Morning Warm-Up: Iowa 2013

Helio Castroneves dominated the final heat race Saturday night, leading flag to flag and picking up nine more points to pad his championship lead and pole position for today's Iowa Corn Indy 250 but an engine change will forced the Brazilian to take a ten grid spot penalty, dropping Castroneves to eleventh.

Elevated to first from second will be Will Power who looks to make a charge for the championship. The Australian is currently tenth in the points standings. James Hinchcliffe will roll off second ahead of his Andretti Autosport teammate Marco Andretti who entered Iowa third in the point standings. Ed Carpenter will start fourth. He finished second in heat two to advance to the final. Tony Kanaan rounds out the top five with heat two winner Graham Rahal starting in sixth positions.

Oriol Serviá starts seventh in his second race for Panther Racing. Ryan Briscoe raced for Panther Racing at Milwaukee last week leaving Serviá without a ride. Starting eighth will be Simon Pagenaud who finished fifth last year after starting dead last. The Hondas of Alex Tagliani and Justin Wilson round out the top ten. Castroneves starts eleventh ahead of second place in the championship Ryan Hunter-Reay who failed to transfer from heat one. Last year's Indy Lights champion Tristan Vautier starts thirteenth ahead of fellow Honda drivers Charlie Kimball and Scott Dixon. Dixon won heat one and finished fifth in the final but is serving a ten grid spot penalty for an engine change. EJ Viso will join Dixon on row eight.

Takuma Sato starts seventeenth after an engine change. He finished second in heat one and seventh in the final. Sebastián Saavedra starts eighteenth ahead of his Dragon teammate Sébastien Bourdais in nineteenth. Simona de Silvestro starts twentieth after a dreadful heat race which saw the Swiss driver finish three laps down. Dario Franchitti didn't finish three laps down but did not have any more success than de Silvestro did in his heat and starts twenty-first. Josef Newgarden starts twenty-second after an engine change ahead of fellow Hondas Ana Beatriz and James Jakes. Beatriz and Jakes also changed engines. Jakes suffered an accident at the end of heat two but walked away.

Weather forecast for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 calls for mostly cloudy skies with a high of 83 degrees Fahrenheit and a chance of precipitation at 15% with the likelihood increasing to 40% during the race. ABC's broadcast begins at 2:30 p.m. ET with green flag around 3:05 p.m. ET.

Castroneves on Provisional Pole for Iowa Heat Races

Chevrolet dominated IndyCar qualifying at Iowa Speedway, sweeping the six automatic qualifying positions for the final heat and having the seven fastest times. Points leader Helio Castroneves assured he will pad his lead with a lap of 17.3324 seconds to put him on provisional pole. He beat out Marco Andretti and his Penske teammate Will Power. Indianapolis 500 winner and 2010 Iowa winner Tony Kanaan was fourth with James Hinchcliffe fifth and Oriol Serviá a surprise sixth.

Ed Carpenter was seventh quick and was bumped out of heat three by the final qualifier James Hinchcliffe. Carpenter will be the pole-sitter in heat two with Scott Dixon leading the field in heat one.

Behind Dixon will be former Iowa pole-sitter and fellow Honda drivers Takuma Sato and Josef Newgarden. Alex Tagliani will start fourth in heat one ahead of Sébastien Bourdais who will be making his first career start at Iowa. Bourdais' Dragon teammate Sebastián Saavedra will join him on row three for heat one ahead of two-time Iowa winner Dario Franchitti and last year's winner at Iowa Ryan Hunter-Reay. Ana Beatriz will start last in heat one after not making a qualifying attempt due to an engine change.

Carpenter is joined by rookie Tristan Vautier on the front row for heat two. Charlie Kimball will roll off from third ahead of James Jakes. Andretti Autosport driver EJ Viso starts fifth next to Simon Pagenaud who finished fifth and on the lead lap last year after starting dead last in his first career start at Iowa. Graham Rahal will start seventh next to former Newman-Haas teammate Justin Wilson with Simona de Silvestro rounding out heat two.

The top two from each heat race will advance to the final heat. All ten participants in heat three along with the third place finishers from heat one and two will receive points with winner of heat three scoring nine points and each following position receiving one fewer point. Ninth and tenth place in heat three and the third-place finishers from the first two heats will each receive one point apiece.

The Iowa heat races can be seen at 6:45 p.m. on IndyCar.com.

