The 2013 Iowa Corn Indy 250 Presented by DEKALB, the seventh annual running of the event, was an IndyCar Series race held on June 23, 2013, at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. The race was the tenth round of the 2013 IndyCar Series season, and was won by James Hinchcliffe of Andretti Autosport.
Report
Background Iowa Speedway is the shortest track on the IndyCar schedule, being .875 miles long. Four of the first nine races in the season were dominated by Andretti Autosport drivers James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay, each winning two races. The defending race winner was Hunter-Reay.
Qualifying Hélio Castroneves of Team Penske set the one-lap track record in qualifying with a time of 17.3324 seconds and a speed of , breaking the record set in 2008 by Ryan Briscoe. Castroneves also won the pole position after winning the qualifying heat race, but IndyCar officials ruled that Castroneves and his team had an improper engine change, changing engines before it ran the minimum 2,000 miles (3,218 km). Because of this, Penske teammate Will Power was given the pole, with James Hinchcliffe in second, Marco Andretti in third and Ed Carpenter in fourth, taking Scott Dixon's spot, who was also penalized for improperly changing engines. Defending race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay failed to advance out of the preliminary heat. The starting grid for the race was decided by three 50-lap heat races. Dixon won the first race, Graham Rahal won heat 2, and Castroneves won the final heat.
Race On lap one, James Hinchcliffe passed pole-sitter Will Power for the lead, and proceeded to dominate the race, leading all but 24 laps, a track-record 226 laps; he had led only 33 laps on ovals prior to the race. Hinchcliffe's teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay fell behind with early right front car damage early in the race, and was in 21st, but was able to reach second, but was slowed by lapped cars. Hinchcliffe beat Hunter-Reay to the finish by 1.5009 seconds, giving Andretti Autosport its second consecutive 1-2 finish at the track, and the team's fifth win at the track. The win was Hinchcliffe's third of the season, making him the first three-race winner of the season, and was also his first on an oval. Tony Kanaan finished third, Ed Carpenter and Graham Rahal finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Simon Pagenaud, Oriol Servia, Hélio Castroneves, Marco Andretti, and E. J. Viso closed out the top ten.
Race results
Pos No. Driver Team Engine Laps Time/Retired Pit Stops Grid Laps Led Points127 James Hinchcliffe Andretti Autosport Chevrolet2501:30:16.0266322266021 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Chevrolet250+ 1.500941240311 Tony Kanaan KV Racing Technology Chevrolet250+ 1.68914538420 Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet250+ 2.7605441837515 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda250+ 3.020136133677 Simon Pagenaud Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports Honda250+ 6.6654382974 Oriol Servià Panther Racing Chevrolet 250 + 9.7006 3 7 2883 Hélio Castroneves Team Penske Chevrolet250+ 10.685531133925 Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport Chevrolet250+ 12.71333328105 E. J. Viso Andretti Autosport Chevrolet250+ 17.6157316201119 Justin Wilson Dale Coyne Racing Honda249+ 1 lap4105201283 Charlie Kimball Chip Ganassi Racing Honda249+ 1 lap414181355 Tristan Vautier Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda248+ 2 laps31317147 Sebastian Bourdais Dragon Racing Chevrolet248+ 2 laps319161567 Josef Newgarden Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda248+ 2 laps32215169 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda247+ 3 laps315191712 Will Power Team Penske Chevrolet247+ 3 laps41211816 James Jakes Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda247+ 3 laps42412196 Sebastián Saavedra Dragon Racing Chevrolet247+ 3 laps418112010 Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing Honda246+ 4 laps5211021 78 Simona de Silvestro KV Racing Technology Chevrolet243+ 7 laps52092218 Ana Beatriz Dale Coyne Racing Honda 183 Mechanical 3 23 82314 Takuma Sato A. J. Foyt Enterprises Honda162Mechanical217102498 Alex Tagliani Barracuda Racing Honda139Contact397
Notes Points include 1 point for leading at least 1 lap during a race, an additional 2 points for leading the most race laps, and 1 point for Pole Position.
References