The previous race of the season, the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, was won by Charlie Kimball.

[7] Dario Franchitti won his 33rd career and final pole position,[8] his fourth of 2013 and third at the track, with a lap time of 1:17.5271.

Charlie Kimball, Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal, James Hinchcliffe and Simon Pagenaud rounded out the starting top ten.

[14] Dixon eventually called the ruling "pretty annoying"; IndyCar race director Beaux Barfield stated that replays Dixon hadn't seen of the incident showed him driving too close to Power's car, which was getting serviced at the time.

[14] The points standings featured Castroneves increasing his then 31-point lead over Dixon[7] to a 39-point lead (479 points to 440), while Ryan Hunter-Reay (417), Marco Andretti (409), Simon Pagenaud (380) and Dario Franchitti (379) remained as the top six, Justin Wilson and Will Power leapt past James Hinchcliffe and Charlie Kimball for seventh and eight, respectively, dropping Hinchcliffe and Kimball to ninth and tenth.