Castroneves: How I kept it under control to make Indy 500 history

“Oh my god! You’re kidding me! That’s incredible!” says Helio Castroneves the day after his victory, as I inform him of my favourite stat from the 105th running of the Indianapolis 500. The winning margin in his fourth Indy 500 victory – 0.49s – equals the total of his deficits from the three occasions he finished the race as runner-up in 2003, ’14 and ’17.

It's important to note how much of a high he was still on, 24 hours after joining AJ Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway pantheon of four-time 500 winners.

“Man! I guess the stars… they align. The gods of racing are looking after me.” Then, just in case he sounds like he’s attributing the win to divine intervention, he quickly adds: “Michael Shank and Jim Meyer are incredible guys, and it’s a great partnership, and great team.”

Shank and Meyer told the media after the race that it took just five laps in the April group test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for them to realise that signing Castroneves as a part-timer alongside their full-time entry for Jack Harvey had been the right move. For Helio, reciprocating that belief took a little longer, as Meyer Shank Racing is a young IndyCar team, in only its second year running one full-time car, and its first running a second entry part-time.

PLUS: How 'chess master' Castroneves cemented his Indy legend status

“Well, I wouldn’t have said it that early,” he says. “When I first drove the #06 [MSR-Honda] at Indy, I said to myself, ‘Oh boy, this is going to be interesting.’ Because when you go from one team, one type of oval car set-up that you spent 20 years developing with Team Penske and go to another that is set up and prepared completely different, it’s tricky. At first they weren’t sharing all the numbers, not sharing some of the information, and I’m like, ‘How do you want me to work if you don’t consider me part of the team?’ After that, I think they realised we’ve got some work to do, and we worked. And I have to thank Andretti Autosport [with whom MSR has a technical partnership], because without their development we wouldn’t be able to achieve what we achieved.”

Helio Castroneves, Meyer Shank Racing Honda celebrates his victory

Photo by: Barry Cantrell / Motorsport Images

The build-up

Although the MSR pair of Castroneves and Harvey looked pretty strong in practice at Indy this year – in terms of their laps when speeds weren’t artificially boosted by the aid of a tow – even those figures can be misleading. Rivals who are genuinely faster might not appear so because their best laps on the no-tow charts may have been set with a high fuel load or on worn tyres.

“You never know what you’re looking at in practice,” one Indy veteran said several years ago. “You may feel like a hero in practice because you pass five cars in five laps, but you don’t know how much fuel they’re running, how many laps they’ve put on their tires, how easy they made it for you. You’re so focused on your own thing, you don’t have time to study all the opposition. That’s why you always get surprises in qualifying here – a couple of those guys who come up with a ‘Where-the-hell-did-that-come-from?’ run – because you just weren’t watching them through practice.”

"I knew Pato was going to be aggressive. I gave him a little space, because I could see him right under my gearbox at the restart. I was like, ‘No worries, bud, you wanna pull out now? You aren’t going anywhere because you won’t have a draft.’ That’s exactly what happened. I tell you what, it’s so cool to be in control" Helio Castroneves

The surprises of qualifying were Ed Jones (11th in the Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan car), his team-mate in the Coyne with RWR machine, rookie Pietro Fittipaldi, who landed 13th on the grid, and Castroneves in eighth. But on reflection, was that really a shocker, to see him sitting between two of his semi-team-mates from Andretti Autosport, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi? For all we knew, he had just turned in one of those very special four-lap runs, the type that earned him four Indy poles in what we regarded as his heyday…

Prospects for the race? There were few doubts over Meyer Shank’s tactics nor its driver’s capabilities. What many of us felt would let down the #06 was the pitstops. Heck, even MSR’s regular crews, for Harvey in IndyCar and for the Acura ARX-05 in IMSA, had had their issues in May – and pitcrews for ‘extra’ cars at Indy are generally at least a tick less slick than their full-time counterparts. Helio’s line-up, for instance, included just two full-timers.

Castroneves himself may have had doubts over this matter, too, but he didn’t express them then and certainly has no complaints now – his crew guys looked flawless when it mattered.

Helio Castroneves, Meyer Shank Racing Honda

Photo by: Sam Cobb / Motorsport Images

“They trained really hard,” he says. “We were having a few issues in practice pitstops. But understand, this was our first race and that’s when you can always hiccup. When I was coming into the pits, I was having hiccups as a driver – I wouldn’t find neutral, the car would stall – and you know how long I’ve been doing IndyCar pitstops!

