Tampa Racing - View Single Post - INDYCAR Helio Castroneves Penske Racing IMSA Juan Pablo Montoya

07-11-2017, 02:53 PM

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senor honda

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Before Castroneves won Sunday's IndyCar race at Iowa, Castroneves held third in the championship, and with his dominating victory, he's up to a fighting second behind Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon.

On the surface, pulling the plug on Montoya after a bad season in favor of young star Josef Newgarden was an easy thing to sell (although JPM had no desire to step out of his car). But what about Castroneves, who leads Penske's four-car IndyCar program after 11 of 17 championship rounds? That's not quite as simple – or so you'd think.

The surprise, based on what we started hearing at the recent IndyCar race at Road America, was that Team Penske is planning to trim one car from its roster, which prompted the renewed look into which paddock Castroneves will call home next year. Just as Montoya's fate appeared to be set well before the 2016 season concluded, the same could be true for Castroneves in 2017.

Moving Montoya sideways to accommodate Newgarden's arrival made sense, but why would Penske commit so early to downsizing from four cars to three?

Persistent rumors of a downturn in spending from Verizon, and a possible departure as IndyCar's title sponsor after 2018, could be part of the answer. Penske already spends a significant amount of his own money to support the IndyCar team; if a sponsorship change is on the horizon, being proactive and reducing operating costs before the big checks stop arriving would be very Captain-esque.

And then there's the matter of staffing the two-car DPi program. Provided the IndyCar downsizing takes place, Penske would have a crew of world-class mechanics and engineers to spread across the IMSA campaign, just as it did throughout its ALMS LMP2 program with Porsche from 2005-'08.

These are "ifs," but if Penske has locked itself into a three-car IndyCar rotation, and committed the fourth crew to the DPis, it could be hard to reverse the process and keep Castroneves in IndyCar if he wins the championship.

It's safe to assume IndyCar would not want its newest champion – and most popular, most recognizable driver – to have his bags packed and be dispatched to sports car-land because of a long-term plan that was made before he earned the title, but taking people away from the DPi program at this stage would not make sense.

As funny as it sounds, a Castroneves IndyCar championship could be an ugly scenario to consider for all involved... except for Helio.

Other than the union of Penske and Acura in IMSA with DPis, the initial confirmation of the deal is not expected to include the full-time or part-time driver roster. In theory, that news could be kept under wraps until the IndyCar and IMSA seasons are over.

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