THE LINE - MAY 8, 2013

(Photo by John Cote for IndyCar)
James Hinchcliffe (No. 27 Andretti Autosport GoDaddy.com Chevrolet/Dallara) battled Takuma Sato (No. 14 A.J. Foyt Racing ABC Supply Honda/Dallara) over the final laps and got by him with a brilliantly executed pass in the last corner to win the Itaipava Sao Paulo Indy 300 presented by Nestle by .3463 of a second, preventing A.J. Foyt Racing from earning consecutive victories. Hinchcliffe, who won the season-opening race in St. Petersburg, Fla., earned his second career victory and the third for Andretti Autosport this season. He is the first Canadian to win in Brazil since Greg Moore at Rio on May 10, 1998. Watch the end of the Sao Paulo IndyCar race here.

(Photo by Chris Jones for IndyCar)
"Hinch did a great job and the guys did a good job," Takuma Sato (No. 14 ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt Racing Honda/Dallara) said. "Today we started from 12^th so it was a really solid day for us. It was a great, great race, and we're carrying good momentum into Indianapolis. "

(Photo for IndyCar by John Cote)
Marco Andretti (No. 25 Andretti Autosport RC Cola Chevrolet/Dallara) finished on the podium for the second time this season (and his fourth consecutive top 10). Andretti made a conscious effort to up his game this year and it shows. "It was a lot of fun," Andretti said. "It was dicey at some points. Really it was just about conserving the push-to-passes for when it counts. At the end I was kind of using it when people weren't expecting me to use it so I could kind of snooker them. Looking from practice 1, I'm quite pleased with where we ended up today. Congratulations to the Go Daddy crew. The RC Cola car is looking good in points now."

(Photo for IndyCar by John Cote)
James Hinchcliffe is joined on the podium by Marco Andretti and Takuma Sato. "There's no cooler way to win a race - in the last corner of the last lap," said Hinchcliffe, who led the four Andretti Autosport cars finishing in the top 11. "Takuma was making that race car really wide and he was defending the inside pretty well, almost too well a couple times. He just outbroke himself just a little bit and I was able to do a high-low (pass) and got the win." Sato takes a 13-point lead over Andretti in the championship standings heading into the 97th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race on May 26. Helio Castroneves (No. 3 Team Penske Hitachi Chevrolet/Dallara), who led in points through three races, is third (20 points behind) after placing 13th on the 2.536-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit. Hinchcliffe moved to fourth (24 points back). Pole sitter Ryan Hunter-Reay (No. 1 Andretti Autosport DHL Chevrolet/Dallara) finished 11th. Will Power (No. 12 Team Penske Verizon Chevrolet/Dallara), who had won the previous three races in Brazil, had gained 12 spots from his 22nd starting position. But a fire in the No. 12 car on Lap 19 ended his day.

(Photo by John Cotes for IndyCar)
Oriol Servia placed fourth after starting 13th in the No. 22 Panther Racing/DRR Chevrolet/Dallara. It was his best outing since finishing fourth at Milwaukee last June. Josef Newgarden (above), who was running .5285 of a second behind Sato on Lap 70 of 75, finished a career-high fifth in the No. 67 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda/Dallara after making up 20 spots relative to his starting position. "I thought we had a really strong race. Good solid points, top five is really good going into Indy, especially considering where we started. And that's exactly what we wanted to do coming out of here is to score solid points and get good momentum going into the 500, and I think we have that." The next IZOD IndyCar Series race is the 97th Indianapolis 500 Mile Race on May 26 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race will be telecast live at 11 a.m. (ET) by ABC. The IMS Radio Network will also carry the race live on Sirius and XM channels 211. The next Firestone Indy Lights race is the Firestone Freedom 100 on May 24 at IMS. It will be telecast live by NBC Sports Network during its coverage of Carb Day.

(© 2013, Russell LaBounty/autostock)
David Ragan (No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Farm Rich Ford Fusion) scored a stunning win in the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday. Ragan steered clear of a couple of multi-car smash-ups - including yet another "Big One" in the final five laps - to win his second career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. This was after a rain and storm delay that totaled 3 hours and 36 minutes. Ragan got a huge assist from Front Row Motorsports teammate Dave Gilliland (No. 38 FRM Love's Travel Stops Ford Fusion), blew by Matt Kenseth (No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Husky Toyota Camry) and stormed to the win. It was the first Cup win for Front Row team owner Bob Jenkins which triggered an exuberant celebration in Victory Lane. Watch the video highlights from Talladega here.

(© 2013, Russell LaBounty/autostock)
Teammates David Ragan and David Gilliland fly in formation in their Ford Fusions on their way to a 1-2 finish for Front Row Motorsports in the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway.

(© 2013, Brian Czobat/autostock USA)
Carl Edwards (No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Fastenal Ford Fusion) waits for practice to begin at Talladega. Edwards finished third in the race making it a 1-2-3 sweep for Ford on Sunday.