Kanaan Fastest; Allan Simonsen Dies at Le Mans

Danish driver Allan Simonsen succumbed to injuries suffered from a third lap accident in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Simonsen's spun driver's side into the barrier at Tertre Rouge. The #95 Aston Martin being driven by Simonsen was the pole-sitting car in the GTE-Am class and was being shared with fellow Danes Kristian Poulsen and Christoffer Nygaard. The Simonsen's family asked the Aston Martin team to keep their remaining four cars on track in honor of Allan. Simonsen was competing in his seventh 24 Hour of Le Mans and had two podium finishes in the GT2 class.

In Iowa, Tony Kanaan was fastest in the only IndyCar practice session for the Iowa Corn Indy 250. Only four hundredths back was Will Power with Marco Andretti and Helio Castroneves making it a clean Chevrolet sweep of the top four. Scott Dixon was the fastest Honda in fifth.

Andretti Autosport's EJ Viso and James Hinchcliffe were sixth and seventh with James Jakes being an impressive eighth quickest. Ed Carpenter was ninth with Simon Pagenaud rounding out the top ten. Fellow Frenchman Sébastien Bourdais was just behind Pagenaud in eleventh ahead of French-Canadian Alex Tagliani, IndyCar's most recent winner Ryan Hunter-Reay in the thirteenth position and Frenchman Tristan Vautier in fourteenth. Josef Newgarden was fifteenth.

Two-time Iowa winner Dario Franchitti was sixteenth fastest ahead of former Ganassi teammate Graham Rahal and Oriol Serviá who returns after missing Milwaukee. Takuma Sato was nineteenth ahead of fellow Honda drivers Justin Wilson and Charlie Kimball. Simona de Silvestro and Sebastián Saavedra were twenty-second and twenty-third with Ana Beatriz bookending the field for Brazil.

A half second covered the top eighteen drivers with three quarters of a second covering the top twenty-two and 0.8849 seconds separating Kanaan and Beatriz.

Qualifying to set the starting line-ups for the heat races will be at 4:00 p.m. ET. Simona de Silvestro and her KV Racing Technology teammate Tony Kanaan will be the first two cars to set a time, followed by the Hondas of Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden, Alex Tagliani, Graham Rahal and Justin Wilson. Other drivers to watch out for are Will Power going out eleventh, Marco Andretti twelfth, Helio Castroneves fifteenth and Ryan Hunter-Reay sixteenth. Ana Beatriz will be the final driver to qualify.

The fastest six from qualifying will automatically qualify for the final heat race and are guaranteed a top ten starting positions.

Eighth, tenth, twelfth, fourteenth, sixteenth, eighteenth, twentieth, twenty-second and twenty-fourth fastest from qualifying will comprise heat one with the top two finishers advancing to the final heat and the remaining seven drivers setting the even positions on the grid starting with twelfth.

Heat two will be comprised of seventh, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth, fifteenth, seventeenth, nineteenth, twenty-first and twenty-third fastest from qualifying. The top two finishers from heat two advance to the final with the remaining seven drivers setting the odd positions on the grid starting with eleventh.

Heat races can be seen on IndyCar.com at 6:45 p.m. ET.

Track Walk: Iowa 2013

Ryan Hunter-Reay enters Iowa the same way he did last year, as the most recent winner. Coming off his second win of the season last week at Milwaukee, Hunter-Reay is second in the points standings only sixteen markers back of Penske's Helio Castroneves. Hunter-Reay looks to repeat his performance of back-to-back wins at Milwaukee and Iowa and possibly snatch the points lead.

Andretti's Short Track Dominance
Last week's win at Milwaukee was Andretti Autosport sixth win in the last seven races on short tracks and the team has won four of six races at Iowa including the last three with three different drivers. More importantly Ryan Hunter-Reay has won the last four races on short tracks, dating back to New Hampshire in 2011. Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti are the only two Andretti drivers with wins on ovals, let alone short tracks but it would not be surprising to see one of the other two Andretti drivers picking up a win this weekend.

EJ Viso has seemed to reel in his wreckless ways and is now a sleeper at every race. Viso's best career IndyCar finish came at Iowa in 2010. Viso finished an impressive third behind Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves after starting nineteenth. Last week Viso finished fourth in what was a dominating weekend for Andretti Autosport. However, Viso's results at Iowa are less than respectable. His best finish at the 7/8 mile oval after his podium is thirteenth.

