Not as good as I once was...but I can be as good ONCE as I ever was!
And that day happened to be the Indy 500 2021
Cantrell/Motorsport Images
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Marshall Pruett | June 3, 2021 1:12 PM ET
This year’s Indy 500 was one for the ages. There’s a lot to get through in our post-race column that wasn’t covered in the various stories that landed on RACER.com right after Helio Castroneves’ win, so let’s start with:
THE EXPENDABLES
If we’re talking expendables and retreads, the guy who just won the Indianapolis 500 lost his job in November after 20 years with the same company, and was replaced by a newer model. And the guy who conjured exceptional speed for Helio Castroneves, who spent the last few seasons being moved around from one underperforming driver to another, fell out of favor as a full-time race engineer with the main team.
So together, first with Castroneves being signed to a six-race deal alongside Jack Harvey at Meyer Shank Racing, and second, with Andretti Autosport’s Mark Bryant dispatched to MSR’s extra part-time car, it would be fair to say the Brazilian and New Zealander duo weren’t exactly in high demand. Which makes the outcome of the 105th Indy 500, with the driver Team Penske no longer wanted, and the supremely talented race engineer bumped to end of the depth chart, one hell of a redemption story.
Look elsewhere on the timing stand, and former Chip Ganassi Racing lead mechanic Adam Rovazzini was the strategist for Castroneves on the No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing Honda. Across the pit crew, series veteran Didier Francesia returned and was rewarded mightily; Dario Franchitti’s former CGR mechanic Kevin O’Donnell moved across for MSR’s sports car program a few years ago and knocked out quick pit stops, and more talent– young and old – were part of this unique squad.
As Shank revealed after the race, only two full-time employees have been assigned to the No. 06 program; the rest were brought in on short-term contracts or borrowed from MSR’s IMSA program.
One of the full-timers was Helio’s chief mechanic, Matt Swan, who we wrote about earlier in the month, who joined MSR after 19 years and 11 months with Ganassi, and was reunited with his old driver after the two grew close in 1999 at the former Hogan Racing CART IndyCar team.
For Swan, who’d hoped to put his days as a mechanic behind him with the new opportunity as MSR’s shop manager, coming out of pit crew retirement paid off as he earned his first win – ever – as an IndyCar crew chief, at the biggest race in the world.
“I just want to get Helio his fourth Indy win,” Swan said of the motivation behind reuniting with his old pal Castroneves, and it’s exactly what they achieved.