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'I have more fuel to burn than ever' - Castroneves

Sunday, 17 September 2017


By Mark Glendenning / Images by IMS Photo & Scott LePage/LAT



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Helio Castroneves says that his motivation remains undiminished despite the ongoing lack of any formal news about his future.

The three-time Indy 500 winner finished fifth in Sonoma on Sunday, which left him fourth in the standings at the end of what is expected to be his final full IndyCar campaign before a switch to Penske's new sports car program in 2018.

Speaking after what is likely to be his last road course appearance in an IndyCar, the 42-year-old insisted that he still has plenty to offer.







"I feel that I'm in my prime," he said. "I feel that I have more fuel to burn than ever.
"Whatever happens in the future... sometimes you can use that in different ways, and [that's] something that I learned in the past. Sometimes we've got to dance according to the music. But at this point, we're definitely going to announce... I feel whatever it's going to be, if it's moving on [to sports cars] or not, I'm going to continue to be motivated and keep working hard to achieve my goals, which is winning races."
Castroneves secured his sixth consecutive top-five championship finish at Sonoma, and said that he will remember his 2017 campaign for the highlights rather than the missed opportunities.
"I'm always going to focus on the positive," he said. "I'm not going to focus on, Texas, we had a problem, or other races that I missed strategy, or me making mistakes. You've got to think about, it was another season that we pushed as hard as we could, and another top four.
"Sometimes it's funny because you see the statistics – I finished second [in the championship] four times. But the P4 is not what it represents, because we were in a [championship] battle a lot more years than that. And that's what I look at. Each year, that's what kept me motivated to come back and push hard.
"I would say it's hard to keep up like I've been doing all these years, I think it's the hardest thing to do. But it doesn't just happen. It comes with a great team. It comes with great dedication from your guys, great trust, and obviously myself to keep motivating [myself], finding ways to keep pushing and having teammates like I have today, no question, helped me to become a better driver."

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[h=2]Newgarden takes IndyCar crown as Pagenaud wins[/h] Sunday, 17 September 2017