James Hinchcliffe's track record on short tracks is stellar. In six races on short tracks, Hinchcliffe has five top tens with his lone non-top ten coming at Iowa last year. Just like his record finishing short track races, Hinchcliffe's record starting them are identical, with five top ten starts in six short track races with his lone non-top ten starting coming in his first short track race at Milwaukee in 2011. Hinchcliffe is coming off a fifth place finish at Milwaukee, his third consecutive top five at the Mile and Hinchcliffe looks to piece back together his season after a string of retirements. Hinchcliffe has two wins but will need more consistent finishes up front if he wants to make any challenge for the title.

Can Ganassi Turn It Around?
The only other team to win at Iowa is Ganassi Racing when they went back-to-back in 2008 and 2009. Neither Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti has had what would appear to be an impressive season but both are in the top ten in points and have been on fire since Indianapolis. Franchitti has finished in the top ten each race since the series left Indianapolis and other than Dixon's gearbox issue at Texas, his team has been up in the top ten as well. Charlie Kimball was the top Ganassi driver for the first four races of 2013 and has scored four top tens but has finished seventeenth the last two weekends.

Dixon has finished every race at Iowa, all being top ten finishes and has two pole positions at the track. Franchitti has the most wins at Iowa with two but since his second win in 2009 he only has one top ten finish at the track, a fifth in 2011. Kimball's record on short tracks is dismal with his best finish being eleventh at Iowa last year.

New Sanctioning Body For Indy Lights
After many questions about the future of Indy Lights, one big question has been answer. From Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star, IndyCar will no longer be the sanctioning body for Indy Lights and control of the series will go to Dan Andersen, who currently controls U.S. F2000 and Pro Mazda. IndyCar is believed to continue subsidizing Indy Lights during the transition period. A formal announcement will be made at a later date.

Track Facts
Of the five winners at Iowa Speedway, four (Franchitti, Kanaan, Andretti and Hunter-Reay) of them will be in this year's race. The late Dan Wheldon won at Iowa on his birthday (June 22) in 2008.

Four drivers have raced in every IndyCar race at Iowa they are Marco Andretti, Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan. Andretti, Castroneves and Dixon have all been running at the finish of every Iowa race. Kanaan has three did not finishes at the track. None have completed all 1500 laps run at the 7/8 mile oval.

In six Iowa races, the best starting position for a winner at Iowa is third on two occasions (2007 and 2008). Marco Andretti came from the farthest starting position to win. He started seventeenth in 2011.

Last year at Iowa six of the top ten finishers started outside the top ten, three of which started twentieth or worse. Twenty-seven of sixty top ten finishers at Iowa have started outside the top ten and seven of eighteen podium finishers have started outside the top ten.

Heat Races
I did a breakdown of the heat race format earlier in the week. Check it out if you have any questions.

Prediction
In a season that has been as unpredictable as 2013, I cannot see anyone but an Andretti Autosport car winning this race. Their dominance on short track has been thoroughly impressive. I picked him at Texas and I am going to pick him at Iowa, give me Marco Andretti. All the Andretti cars will finish in the top ten. There will be only one Penske car in the top ten. Justin Wilson will be up front. Rahal Letterman Lanigan will continue to struggle. Tony Kanaan will have to race his way into the third and final heat and will then race his way into a top five starting position. Ganassi Racing will come close but fall short of their first win in 2013. Alex Tagliani will get his first top ten since St. Petersburg. Sleepers: Ed Carpenter, EJ Viso and Josef Newgarden.

2013 24 Hours of Le Mans Preview

The top sports car teams from around the world have made their annual voyage to Circuit de la Sarthe for the twice around the clock classic known as the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Defending overall winners Audi return looking for their twelfth victory at Le Mans, all coming since the turn of the millennium. Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer look to win their third consecutive Le Mans title. From 2000 to 2002, Tom Kristensen, Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro won three consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans for Audi. Kristensen and Allan McNish have a new teammate after the retirement of Rinaldo Capello. Loïc Duval joins the senior line-up. Marc Gené, Oliver Jarvis and Lucas di Grassi are the pilots of the third Audi.

Toyota returns to Le Mans for their second year with two TS030's. The same driver line-ups return for each car. Two-time Le Mans winner Alexander Wurz leads the #7 Toyota with Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima while Anthony Davidson, Stéphane Sarrazin and Sébastien Buemi pilot the #8 Toyota. Rebellion Racing's lead team of Nicolas Prost, Neel Jani and Nick Heidfeld look to surprise the two major powers and steal one for the privateer, petrol-powered teams.

