THE LINE - JUNE 12, 2013

(Photo by John Cote/INDYCAR)
Helio Castroneves (No. 3 Team Penske AAA Insurance Chevrolet-Dallara) dominated the Firestone 550 INDYCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway Saturday night. Castroneves led 132 of 228 laps on the 1.5-mile, high-banked oval and won by 4.6919 seconds over reigning series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay (No. 1 Andretti Autosport DHL Chevrolet/Dallara). Castroneves is the seventh different winner in eight races this season, and the first to win four IZOD INDYCAR Series races at Texas Motor Speedway. It was his first win on an oval since 2010 at Twin Ring Motegi. "It was just the setup; we did a lot of homework. Awesome job everyone," said Castroneves, who broke a tie with Johnny Rutherford for 12th on the all-time Indy car list with his 28th victory. He also took sole possession of first place in the IZOD INDYCAR Series championship standings through eight of 19 races.

(Photo by Chris Jones/INDYCAR)
Ryan and Beccy Hunter-Reay before the start of last Saturday night's INDYCAR race in Texas. Hunter-Reay finished second to Helio Castroneves. "That was just an interesting race," Huunter-Reay said. "It was hard to even get by some of that traffic. I was searching everywhere for grip; I had so many catches out there that I thought were on the wall. It's going to be tough to go to sleep tonight." Hunter-Reay is now third in INDYCAR points with 232, behind Castroneves (259) and Marco Andretti (237).

(Photo by Chris Jones/INDYCAR)
Tony Kanaan (No. 11 KVRT-SH Racing Sunoco "Turbo" Chevrolet-Dallara) started thirteenth and finished third at Texas. "It was pretty good, but we obviously we went off strategy," Kanaan said. "I'm really happy. We did a great job as a team. It's the first race with the Sunoco Turbo car, so I hope they're happy because I promised them a good race. I think third place as far as the championship goes is pretty strong so we'll take it." Kannan is fourth in the INDYCAR Series Championship with 195 points.

(Photo by John Cote/INDYCAR)
Helio Castroneves (No. 3 Team Penske AAA Insurance Chevrolet-Dallara) leads Simon Pagenaud (No. 77 Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports Honda-Dallara), James Hinchcliffe (No. 27 Andretti Autosport Go Daddy Chevrolet-Dallara) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (No. 1 Amdretti Autosport DHL Chevrolet-Dallara) on his way to the win in Texas Saturday night. It was the first victory of the season for Team Penske (the sixth different winner this season in INDYCAR). "Helio drove a flawless race and a key victory in our season based on where we were in the standings," team owner Roger Penske said. "It probably was the best execution we've had in a long time. Helio now leads the points and that's critical as we are in this stretch of oval races."

(Audi Motorsport)
Audi dominated the mostly wet eight-hour test day at Le Mans on Sunday, with dry tires on the La Sarthe circuit in use only during the last 90 minutes of the session. The three factory-entered Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro machines finished the test day in the top three positions, as expected. The track conditions caught Loïc Duval off-guard when he went off in the Tertre Rouge corner toward the end of the first half of the day. His No. 2 Audi team car remained structurally undamaged in the incident and was ready to resume the test after the lunch break. He then went out and set fast time of the session.
 
Results of the test day:
 
1. Duval/Kristensen/McNish (Audi R18 e-tron quattro), 3m 22.583s
2. Gené/di Grassi/Jarvis (Audi R18 e-tron quattro), 3m 25.358s
3. Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer (Audi R18 e-tron quattro), 3m 25.647s

(Audi Motorsport)
Drivers of the No. 2 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro: Loïc Duval (F), Allan McNish (GB) and Tom Kristensen (DK).

(Aston Martin Racing)
Aston Martin Racing topped the timing screens in both GTE classes at the official 24 Hours of Le Mans test session on Sunday.  Peter Dumbreck (No. 97 Aston Martin Vantage Gulf GTE Pro) set the fastest GTE Pro lap of the day with a time of 3:58.806. And Jamie Campbell-Walter (No. 96 Aston Martin Vantage Gulf GTE Am) was quickest in the GTE Am class with a time of 4:00.867. Aston Martin Racing has entered five Vantage GTEs – three Pro and two Am – into the 90th 24 Hours of Le Mans, which starts on June 22 at 4:00 p.m. CET.

(Photo by Alan Marler for Chevrolet)
Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Lowe’s Kobalt Tools Chevrolet SS) takes the checkered flag from the flagman to celebrate his win at the Party In The Poconos 400 Sunday at the Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Johnson flat dominated the race, his third win of the season and his third victory at Pocono Raceway. Johnson extended his lead in the NASCAR Cup Series standings and looks to be in peak form again this year.

(Matthew T. Thacker, Autostock. Copyright 2013)
Greg Biffle (No. 16 Roush Fenway racing 3M Ford Fusion) ran second in the Party in the Poconos 400. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports National Guard Chevrolet SS) was third. Watch videos from the race here.

(Russell LaBounty © 2013 Autostock)
Trevor Bayne's (No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford EcoBoost Mustang) win in the DuPont Pioneer 250 at the Iowa Speedway was the 200th for Ford Racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the 999th all-time victory for Ford Motor Company in the NASCAR’s top three series combined. Bayne is making a habit of logging historic wins for Ford. In addition to last weekend's 200th win, Bayne also captured Ford Racing’s 600th NASCAR Sprint Cup win when he won the 2011 Daytona 500 for the Wood Brothers. It was a big week for the 22-year-old Bayne, as he also he also got married last Tuesday in North Carolina to his new bride Ashton.

(Infiniti)
Sebastan Vettel (No. 1 Red Bull Racing-Renault, above) crushed the field on his way to victory in the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal on Sunday. How dominant was Vettel at the circuit Gilles Villeneuve? He lapped the field up to sixth place. Fernando Alonso (No. 3 Scuderia Ferrari, below) finished second and and Lewis Hamilton (No. 10 Mercedes) was third. With seven (out of nineteen) races run in 2013, Vettel leads the F1 driver point standings with 132. Alonso has 96, Kimi Raikkonen has 88 and Lewis Hamilton has 77 points.

(Ferrari North America)

(Red Bull Motorsports)
World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb has begun preparations for his first attempt at the Pikes Peak hill climb. Driving the Peugeot Sport 208 T16 Pikes Peak machine. “I feel very confident with the car,” confirmed Loeb. “That’s a reassuring start, if only because of the speeds we get up to here. We are already getting close to the limit in many places. All we need to do now is make some detail changes and we will be ready for the Big Day!”

(Images courtesy of Porsche)
Porsche unveiled its new LMP1 hybrid racing machine today at its Weissach R&D facility. Designed, engineered and built to compete for the overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2014, the car is said to be ultra-radical underneath, bristling with engineering details and visionary approaches never seen before, according to insiders directly connected to the program. Introduced well ahead of schedule, the radical machine was wheeled by Porsche factory driver Timo Bernhard for the unveiling. No further details were revealed at the preview.

Key members of Porsche AG management team were on hand to witness the debut of the new LMP1at Weissach's test track including (left to right) Fritz Enzinger, Head of the LMP1program, Wolfgang Hatz, Board Member for Research and Development at Porsche AG and Chairman Mattias Müller.