By Mark Glendenning / Images by Scott LePage/LAT



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Smart strategy helped Simon Pagenaud to back-to-back wins at Sonoma on Sunday, but even his victory was not enough to stop Penske teammate Josef Newgarden from securing the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series drivers' championship.
Pagenaud, who started from third, lost a place to Helio Castroneves on the opening lap, and then showed his hand when he pitted on lap 12 – half a dozen laps earlier than expected – for his first scheduled stop. Stickered blacks made way for scuffed reds, and he set off into the pack to see whether he could make a four-stopper work.
Meanwhile, Josef Newgarden had led the field away from pole and was looking completely comfortable up front, quickly opening up a gap on the pursuing Will Power. His strategy and Pagenaud's finally converged during the last sequence of stops.
Newgarden's final service came on lap 62, his crew sending him back out to complete the race with a set of new blacks. His stop handed Pagenaud the lead heading into his own stop, which came two laps later. And when he rejoined, he looked in his mirrors – and saw Newgarden. The mission to use strategy to leapfrog his way into the lead had paid off, but Newgarden could still afford to finish second without costing himself the championship.
You wouldn't have known it from Newgarden's aggression over those first couple of laps of the final stint, though. He almost tagged Pagenaud's rear at the top of the hill while the Frenchman was trying to get his tires up to temperature, and made a robust passing attempt at the hairpin, which Pagenaud deflected. Another lunge at the last chicane was also rebuffed, and after a few nervous words over the radio from Tim Cindric, Newgarden settled into a more measured pursuit. Pagenaud eventually crossed the finish line 1.0s clear.
"So cool," said Newgarden as he stepped out of the car. "I'm so proud of these guys. I don't even know what to say. It took a lot to make this happen. Thank you to my teammates; they gave me a lot of help to make sure we got this done.
"It was hard [at the end]; I was using my natural instinct, trying to get Pagenaud because that's what I naturally do – try to win."
Pagenaud was gracious in passing the No. 1 plate on to his stablemate.
"I'm exhausted," he said. "That was as hard as I could drive for 85 laps non-stop. I can barely lift my arms. I want to congratulate Josef and Team Penske – this season showed how strong everybody is at Penske. We did what we had to do – we won the race, and it wasn't quite enough.
"The tires came up to temp pretty quick, and I knew Josef wasn't going to take any risks. It was a bit difficult with the backmarkers, but overall, what a beautiful day. We came up short this year, but we defended really well. I'm proud of my guys and we carried the number one well. But I'm really happy for Josef and I think he's going to be a great champion."
Will Power, who was the lowest-placed among the Penske drivers going into the weekend, was tasked with shadowing Newgarden and acting as a shield against any potential threat from Scott Dixon. That threat never eventuated, and he dutifully crossed the line in third after having spent the entire afternoon within a couple of seconds of the No. 2.
"I was just keeping a buffer between Josef and Dixon, that was our plan all day," Power said. "We were just going to do what Josef did and hang behind him all day unless something happened. It was kind of a boring day, but it was the job that we needed to do."
The other two main title contenders never featured right up at the front and instead spent a good part of the afternoon hovering around each other, with Dixon eventually finishing fourth (and third in the standings) ahead of Castroneves.
"Last year I tried the four stops and it didn't work," Castroneves said. "We had four fast cars and knew we had to try something different. [Pagenaud] tried that [strategy], and good for him, he won the race. And congratulations to Josef, great job."
Graham Rahal was sixth ahead of Marco Andretti, with Ryan Hunter-Reay, Sebastien Bourdais and Conor Daly rounding out the top 10.
Remarkably, the entire race was completed without a caution. The closest it ever came to disaster was on the opening lap, when Tony Kanaan slowed on the back straight with a puncture and caused a concertina that ended with himself, Jack Harvey and Zachary Claman DeMelo sustaining damage, although all were able to continue.
James Hinchcliffe's day was derailed when he was helped into a spin by contact with Spencer Pigot. He was eventually able to rejoin, only to have an electrical problem pop up to end his weekend.
Alexander Rossi was sidelined by what appeared to be an engine issue, while Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato lost considerable time to a right-rear puncture early in the race, and then ended up beached in the gravel early in the final stint.

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Engineering to win it....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=CdrQk-mC3CY

Brian Campe won the Indy 500 with Juan Montoya fresh from a career spent engineering stock cars for Team Penske, and now he's engineered Josef Newgarden to their first Verizon IndyCar Championship as a new pairing.

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Helio Castronieves Interview......3 time Indy 500 winner...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=O7FVM9PwO3o

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[h=2]Passing of the torch[/h] Tuesday, 19 September 2017