The defending LMP2-class winning Starworks Motorsport did not return to defend their title but all three Starworks drivers from 2012 do return to Le Mans. Tom Kimber-Smith is the only one defending the LMP2 title driving for Greaves Motorsport with Americans Alexander Rossi and Eric Lux. Kimber-Smith has three class victories in his four Le Mans appearances including winning in LMP2 in 2011 for Greaves Motorsport. The other two LMP2 class winners from 2012 are at Le Mans but in other classes. Ryan Dalziel is one of the drivers for the SRT Vipers in their return to Le Mans in the GTE-Pro class while Enzo Potolicchio will drive a Ferrari 458 in GTE-Am for his own 8Star Motorsports. The #24 OAK Racing Nissan of Olivier Pla, Alex Brundle and David Heinemeier Hansson were the fastest LMP2 car at the Le Mans test day ahead of the Signatech Alpine Nissan of Pierre Ragues, Nelson Panciatici and Tristan Gommendy. Recent IndyCar winner Mike Conway, along with his G-Drive Racing teammates Romain Rusnov and John Martin were next on the timesheet.

Other LMP2 teams to keep an eye on are Level 5 Motorsports of Scott Tucker, Marino Franchitti and Ryan Briscoe, the #35 OAK Racing Nissan of Bertrand Baguette, Martin Plowman and Ricardo González and the #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Nissan of Pierre Thiriet, Ludovic Badey and Maxime Martin.

GTE-Pro features what should be another 24 hour battle royal between Corvette, Aston Martin, Porsche, SRT and Ferrari. The #51 AF Corse returns to Le Mans with two of their three winning drivers from last year. Gianmaria Bruni and Giancarlo Fisichella return but will be joined by Matteo Malucelli in place of Toni Vilander. Vilander moves to the #71 Ferrari joining six-time Le Mans class winner Olivier Beretta and Le Mans rookie Kamui Kobayashi. Corvette Racing returns with the same line-ups from last year. Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Jordan Taylor will pilot the #73 Corvette with Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Richard Westbrook piloting the #74 Corvette. Aston Martin had the two fastest times on the test day. The #97 Aston Martin of Stefan Mücke, Darren Turner and Peter Dumbreck led the #99 Aston Martin of Frédéric Makowiecki, Bruno Senna and Rob Bell. The third Aston Martin will be driven by Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana and Bill Auberlen. Five of the six Porsche drivers in GTE-Pro have class wins at Le Mans. Jörg Bergmeister, Patrick Pilet and Timo Bernard will drive the #91 Porsche. Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz and Romain Dumas will drive the #92 Porsche. Viper returns with two cars. Dominik Farnbacher, Marc Goossens and Ryan Dalziel will pilot the #53 Viper. Farnbacher has finished runner-up in class three times at Le Mans, including last year in GTE-Pro. Goossens and Dalziel team up for the second time at Le Mans. They teamed with Paul Gentilozzi in 2010 driving a Jaguar XKR. Their race ended however after only four laps. The #93 Viper features three North American drivers. Kuno Wittmer and Jonathan Bomarito will be making their Le Mans debut. Bomarito won in the GT class in the 2010 24 Hours of Daytona driving for SpeedSource. They are joined by Tommy Kendall who makes his first trip to Le Mans since his one and only start in 2000.

Aston Martin had the fastest two times in GTE-Am at the test day as well. The #96 Aston Martin of Jamie Campbell-Walker, Stuart Hall and Roald Goethe led the #95 Aston Martin, an all Danish line-up of Allan Simonsen, Kristian Poulsen and Christoffer Nygaard. The #77 Dempsey Del Piero-Proton  Porsche of Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster and Patrick Long were third in class on the test day. Ricky Taylor, brother of Corvette facotry driver Jordan Taylor, will make his Le Mans debut driving for the defending GTE-Am class winner Labre Compétition. He joins the defending winners Patrick Bornhauser and Julien Canal.

Practice begins today for the 24 Hours of Le Mans with three qualifying sessions taking place over the next two days.

Iowa Heat Races

For the second consecutive year, heat races will determine the starting grid for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway but this year more laps, transfers and points are new to the equation.

There will still be three heat races but the amount of laps in each heat has been increased to fifty laps. This year, a regular qualifying session will be used to determine the starters in each heat. The first heat will be comprised of the even-numbered positions from the qualifying session starting with eighth position. Heat two will be comprised of the odd-numbered positions from the qualifying session starting with seventh position. The top six qualifiers will automatically qualify for the third and final heat.

