Wheels: Monday Motorsports: Vettel, Johnson, Castroneves Score Weekend Racing Wins

Rogerio Barbosa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Sebastian Vettel leading the race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal on Sunday.

Sebastian Vettel made easy work of the competition to win Sunday’s Formula One race in Montreal. Vettel’s victory extended his lead in the championship points standings over Kimi Raikkonen, who finished ninth after a trouble-plagued race. Fernando Alonso finished second and also moved ahead of Raikkonen in points. Lewis Hamilton was third.

Hamilton led three early laps, when Vettel made a pit stop. Otherwise, the race was all Vettel.

After the race, it was announced that a course worker had been killed during the event when a recovery vehicle removing a disabled car from the course ran him over.

In other racing news:

• Jimmie Johnson proved unstoppable Sunday in the Nascar Sprint Cup event at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania. Greg Biffle said he considered himself fortunate to finish second, 1.2 seconds behind. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was third and Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman rounded out the top five.

It was Johnson’s 63rd career victory in the series, and helped him pad his lead in the points standings as he campaigns for a sixth championship. Only Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, with seven championships each, have won more titles.

• Helio Castroneves, known for climbing the fence between the race track and the grandstands after his victories, was up to his old routine again after winning Saturday’s IndyCar series Firestone 550 at Texas Motor Speedway.

It was first victory of the year for Castroneves, but his consistency through the eight races in the series so far this year has him atop the point standings, ahead of Marco Andretti, who came in fifth at Texas.

Ryan Hunter-Reay came in second Saturday, followed by Tony Kanaan and Ed Carpenter.

Jean Francois Monier/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro Hybrid driven by Loïc Duval competes during the test day of the 90th Le Mans 24 hours endurance race.

• Loïc Duval, driving an Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro, was fastest Sunday in a two-segment practice day at the Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France. The practice was a major tune-up for this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, which will be held June 22-23.

Duval crashed in the morning session, but came back in the afternoon stint to post a stunningly fast time. He was three seconds faster than the next driver on the time sheets, Lucas di Grassi, who was also driving an Audi. Third quickest was Andre Lotterer in another Audi.

No further on-track activity is scheduled for the entries until the days immediately preceding the classic endurance event, which in 2013 is celebrating its 90th anniversary.

• The noted land speed racing pioneer Walt Arfons, who also developed jet-powered race cars as well as the parachutes needed to stop them, died June 4 at age 96 in an Akron, Ohio, hospital, a family member confirmed last week.

Arfons, who, along with half-brother Art and later with Craig Breedlove, traded many speed records in the 1950s and 1960s, was a self-taught engineer and inventor. His fascination with speed led him purchase a war surplus jet and try to adapt its power to land speed racing. It was a dangerous endeavor that resulted in many crashes, injuries and scrapes with death, but his so-called “Green Monster” cars became racing icons.

His perfection of jet engine use in racing also led him to adopt the now widely used drogue parachutes that safely stop drag racing machines.

Art Arfons, with whom Walt Arfons had a falling-out over safety concerns in their head-to-head duels, died in 2007. Walt’ son, Craig, was killed going for a speed record in a powerboat in 1989.

Wheels Blog: Franchitti and Castroneves Pause in New York Before Indianapolis 500

Richard Drew/Associated Press Scotland’s Dario Franchitti, left, and Brazil’s Helio Castroneves were interviewed in New York on Monday.

On Monday, IndyCar sent the drivers for this Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 on a press tour to cities around North America. New York can rest easy in its title as the media capital of the world: it got the only pair of three-time Indy winners in the lineup, Dario Franchitti of Scotland and Helio Castroneves of Brazil.

Franchitti, the defending champion who also won in 2007 and 2010, is stuck in midpack, in the middle of the sixth row, after a weak performance by most of the Honda-powered teams in qualifying. His Ganassi Racing teammate, Scott Dixon of New Zealand, is next to him, in 16th starting position. Castroneves, in a Chevrolet-powered Penske car, starts eighth, in the middle of Row 3.

“I am worried,” Franchitti said of the apparent disparity between the Honda and Chevy engines, although most teams will be switching to fresh engines for the race itself, giving Honda a chance to perform some tweaks.

“Last year, we had an even bigger deficit,” Franchitti said. Obviously, that didn’t hurt him on race day. “The Honda guys brought in a new engine and made a big step forward in fuel consumption and horsepower. Hopefully, they can bring something similar this time.”

Castroneves offered some hope for Franchitti. “It doesn’t matter if you have the fastest car,” said Castroneves, who won the race in 2001, 2002 and 2009. “You need everything going right for you.”

Both drivers said they were impressed by the depth of driving talent and quality of the teams in this 500. “There’s probably 20-something cars that can win that race,” Franchitti said. “There’s a drop-off in some of the cars, but it’s only maybe three, four guys.”

Like the Kentucky Derby in horse racing, the Indy 500 is an event that draws many viewers who do not regularly follow the sport. Asked for viewing tips for newcomers, Franchitti pointed to “the subtleties of what’s going on.”

“You’re not going to see big slides or big steering movements,” he said. Instead, the in-car cameras, Franchitti said, can be telltales: any driver using anything but the smoothest, slightest steering input is having a handling problem.

He also suggested that viewers call up indycar.com to follow the race timing and scoring. “You can see if someone is moving up from the back of the pack,” he said.

“If you see a car really close behind another car, you know that person has a very good car,” Castroneves suggested, referring to the difficulty most teams have in getting a car to handle well once it is in the turbulent air coming off a car ahead.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway has received approval from the State of Indiana for millions of dollars in loans for improvements. One planned project would light the track for night racing. But Franchitti would not want to see the Indy 500 run under lights. “I don’t think you mess with 100 years of tradition,” he said.

Jamie Squire/Getty Images Helio Castroneves, driver of the No. 3 Shell V-Power/Pennzoil Ultra Team Penske Chevrolet, after qualifying for the 2013 Indianapolis 500.

Franchitti can appreciate tradition, being a serious student of racing history. “I read anything I can get,” he said. “I collect memorabilia. I talk to drivers who have gone before. No matter how long these guys have been out of the car, they still get it.”

(A little more from the history department: Castroneves and Franchitti are tied with Bobby Unser, Johnny Rutherford, Mauri Rose, Wilbur Shaw and Louis Meyer for the second-highest number of Indy 500 victories.)

He is the second Scot to win Indy, the other being Jim Clark, in 1965. Franchitti had a dream experience not long ago when he had the chance to drive Clark’s Indy-winning Lotus 38-Ford at the speedway. “It was something I never thought would happen, ” he said. “I saw it at the Henry Ford Museum. They let me walk behind the rope and touch it. I thought that was as close as I’d ever get to it. It was one of the greatest days of my life.”

A fellow Scot, Derrick Walker, will take over as the president of operations and competition for the IndyCar series after Sunday’s race (during which he will be the team manager for the pole-sitter, Ed Carpenter). Franchitti and Castroneves said they were happy to see Walker get the job.

“I think it’s a great hire for the series,” Franchitti said. “I pushed for it years ago. The only facet of experience he doesn’t have is as a driver.”

Walker owned his own team for many years and before that ran the Penske IndyCar team.

“There’s nothing like putting a person in that position who’s had to struggle to balance the books each year,” said Franchitti. Either he or Castroneves would be tied with A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and Al Unser Sr. for the most Indy 500 victories with a win on Sunday.

And that would mean another trip to New York.