By Robin Miller / Images by IMS Photo & LAT archive


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Late Sunday afternoon they were separated by about 50 yards in the pits at Sonoma Raceway as one was celebrating a championship and the other seemed to be reflecting on the reality that his amazing career as a full-time IndyCar driver for Roger Penske was over after 18 years.
Josef Newgarden, the new face of IndyCar racing, alternated between the euphoria of the moment and emotional recounting of the people who helped him reach the top step of his profession in only 26 years.
Helio Castroneves, the most recognizable face of IndyCar for the past two decades, sat on the pit wall and looked back on all of his good fortune and accomplishments, while more or less looking forward to a new chapter in his remarkable story.
It was the passing of the IndyCar torch inside the most successful team in American open-wheel history.
"I can't compare Newgarden to anyone else really, but he's an American, which is special in this sport because many of the other drivers have come from all over the world," said Roger Penske, who now owns 15 IndyCar titles to go with his 16 Indy 500 triumphs and 197 victories since 1969. "I've had so many great drivers and you know I don't have a favorite. But to see Josef get to the top this fast is pretty exciting. He's quite a talent."
Castroneves was walking to meet Morris Nunn in the early evening of Oct. 31, 1999 to sign with Nunn's team when his life changed. Greg Moore, already set to join Team Penske in 2000, had lost his life earlier that day at Fontana and The Captain beckoned the 24-year-old Brazilian to his motor coach.
"I don't want to sound cocky but I had always dreamed of driving the Marlboro car, which of course was Roger's, and when I got the opportunity it obviously changed my life," he reflected after finishing fifth at Sonoma and fourth in the Verizon point standings. "I was so excited and humbled and thankful all at the same time and it took me about 10 seconds to say yes. Obviously, I worked hard to try and get to that point but it's hard to describe how fortunate I felt."
Had it not been for Sarah Fisher, Wink Hartman and Ed Carpenter, there's a damn good chance Newgarden would have been one of the many talented Mazda ladder kids to get one test or one year in an IndyCar before being banished to sports cars.
Those three gave Josef a chance to drive through his mistakes and grow up – something kids seldom get the chance to do anymore – and show the paddock he possessed all the right stuff. Along with engineer Jeremy Milles, he went from potential to the real deal. And Tim Cindric, who hadn't been a big fan a couple years earlier, saw the progress along with R.P.
"After he broke his hand last year [at Texas] and then didn't miss a race and dominated at Iowa, I was really impressed," said the 80-year-old dynamo, who still seldom takes a day off. "You could see he was talented, but that kind of grit and determination is what told me we had to have this kid."
The fact Castroneves never won a championship is hard to believe when you look at his body of work, but he's always been adamant he'd never trade one of his Borg-Warner Trophies for No. 1. Maybe the most amazing thing is that as good as he's always been at Indianapolis, he's never driven better or smarter everywhere than the past two seasons as he passed into his 42nd year last May.
"I can't drive any harder or any better than I did this year and I finished fourth in the championship, which just tells me how tough the competition has become in this series during the past few years," said the veteran who captured three poles, the Iowa race, and only missed one Fast Six all season.
Newgarden, the first American champ since Ryan-Hunter Reay in 2012, was overwhelmed at the team in Team Penske.
"They all made me feel welcome, immediately, and it makes you want to work even harder when you see Helio still so competitive and in such great shape. He's an inspiration."
Following his 2015 Indy win for R.P., Juan Pablo Montoya certainly didn't want to become a full-time sports car driver and Indy 500 only participant in 2017 but understood the timing was perfect for R.P. to snatch Newgarden. So now he'll have a teammate in the Acura program who also has zero desire to leave IndyCar but understands his loyalty to Penske is foremost.
"I love everything about IndyCar," said Castroneves, who was scheduled to test the Acura on Monday at Sebring. "I love the speed, the competition, my team and this has been my life and my family.
"Like I've been telling you for several months, I know I have a job with Roger next year and I'll do whatever is best for him and this team. But I can still win the Indy 500 one or two more times."
Tony Kanaan (pictured above with Castroneves at driver introductions before the Sonoma race) said it was a shame there was no going-away tour for his longtime pal and rival and there was an atmosphere of hoping he could go out with the championship last weekend. Fans and even other drivers seemed somewhat nostalgic when his name was mentioned.
"Behind all the sparkly teeth and hair gel is a hell of a competitor and hell of a driver and he's still up front all the time," said Dario Franchitti, another three-time Indy king.
"Helio is an inspiration and it's been an honor racing with him," said Hunter-Reay, the 2014 Indy winner whose duel for the win with Castroneves was one of the best ever. "His hunger has always stayed there."
After Sunday's finale, teammate Will Power got out of his car and gave Castroneves a hug, as if to say, 'Helluva run mate,' and that pretty much sums it up. He's been a great ambassador for IndyCar and one of its most popular and successful drivers.
Newgarden is the future of IndyCar and Castroneves is slowly being phased out. But we'll still see a lot of him in May and that just seems kind of fitting.

