for Oriol Serviá because Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage said he will hand him the trophy in victory lane. I am going to take Marco Andretti for the win and retaking the points lead in doing so. Sleeper: Charlie Kimball.