“But I tell you what, until the Saturday before the race, they were practicing every day together, using the electric car of Andretti Autosport, and that dedication paid off. I was actually practicing with them at eight o’clock Thursday morning, so they were familiar with what I like, what I don’t like. And I told them, ‘If you make a mistake, the important thing is don’t panic and make another mistake; just get the job done. And don’t worry about the mistake afterward in case you make another mistake at the next stop. Just focus on getting it done as good as we practiced it. We have plenty of time. Make the last two stops the best – keep getting better through the race.’

“And yeah, like you say, in the race, they stepped up and got better and better – absolutely nailed the final pitstop which allowed me to get ahead of Alex [Palou].”

Analysing the fight

After the second and final yellow for Rahal’s shunt, Castroneves took the lead on lap 125, but appeared to have no qualms about letting both Palou and O’Ward ahead. Was he, as Shank described it later, doing this on purpose, testing the strengths of the cars that would clearly be his fiercest rivals over the final third of the race?

“Yes, that’s exactly right. I knew Pato was going to be aggressive. I gave him a little space, because I could see him right under my gearbox at the restart. I was like, ‘No worries, bud, you wanna pull out now? You aren’t going anywhere because you won’t have a draft.’ That’s exactly what happened. I tell you what, it’s so cool to be in control.”

He laughs with a little embarrassment as he realises that last comment might sound arrogant, but in fact his point is valid. At Indy, of all tracks, given equal equipment, your money should go on the guy who’s raced here 20 times – and won three times – rather than the sophomores, however talented and full of potential they may be.

Helio Castroneves, Meyer Shank Racing Honda, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

“Yeah, the young guys are fast and they want lead every time they can,” says Castroneves who won his first two 500s. “I’m not sure if it’s them wanting the confidence of clean air so their car feels as good as possible, so it’s easier. So I just let them do what they want to do because my interest wasn’t to be leading at that time. And I was very happy because my car let me do that – I could run in dirty air, stalk everyone, see their weakness.

“Actually, with Pato I was not worried. I was strong both ways – leading or being behind him. But Alex - man, he was strong in the lead, extremely fast, but not so strong in the traffic. He was opposite of me. I was not so strong leading but I was strong in dirty air.”

Following their final pitstops – Castroneves on lap 172, Palou and O’Ward on 173 – the trio moved up the lap chart to 4-5-6 as others pitted but by lap 186 they’d encountered two very off-strategy cars. O’Ward’s team-mate Felix Rosenqvist was out front, ahead of defending Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato’s RLL, both praying for a late caution period that would allow them to save the fuel necessary to make it to the chequered flag.

"Rosenqvist went into the pits again and then I saw the other group [of backmarkers] ahead – which was a lot of cars – and I thought, ‘Oh boy, this is gonna be good,’ because our strength compared with Palou was in traffic, a lot of dirty air. I felt if I got with them, we could handle that better than Alex" Helio Castroneves

They swapped prayer service for pit service on laps 193 and 194 respectively, but after stalling in the pits, Rosenqvist emerged just ahead of the leaders – Palou at that point ahead of Castroneves – and, with fresh tyres, the Swede had the ability to stay there. It’s no coincidence that Palou set his fastest lap on 196 sitting in Felix’s draft. Was there a danger of him unintentionally towing Palou away from Castroneves? Certainly Arrow McLaren SP strategists didn’t want him pulling Palou and Castroneves away from their victory hope, O’Ward, but equally they didn’t wish him to be accused of interfering in the lead battle, backing up Palou and Castroneves to allow O’Ward into the mix. So they ordered Rosenqvist to drive through the pits once more.

“I don’t think Palou was close enough to Rosenqvist to make a move that lap,” says Castroneves, “and then Rosenqvist pulled off right away and it was perfect, because I wanted to be the one behind Rosenqvist if he’s able to go fast enough to tow me. I didn’t want Palou to pass him and for me to lose half a lap trying to pass him, because remember what I said, Palou was very strong in the lead.

“But anyway, Rosenqvist went into the pits again and then I saw the other group [of backmarkers] ahead – which was a lot of cars – and I thought, ‘Oh boy, this is gonna be good,’ because our strength compared with Palou was in traffic, a lot of dirty air. I felt if I got with them, we could handle that better than Alex.”

