[h=2]MILLER: Castroneves, odd man out[/h] Tuesday, 11 July 2017
By Robin Miller / Images by IMS Photo
A.J. hung on way too long. Ditto for Johnny Rutherford. And Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip didn't know when to quit either. Super Tex and Lone Star J.R. only knew IndyCar racing as a way of life, but it was sad to see a couple of badasses reduced to field fillers while those two fading NASCAR stars were simply making too much money to walk away.
But Helio Castroneves isn't in that fraternity. Not even close.
He's not a backmarker. His reflexes aren't gone. He's as quick as anyone most days on street and road courses as well as ovals. And he still drives with the hunger of a 22-year-old instead of a 42-year-old veteran.
His sell date isn't close to expiring, yet his career as a full-time IndyCar driver looks to be down to six races.
We understand Roger Penske wants to downsize to three cars in 2018, we know
The Captain is heading for IMSA sports cars with Honda Performance Development and Acura and wants to make a big splash with Juan Pablo Montoya and another Indy 500 winner.
And we can add. Will Power (36), Simon Pagenaud (33) and Josef Newgarden (26) are under contract to drive Indy cars for R.P. and this is reportedly the last year of Helio's deal. They're all in their prime while Castroneves has been primo in 2017 but it's a numbers game, and despite his performance – he's the odd man out.
Much like Montoya's plight a year ago. Coming off an Indy 500 victory in 2015, Montoya looked to be a lock in the Team Penske rotation for 2017 but was demoted to a May-only participant because Roger Penske wisely went after Newgarden.
It wasn't fair because Montoya had almost delivered a championship to go with his Indy triumph and he was still plenty fierce at speed. But his contract was up and he was 41 and deemed expendable for JoNew – that's how racing works.
And even though Castroneves hadn't been to Victory Lane since 2014 prior to last Sunday's blitzkrieg at Iowa, it wasn't like he'd lost anything. He only started worse than seventh twice in 17 races in 2016 – winning two poles, four podiums and leading seven races for 143 laps.
This season has been a continuation but even better. He's got three poles (four really except for a penalty at Detroit), a couple podiums, two fourths and has led seven races for 353 laps – second only to Power's 390. His near win at Indy might have been his finest drive yet at IMS.
"The guy is amazing," praised Power a few races ago. "He's still as fast as anyone and really pushes us and he's driving the best and most consistent on our team."
When we learned of Team Penske's sports car plan last summer, we heard it was going to be Montoya and Castroneves. So when we heard Honda was having a news conference this week it was time to ask. To his credit, Helio was forthright and said he'd heard the same rumor but hadn't talked to Roger yet about 2018 except that he knew he had a job with Team Penske.
Then I said, you know there's one way to make things really difficult. "Win the championship," he said with a grin.
It's something he's not been able to accomplish in 20 years, but he's only eight points behind Scott Dixon with six races remaining. And he's driving like, well, there's no tomorrow.
His victory was well received by the fans at Iowa Speedway, in the press room and on pit row because even the people who think he's a grandstander had to admit he kicked everybody's ass and deserved it after being so close the past few years.
Regardless of whether you think he's an actor or really that happy, Castroneves has always been one of the most gracious drivers ever with the fans and the media. He and his pal Tony Kanaan are the two most popular drivers in IndyCar – and they could both be Indy 500-only drivers next year.
Since Saturday, my mailbag has been flooded with letters from IndyCar fans upset that Helio is going to sports cars and they all said they hope my story on
RACER.com is wrong.
I've got to admit, so do I.