Dario Franchitti starts on pole position today as the Scotsman looks for his first victory of the 2013 season. This is Franchitti's fourth pole of the season and his finishes after his three previous pole wins are fourth, sixth and third. On the way to his 2009 championship, Franchitti led flag-to-flag from pole at Sonoma. His teammate Scott Dixon will join him on row one. Dixon won at Sonoma from fifth on the grid in 2007, the furthest a winner has ever come from at Sonoma. The Kiwi trails championship rival Helio Castroneves by thirty-one points with five races to go.
Row two features the Chevrolet drivers Will Power and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Power is looking for his first win of 2013 as well and has two wins and a second place finish in three starts at Sonoma. The Australian has yet to score a podium on a road or street course in 2013 with fourth being his best finish two weeks ago at Mid-Ohio. Ryan Hunter-Reay starts fourth. While all Sonoma winners have come from the top five, a winner has never started in the fourth position. Hunter-Reay is third in the standings, sixty-five points back of Castroneves. Helio Castroneves starts fifth as he looks for his seventh top ten in nine starts at Sonoma. Most recent IndyCar winner Charlie Kimball starts sixth. In two starts at Sonoma, the Californian Kimball has never finished better than twenty-first. Sonoma has been dominated by Penske and Ganassi Racing. While Penske has won the last three races at the track, Ganassi and them have combined to take the last six races at Sonoma, fifteen of eighteen podium positions in that time frame, twenty-two of thirty top five positions in that time frame including taking fourteen of the last fifteen top five positions.
Justin Wilson starts seventh for the second consecutive race as he looks for his first win of the season and looks to better his position in the championship standings. Since reunification in 2008, Wilson's best finish in the points is ninth. He is currently ninth, five behind the tie between James Hinchcliffe and Charlie Kimball for seventh. Graham Rahal starts eighth, only his second top ten start in 2013. James Hinchcliffe starts ninth ahead of Simon Pagenaud in tenth. Marco Andretti starts eleventh. Since winning his first career race at Sonoma in 2006, Andretti's best finish at the track is twelfth and has finished twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth in his last two Sonoma starts. Sébastien Bourdais joins him on row six.
Takuma Sato starts thirteenth. After scoring three top tens in the first four races, including a win and a second and leading the points into Indianapolis, Sato has only managed one top ten in the last ten races and has dropped to thirteenth in the standings. Tristan Vautier starts fourteenth. His lone top ten this season came at Barber. EJ Viso starts sixteenth. He is having a career year with six top tens, a career high. Tony Kanaan starts sixteenth. He has finished twenty-fourth the last two races. Josef Newgarden starts seventeenth. Last year, Newgarden broke his wrist at Sonoma which caused him to miss Baltimore. JR Hildebrand starts eighteenth in his return to IndyCar. James Jakes starts nineteenth with Sebastián Saavedra joining him on row ten. James Davison was scheduled to starts twenty-first ahead of fellow Australian Ryan Briscoe but he will drop to the rear of the field after an engine change. Briscoe will start twenty-first. He won at Sonoma last year and has finished in no worse than fourth in his last five races at Sonoma. Simona de Silvestro starts twenty-second. Ed Carpenter and Lucas Luhr will start on row twelve. This is Luhr's IndyCar debut. Davison will start twenty-fifth after the penalty.
NBCSN's coverage of the Go Pro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma begins at 4:00 p.m. ET with green flag around 4:40 p.m. ET.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