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[h=2]IMSA move will extend Helio's career - Penske[/h] Wednesday, 04 October 2017


By Mark Glendenning / Images by IMS Photo




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Roger Penske believes that Helio Castroneves has extended his racing career with his transition from full-time IndyCar competition to Team Penske's Acura prototype program in next year's IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The popular Brazilian's long-anticipated switch was finally confirmed by the team on Wednesday, with Castroneves set for a full season in the Acura ARX-05, as well as appearances in a fourth Penske IndyCar at the Indy GP and Indianapolis 500.


Despite talk of Castroneves' impending move having rippled through the paddock for more than a year, Penske said that the late confirmation of the deal was the result of the contract between the team and Acura needing to be finalized. It's a move he says will ultimately benefit Castroneves himself.
"This gives Helio a longer future in his racing career," said Penske. "He's been with us as the longest-tenured driver, and I think the fact that he gets to go back to the Indy 500 again in 2018 and also will run in the road race the weekend before gives him the chance to stay with one foot in IndyCar, but also a chance to bring our Acura sports car team into championships hopefully as we go forward over the next however many years."
Castroneves said that he views the change as an opportunity to build upon a legacy with Team Penske that includes 30 IndyCar wins and three Indianapolis 500 victories.
"I felt that this program, I felt with the family that I created inside the team with the professionalism, just for me, my career... it's building to this," he said.

"I'm excited, because not only are we going to start working with Honda again – obviously they gave me a lot of wins – [but] every time you have this perspective of looking forward to being competitive, looking forward to keeping driving. That's what I love. Driving is my passion, it's in my blood, and if this can continue moving forward and prolong my racing career, I'm all up for it. So I'm really, really excited for this new opportunity."
Castroneves said he is also mindful of the symbolism of his moving out of full-time IndyCar just two weeks after his 26-year-old teammate Josef Newgarden won the championship, and acknowledged that the older guard eventually has to make way for fresh talent.
"The new era... you just had Josef Newgarden, a young American, winning the championship," he said. "He's probably going to be – if not already – a star, and [other] people are going to come up. It's just the natural way that things happen. I was just fortunate to be in some place at the right time, but certainly I enjoyed the time. I took advantage of every moment and opportunity that I had during the series in any aspect, and I thank them for them to come on board, as well.
"Hopefully now we'll go to the next chapter of my life, which I'm really excited because it's the same racing but a little bit different. I definitely enjoy a challenge, and this is going to be a good one."
Team Penske is already well into an internal reorganization to accommodate the two-car IMSA program, with some staff having been reassigned from the IndyCar side, and other members of its last sports car program having been brought back into the fold. Penske expects another 10-15 staff to be added before the season begins.
The one thing that Castroneves' new program did not allow for was an IndyCar farewell tour. Penske said that something will be planned for next year's Indy 500, but noted that the new chapter in Castroneves' career should be viewed as a change, rather than a departure.
"We will have a celebration for Helio at the Indianapolis 500, where he has most of his fans, and he's going to be around and people will see him," said Penske.
"I guess it's so hard to try to create the right environment when you don't have the final decisions, and I think to say that he was not going to run in 2018 at the beginning of the year wouldn't have been right because we didn't have an answer. So a little bit of that has to do with timing.
"Obviously Helio is not getting out of the sport, not stopping driving like [Dale] Earnhardt [Jr.] and some of these other people have, Jeff Gordon. He's going to be around, he's going to be part of the Indy circuit at the biggest race in the world, and he's also going to create a new fan base on the sports car side.
"I think that if you step back and look at the trajectory that he has from a business standpoint, from a career standpoint, from a racing standpoint, I think that we've placed him in a very good position, and I feel that I've certainly given him the chances that he needed. He's produced the results and continues to, and that's why we're looking at this as a future opportunity for both of us."