The top two from the first two heats will transfer to the final heat and have a shot to win the pole position for Sunday's race. Those who fail to transfer from heat one will occupy the remaining even-numbered positions starting with twelfth while those who fail to transfer from heat two will occupy the remaining odd-numbered positions starting with eleventh.

Points will pay out to the top twelve drivers. The six fastest qualifiers, four transfer and third place finishers from each heat will get at least one point. Winning the third heat and pole position will pay nine points with each other finisher from heat three receiving one less point than the driver ahead of them. The last two finishers in heat three and third place finishers from heat one and two receive one point apiece.

Coverage of the Iowa heat races will begin at 6:45 p.m. ET with live streaming on IndyCar.com and the IndyCar 13 app. The IMS Radio Network broadcast will be commentating the heat races.

At a glance look at the Iowa heat race format.

What?
Three, fifty lap heat races. Starting line-ups for the heat races set by a traditional qualifying session.

When?
6:45 p.m. ET, Saturday June 22nd.

Who Starts Where In The Heats?
Heat One- Even-numbered positions from qualifying. Eighth, tenth, twelfth, fourteenth, sixteenth, eighteenth, twentieth and twenty-second. Top two advance to the third heat.
Heat Two- Odd-numbered positions from qualifying. Seventh, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth, fifteenth, seventeenth, nineteenth, twenty-first and twenty-third.  Top two advance to the third heat.
Heat Three- Fastest six qualifiers, winners from each heat, second place finishers from each heat.

Who Receives Points?
All participants from heat three receive points as well as third place from heat one and heat two.
1st- 9; 2nd- 8; 3rd- 7; 4th- 6; 5th- 5; 6th- 4; 7th- 3; 8th- 2; 9th- 1; 10th- 1; 11th (third from heat two)- 1; 12th (third from heat one)- 1.

Who Starts Where on Sunday?
Heat three participants will set the top ten while those who fail to transfer from heat one will occupy the even-numbered positions starting with twelfth and those who fail to transfer from heat two will occupy the odd-numbered positions starting with eleventh.

How Can I Watch?
Live streaming at IndyCar.com or on the IndyCar 13 app at 6:45 p.m. ET.

Americans Find Success In Junior Formulas

Four American-born drivers picked up victories this weekend in junior Formula racing in three different countries.

At Milwaukee IndyFest, Floridian-born, American-Australian Matthew Brabham scored a grand chelem in the Pro Mazda race, winning from pole, leading every lap and setting fastest lap. It was Brabham's fifth win of the 2013 Pro Mazda season and leads Diego Ferreira by forty-nine points. Colombian Juan Piedrahita finished second with American Spencer Pigot rounding out the podium. Brabham's Andretti Autosport teammate Shelby Blackstock is third in the points, sixty-six markers back with Spencer Pigot and Scott Anderson rounding out the top five in the standings. The Pro Mazda will be on track next at Toronto. The remaining five race weekends are all doubleheaders.

In the Indy Lights race at Milwaukee, Pennsylvania's own Sage Karam scored his first career Indy Lights victory from pole over Andretti Autosport's Carlos Muñoz and Zach Veach. Veach led the first fifty-six laps before Karam got by and took the lead once and for all. Veach scored his first career podium finishing third. It's the first win for an American driver in Indy Lights since Josef Newgarden lapped the field at Loudon. Muñoz leads Karam by eighteen points. Gabby Chaves is third ahead of Freedom 100 winner Peter Dempsey, St. Petersburg winner Jack Hawksworth, Jorge Goncalvez and Veach. Indy Lights head to Iowa next Saturday night.

Hoosier Conor Daly led every lap from pole position as he won the first race of the GP3 Series weekend at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia. This is Daly's second career win in GP3. He won at Barcelona last year. Daly went on to finish eighth in race two and is second in the championship, trailing Tio Ellinas by four points. The GP3 Series heads to Silverstone in a fortnight.

In Lausitz, American Gustavo Menezes won the second race of the German Formula Three weekend as a support series for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters race. Menezes came from fourth on the grid to pick up his first win in the German-based series. Menezes finished fifth and fourth in the first and third races of the weekend. He currently sits fourth in points, one hundred and sixty-two points back of points leader Marvin Kirchhöfer. Menezes raced the past two seasons in Pro Mazda. German Formula Three have a month off before their next round at the Nürburgring.