Ryan Newman. After the crash-fest near the end of the Talladega race - where Kurt Busch's car ended up on his roof and windshield - Newman blasted NASCAR in no uncertain terms on national television. ''They can build safer race cars, they can build safer walls. But they can't get their heads out of their asses far enough to keep them on the race track, and that's pretty disappointing,'' Newman said. ''I wanted to make sure I get that point across. Y'all can figure out who 'they' is.'' The "they" he is referring to, of course, is the powers that be at NASCAR. ''That's no way to end a race. That's just poor judgment in restarting the race, poor judgment,'' Newman said, criticizing NASCAR for restarting the race with 10 laps remaining despite the burgeoning darkness. ''I mean, you got what you wanted, but poor judgment and running in the dark and running in the rain. That's it, thank you.'' Amen, Ryan, amen. And that's also our AE Quote of the Week.

(Photos by Bret Kelley for Chevrolet)
The all-new, seventh-generation 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray will serve as the Pace Car for the Indianapolis 500, leading the field for the 97th running of "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing," on Sunday, May 26, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Decked out in Laguna Blue Tintcoat with official Indianapolis 500 graphics on the doors, the Corvette Stingray Pace Car differs from production models by only track-mandated safety features and strobe lights. No powertrain upgrades will be required due to its all-new 6.2L LT1 V8, which features advanced direct fuel injection, continuously variable valve timing and Active Fuel Management (cylinder deactivation). That translates to an estimated 450 horsepower delivered more efficiently. The 2014 Corvette Stingray coupe goes on sale this fall, with a convertible model – featuring a fully electronic top that can be operated remotely with the key fob – coming a few months later.

Chevrolet has a long shared history with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indianapolis 500 and the IZOD IndyCar Series. Chevrolet was founded in 1911, the year of the inaugural 500-mile race, and the Chevrolet brothers – company co-founder Louis, Arthur and Gaston – all competed in early Indy 500 races. Arthur Chevrolet competed in the 1911 race and Gaston Chevrolet won it in 1920.

Chevrolet competed in Indy-type competition as an engine manufacturer in 1986-93 and 2002-05 with V8 engines, and returned in 2012 with the Chevrolet IndyCar twin-turbo V6 engine with direct injection. In that time, Chevrolet won 118 IndyCar races, powered seven driver series champions and scored seven Indianapolis 500 victories. 2013 marks the 24th time a Chevrolet has served as the official Pace Car of the Indianapolis 500, more than any other brand, dating to 1948 with a Chevrolet Fleetmaster. Camaro has served in the role seven times and, with this year’s running, Corvette has paced the field a record 12 times.

(Toyota)
TOYOTA Motorsport GmbH (TMG) will send a revamped TMG EV P002 to Pikes Peak International Hill Climb to defend its electric title. Based on data gained from last year’s record-breaking run of 10 minutes 15.380 seconds, engineers at TMG’s electric vehicle technology center have generated more performance from the TMG powertrain to further improve that mark. The TMG EV P002 has already established the current electric records at Pikes Peak and Nürburgring Nordschleife. The car is currently on its way to Salisbury, N.C., where TOYOTA Racing Development U.S.A. Inc. (TRD USA) will perform aerodynamic upgrades to the Radical-based chassis as well as track testing. Rod Millen - the highly-decorated, 61-year-old New Zealander - will drive the TMG EV P002 at Pikes Peak on June 30.

(© BMW AG)
Agusto Farfus (Castrol Edge BMW M3 DTM) won the 2013 DTM season opener at Hockenheim last weekend. Here he's shown running ahead of Martin Tomczyk (BMW M Performance Parts M3 DTM) and Dirk Werner (Team Schnitzer SAMSUNG BMW M3 DTM). Werner battled back from 20th on the grid to finish second. In doing so, he completed the first one-two for BMW since the Bavarian manufacturer returned to the DTM in 2012.

Derrick Walker. Editor-in-Chief's Note: Robin Miller is reporting that the longtime IndyCar pro will become the president of racing operations for IndyCar, with a formal announcement expected next week. Ed Carpenter informed his team of Walker's impending move on Wednesday (Walker had been team manager for Carpenter's IndyCar team). Walker also has an ALMS sports car team which is competing at Laguna Seca this weekend. It has been common knowledge in IndyCar inner circles that Hulman & Company CEO Mark Miles has been talking to the 68-year-old Walker for the past three months to be his racing lieutenant, a move that ironically would have been tremendously beneficial to Randy Bernard had he stayed. (Bernard tried to convince Walker to join him but it never happened.) This is a great move for IndyCar. No, it won't fix everything that's wrong but it is a much-needed step in the right direction. - PMD

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Check out the Porsche Motorsports "Mission 2014" site here. Excellent stuff... - PMD