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Castroneves tops second Rolex practice

Thursday, 25 January 2018


By J.J. O'Malley / Image by Jake Galstad/LAT



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Acura Team Penske went to the top of the speed chart in Thursday's second practice session for the Rolex 24 At Daytona, as Helio Castroneves posted the best lap of the day so far, 1m37.036s in the No. 7 Acura ARX-05.

Nicolas Lapierre was second in the No. 22 Tequila Patron ESM Nissan Onroak DPi with a 1m37.360s, followed by Filipe Albuquerque, 1m37.385s in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R. In fourth was the leading LMP2, the No. 54 CORE autosport ORECA 07-Gibson piloted by Colin Braun, who turned a 1m37.613s lap.


Patrick Pilet led GTLM with a lap of 1m43.902s, best of the day in the No. 911 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR, followed by Jan Magnussen in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R, at 1m43.970s.
Former Pirelli World Challenge GT champion Alvaro Parente had the fastest lap of the day in GTD at 1m46.790s in the No. 86 Michael Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3, followed by Miguel Molina in the No. 82 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 with a 1m47.032s.
The 60-minute session had a brief red flag for the stopped No. 59 Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Matteo Cairoli, which had a mechanical issue in the International Horseshoe. Practice was brought to an early end due to a red flag with about five minutes remaining.

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[h=2]I did everything I could for pole - Castroneves
.007 seconds![/h]Thursday, 25 January 2018

By J.J. O'Malley / Image by Michael Levitt/LAT


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Helio Castroneves seemed fairly confident of capturing the pole for the 56th Rolex 24 At Daytona, taking the No. 7 Acura Team Penske Acura ARX-05 to pit roa with a few minutes remaining in the 15-minute session after running a lap of 1m36.090s.

With the checkered flag waving and Castroneves set to exit the Acura for a round of post-qualifying photos and interviews, Renger van der Zande knocked the popular three-time Indianapolis 500 winner off the pole by a fraction of a second – 0.007s to be exact – on his final lap in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R.


The emotional Brazilian appeared crushed when he heard the news.
"I did everything I could," Castroneves said. "Unfortunately, I just got beat by .007 seconds. Nothing you can do about that. It's okay though, we looked strong."
Castroneves will take the green flag at 2:40 p.m. Saturday on the outside of the front row in the Acura he shares with Ricky Taylor and Graham Rahal.
"The guys are going to have to fix a couple of things on the car because I was pushing it really hard," he said. "But we are starting on the front row, which is a pretty big deal. It's a good start for our team. We still have a lot of things to learn. But I'm really happy for Acura Team Penske and all of the guys. We've worked hard to get to this point and we have a few more practices to fine-tune it for Saturday."

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[h=2]Castroneves embracing new challenges in IMSA[/h] Wednesday, 14 March 2018


Marshall Pruett / Images by Levitt, Dole, LePage/LAT


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The wisps of grey in Helio Castroneves' once jet-black hair speak to the Brazilian's physical age. He'll be 43 in May. The youthful enthusiasm projected by his voice when speaking of the new sports car racing chapter of his career, however, is reminiscent of a Castroneves in his early 20s.

Getting to the point where accepting life as a full-time IndyCar driver is over hasn't been easy. Despite winning three Indy 500s for Roger Penske, capturing an Indy car championship proved elusive for Castroneves during a 20-year run in open-wheel racing.
And with the Captain's call to shift the veteran from his Verizon IndyCar Series team to Penske's new IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship program, that title pursuit –a rabid goal that fueled Castroneves' world for half his life – met an immediate end. The process of finding peace and acceptance in that career change is almost complete, and it's been propelled by an unexpected re-introduction to something he'd been missing in Indy car racing.
The joy found in conversation with Castroneves ahead of this weekend's Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring endurance race stems from the Acura ARX-05 Daytona Prototype international he races with Ricky Taylor. More specifically, Castroneves is loving the newfound opportunity to develop Acura's DPi into a competitive force.


