Yahoo Autos Helio Castroneves Doesn't Want Too Much Credit for His Late-Career Brilliance
Helio Castroneves has had a remarkable couple of years. In 2020, he and teammate Ricky Taylor captured the IMSA WeatherTech driver's title, and in 2021 he won the Daytona 24 hours and his fourth Indy 500. This year, driving full time for Meyer-Shank Racing in IndyCar and for select IMSA endurance races, he won Daytona again and is aiming for a record-breaking fifth win at Indy. Amazing by any standard, but Castroneves just turned 47. In a sport often obsessed with youth, the Brazilian driver proves that a racer can have real staying power.
Not that he wants to take too much credit for all this recent success. In an interview with Road & Track earlier this month, Castroneves was very quick to remind that racing is a team sport, even if at the end of the day, he's the one in the car. "I can't do without a good team behind me," he says. "If I don't have good pit stops, if I don't have a good operation, if I don't have people that believe in you either, it's not going to happen."
Castroneves spent most of his career with Team Penske, joining the powerhouse operation in 2000 and running 18 full-time IndyCar seasons. He's one of the stars of the sport, known for his big, cheerful personality and his penchant for climbing fences after a race win, a habit that earned him the nickname "Spiderman." While he's never won an IndyCar title—something he hopes to change with MSR—he's always been in the fight, finishing runner-up four times. In 2017, Roger Penske asked Castroneves to join his new Acura prototype program as a full-timer. Castroneves was hesitant to leave IndyCar, but stayed with Penske out of loyalty. Penske ended its Acura sports car program after the 2020 season (in preparation for an upcoming Porsche program), and for the first time this century, Castroneves was a free agent.
For a brief moment, it seemed Helio was headed for a quiet end to his career, signing to run Tony Stewart's IROC-esque, made-for-TV Superstar Racing Experience (SRX), a dirt-track series for mostly retired racing stars. But after winning the 500 in a one-off entry with the relatively young Meyer-Shank Racing team, the world realized that Castroneves had no intention to slow down.
Helio says linking up with MSR gave him newfound energy, and has nothing but great things to say about the team. He shares a story of a wheel gunner at last year's 500 to highlight the character of those he's working with. "We were having issues with the right wheel guy," Castroneves says. "What happened is he was not doing well. He was slipping and having issues." Early Sunday morning before the race, the team wasn't sure who'd be the tire changer on the right rear corner, until the mechanic spoke up and said he felt he was up to the task. The team managed the sixth fastest pit stop in the race, and at the celebration the next day, the wheel gunner came in limping.
Castroneves was joking around with the guy, asking to see the injury. The wheel gunner showed him his leg, totally purple from an injury the week before the race, and Castroneves was taken aback, asking him why he didn't sit out the 500. "I knew I could do it, and I didn't want to let you down," Castroneves recalls him saying. "That's the kind of people Mike [Shank, team principal] has, and that's awesome."
Castroneves is effusive in his praise for Shank and the organization he's built. "All of these people succeed because they're really passionate," he says. "I remember saying to him 'Be yourself. You don't need to be like... The examples are here for us to follow. Roger is an amazing example, but that's his style, corporate guy. That's the way he was raised, and it works for him. But you have the same special feeling that he has, which is passion about racing.'''
Of course, Helio isn't a passive member of the team. He believes the best drivers build and sustain momentum, elevating the team with them. He's committed to building something great and long-lasting with MSR. "Roger was a big believer in hiring the best people and letting them do their job," he says. "If you need anything, ask for it. But when you ask, you better deliver, too, because you're asking for it. I want to create that same scenario at MSR, which we are."
Despite all their success already, Helio believes there's more to come from the partnership. He believes the team has a great chance at another 500, especially now that it has signed his former Penske teammate and good friend Simon Pagenaud. Castroneves wants to finally take home an IndyCar championship—he's arguably the most successful racer in the series without a title—and wants to go to Le Mans with Acura.
After singing the praises of his team, Castroneves did address his age. In most race series, the oldest person on the grid isn't all that competitive, but Helio is different. Against a backdrop of very young IndyCar stars, he wants the world to consider that his age is an asset. "I feel that I have an advantage compared to the other guys, [Alex] Palou for example," he says, referencing the young IndyCar champion, who finished second to Castroneves at Indy last year. "That was an advantage for me. I bet if it was [six-time IndyCar champ Scott] Dixon…I bet it would have been a little harder."
Helio points out that A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti were still fast into their fifties, and he doesn't see any reason why he can't be too. "The flame is still burning. And when you do stuff like I did last year, the flame burns even higher."
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