Sunday, July 14, 2013

Morning Warm-Up: Toronto 2013 Race Two

Scott Dixon is half way to $100,000 for sweeping the weekend at Toronto and he starts in the perfect position to complete the sweep, pole position. Next to Dixon on row one will be Dario Franchitti. Franchitti was penalized twenty-five seconds for blocking on the final lap which dropped him from third to thirteenth in race one. However, that penalty has been rescinded and Franchitti officially finished third in race one. With his win yesterday, Scott Dixon is tied with Paul Tracy, Sébastien Bourdais and Dario Franchitti for seventh on the all-time list with thirty-one wins.

Helio Castroneves and Ryan Hunter-Reay start are row two. Castroneves extended his points lead to thirty-nine points after Hunter-Reay's day was plagued with electrical problems and ultimately ended in the turn three tires. Will Power's day also ended in the turn three tires and he will roll off from fifth position ahead of Tony Kanaan. Saturday's runner-up Sébastien Bourdais will start seventh. Ryan Briscoe was scheduled to start eighth but Briscoe broke his wrist after an accident in race one. According to Twitter, Colombian and Indianapolis 500 runner-up Carlos Muñoz will jump into the #4 Panther Chevrolet in race two. Muñoz finished fourth in the Indy Lights race on Saturday. The driver change should drop the Colombian to the rear of the field. Canadian Alex Tagliani should move up to eighth with Simona de Silvestro and EJ Viso rounding out the top ten.

James Hinchcliffe will start eleventh after finishing a career best eighth at his hometown race. Simon Pagenaud will roll off from thirteenth position. Thirteenth is the farthest back a winner has come from at Toronto (Michael Andretti 2001). Justin Wilson and Takuma Sato will start on row seven. Charlie Kimball will start directly behind the man who took him out in race one in fifteenth position with the rookie Tristan Vautier next to him. Marco Andretti starts seventeenth. Andretti went from tenth to fourth in race one. Josef Newgarden starts eighteenth. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan cars of Graham Rahal and James Jakes start on row ten ahead of Sebastián Saavedra and Ed Carpenter on row eleven and Mike Conway and Muñoz on row twelve.

Standing starts will be attempted today for the beginning of race two. Should the start be aborted like in race one, a rolling start will be used. NBCSN's coverage of race two begins at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag at 3:40 p.m.