After far too many years of racing spec Indy car models, getting to play with the ARX-05 and shape its competitive future has been a rejuvenating experience for this veteran.
"It's, to be honest, very good," Castroneves told RACER of his life as a sports car driver. "My engineer, [teammate] Ricky Taylor and I, we've been in constant contact, and it's been more contact than I had that way in IndyCar. In IndyCar, the conversations weren't as many because you couldn't do a lot of things to change the car. It was all very controlled by the series.
"Now, with my Acura DPi, it's not talking so much about shocks and springs; it's about what we can develop to make the car better. It's so different, and it's so cool. The last time I had that kind of development opportunity was 2001 with Honda's [Indy car] engines. So, I really feel like a kid again. And I love playing with the technology and being part of that team, even as a driver, to make the whole car better."
Based in Miami, Castroneves has also come to enjoy the easier calendar offered by IMSA. With IndyCar kicking off a 17-race championship last weekend in St. Petersburg, Helio was present after being named the grand marshal of the Firestone Grand Prix, and also noted how IMSA's 10-race schedule, spread from January to October, is the clear winner when compared to IndyCar's busy sprint from March through September.
"It's good because you don't have to travel as much!" he said with his customary laugh. "It's by car instead of plane with a lot of the races and testing in Florida, which is nice. You aren't gone as much, but I am still doing the Indy 500 with Roger [Penske], so it will be my full IMSA [schedule] plus a little bit of IndyCar, still."
Going from IMSA's WeatherTech Championship opener at the Rolex 24 At Daytona to 12 hours of racing at Sebring has been another adjustment for Castroneves. With a typical IndyCar race lasting just under two hours, adapting to the rigors of endurance competition in IMSA's biggest events – ones where he'll contest the equivalent of multiple IndyCar races while rotating in and out of the Acura DPi – led to another round of laughter while reflecting on the Rolex 24.
"Daytona was brutal. I'd forgotten how difficult it is for 24 hours; I drove for about nine and a half hours, which was a lot. I earned my paycheck. For the first time I had the feeling of, 'I don't want to go back into the race car!'" he said. "It's a shame, the result we had, because the performance was much better than the result that happened, but I think we're going to show something good at Sebring. I really do."
Castroneves raced at Daytona and Sebring in the past – as an all-star guest driver amid his IndyCar duties. With those legendary tracks now part of his daily routine in IMSA, a stronger appreciation for sports car racing's hallowed grounds, akin to his passion for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, has emerged.
"Sebring is such an incredible track with so much history; so many drivers have gone there before, so for us to be racing there, it's such an honor," he said. "I've been practicing a lot for this race, and there's no place where it's easy. I like that. It's coming back to our roots. I can't wait to get started."

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Castroneves up to speed as Penskes top Barber test
Tuesday, 20 March 2018

By Robin Miller / Images by IMS Photo


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Rain and red flags limited running in Tuesday's Verizon IndyCar Series open test at Barber Motorsports Park, but not before Team Penske put its stamp on the Alabama road course.

Defending series champion Josef Newgarden led the way with a lap of 1m07.979s in his Chevrolet and the was only driver to crack 1:08 as 24 cars only made 510 laps due to the conditions, which closed the track early.
Teammates Will Power and Helio Castroneves were close behind at 1m08.153s and 1m08.315s, respectively, as the three-time Indy 500 winner turned 41 laps – the most of anyone.
Castroneves, now a full-time sports car driver with Juan Pablo Montoya for The Captain, will be running both races in May for Team Penske.
Sebastian Bourdais, who captured the season opener at St. Pete, was the fourth fastest at 1m08.382s in Dale Coyne's Honda, followed by rookie teammate Zachary Claman De Melo at 1m08.561s.
Several Honda teams will be testing the IMS road course on Friday and then all teams are set to run the oval from March 27-29, with an open test on March 27, rookie orientation and refresher tests set for March 28 and a Chevrolet-Honda manufacturer test on the 29th.