Helio Castroneves, Meyer Shank Racing Honda, Patricio O'Ward, Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Drafting Palou along the pit straight at the end of lap 198, Castroneves gathered momentum and moved right to pass the Ganassi car around the outside of Turn 1, and he then homed in on the tail of a chain of six backmarkers.

“We caught them quicker than I expected,” he admits. “When you have group of six cars, they slow down the corner, it creates like an accordion. They maybe are doing 218 and me and Palou are flat out, 220 maybe, so we catch them quick. And I said to myself, ‘This is beautiful’. Normally you don’t want six cars in front of you but I know that my car can handle it better than Palou’s car, plus, the dirty air is a little bit worse for him because he has seven cars in front of him, car seven being mine! I couldn’t get too close to the cars ahead because if I get too near – I think it was Hunter-Reay and McLaughlin – my front end is going to wash out and kill momentum. I knew if I just sneak up on them and keep clean air on my front to give me a great run off Turn 2 and 4, then we have it. And that’s what happened.”

Many of us who felt Castroneves was still too good in open-wheel racing to get shuffled off to sportscars at the end of 2017 will feel somewhat vindicated by this latest triumph, but in fact he admits his three-year spell in Penske’s Acura sportscar programme, which culminated in he and Ricky Taylor winning the 2020 IMSA Prototype championship, also helped him prevail at Indy last Sunday.

“Credit sportscars, for sure, it taught me a lot about timing, I have to say. When you have different categories on track and you’re in the fastest, you learn how to make passes without losing momentum to the guy behind, and keeping it clean.”

What’s next?

Shank and Meyer basically agreed in front of the media to run Castroneves again in 2022, aiming to assist his Drive for Five. That’s how much they appreciate his skills and his personality. But given the fact that he’s just delivered a masterclass in the world’s biggest race, he’s surely going to attract attention from elsewhere. If that’s the case, where does Helio put his trust? And if MSR offers him a full season next year, does that sound more appealing than a part-time role with a ‘bigger’ team?

“Great question. Right now, I have five more races with Meyer Shank this year and I want to do the best I can for them and see the potential of going from here. I’d like to push them to do a full season with me in a second car, because I do feel they have the potential to achieve greatness, and I would love to be that guy who is the last piece of the puzzle. I think I would choose that over part-time with any other team for many reasons. One: It is not easy to do part-time. Two: I notice the passion at Meyer Shank, and that’s hard to create somewhere it doesn’t exist – it’s there or not. Three: I also want an IndyCar championship and I want it as bad as anybody out there.”

Race winner Helio Castroneves, Meyer Shank Racing Honda celebrates his victory

Photo by: Sam Cobb / Motorsport Images

That isn’t in doubt, but the big test will be to see how he performs in his remaining five races of his current contract with MSR – the new track at Nashville, the second race on the IMS road course, Portland, Laguna Seca and Long Beach. But it might be worth Shank and Meyer considering running him in all the remaining races, since thanks to the Indy 500 being worth double points, the #06 entry, is now 17th in entrant points, and therefore eligible for Leader Circle money in 2022. And 10 races would provide an even better gauge for how competitive MSR could expect Helio to be, were he to run full-time next year.

Assuming that isn’t feasible for MSR, however, Helio would be available for the delayed 24 Hours of Le Mans - and even the test day, if he headed to France right after that IMS race. He slips from Castroneves The Analyst mode back into The Bouncing Tigger of Motorsport at the very thought of it – “Yeah man, why not? Let’s make history!” – which heightens still further when informed that he already has. He’s the first driver ever to win the 24 Hours of Daytona and Indy 500 in the same year.

"Told you years ago, man: age is just a number if you stay sharp and fit, and I do that because I don’t know what I'd do without this" Helio Castroneves

“Really?! Oh wow! That’s awesome! Yeah, maybe that Le Mans idea can be a plan. I’m available.”

And viable as a top-line racer, at the age of 46.

“Told you years ago, man: age is just a number if you stay sharp and fit, and I do that because I don’t know what I'd do without this.”

Or as he put it in the emotional post-race celebration, “Man, I only did two races this year, and I won two. I think I still got it, don’t you think?!”

Helio Castroneves, Meyer Shank Racing Honda

Photo by: Sam Cobb / Motorsport Images