Castroneves sees opportunity for fourth Indy slipping away
INDIANAPOLIS – There is just one guarantee around this place. Heartbreak.
Feel it or see it, it’s all around. While every race produces a winner – and a victory in the Indianapolis 500 is the greatest one a winner will ever experience – 32 other drivers fall short of their ultimate goal.
Helio Castroneves reached the pinnacle the first time he raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Then again the second. And seven years later a third, at which point his chances looked strong to join the exclusive club of four-time winners.
Now, though, 10 years have passed since that third victory. To watch Castroneves crash out last year and then beg on the television broadcast for another chance was to see a passionate
man who understood how his opportunities were slipping away.
“Maybe it is the year,” the 44-year-old Brazilian said longingly last week.
“Tiger Woods took 10 years to go back and win another big one. Why not it could be this year?”
Eleven, actually, between between the golf great’s previous major and April’s fifth Masters title. And while Castroneves’ obstacles Sunday in Indy’s 103rd running seem less daunting than Woods’ spinal fusion, he does face countless decisions, eight or nine pit stops, the mechanical uncertainty of thousands of parts and the very real prospect of getting caught in someone else’s 220 mph mess.
Then there are the three huge hurdles within his own team – Team Penske, the most successful in Indy 500 history with 17 victories – that Castroneves must clear.
“We have four cars. Before you only had two cars,” said Castroneves, who edged his only teammate, Gil de Ferran, for his first 500 victory in 2001.
“The team is spreading out the love a little bit with the other ones, and the other ones are smart. You have Simon Pagenaud, Will Power, Josef Newgarden, so all of a sudden there’s so much you can do and … those guys are champions, they know what they need to do as well.
“My point is, the team does everything they can to make the car win, whether it is me or one of the other three. So that’s probably one of the reasons it’s becoming tough. But it does not prevent us to do it.”
Castroneves will start 12th Sunday, on the outside of the fourth row, the deepest in the field of the Penske drivers. Pagenaud is on the pole, defending winner Will Power sixth on the grid and Josef Newgarden eighth.
They all race Indy cars full time for Roger Penske, whereas Castroneves was relegated to sports cars last season when Newgarden came along. Castroneves’ crew for the Penske’s extra entry was pulled together from his sports-car crew and the team’s other resources.
“I won here starting from 11th. I won here starting from 13th,” Castroneves said. “I had a great race here in 2017, starting from 24th.
“I see my strong competitors, especially my teammates, especially Simon, he’s been very strong, and every time you see a guy with that kind of speed it automatically makes you more strong. However it doesn’t make you invincible.”
In addition to Castroneves’ three wins, he has finished second three times by a collective margin of less than sixtenths of a second.
If Castroneves were to win his fourth on Sunday, he would be the second-oldest driver to do so. Al Unser was five days short of his 48th birthday when he was victorious in 1987. A.J. Foyt was 42 in ’77 and Rick Mears 39 in ’91. (Unser and Mears both won for Penske.)
With his bubbly personality and “Dancing with the Stars” title, Castroneves may be the closest the 500 has to a driver who transcends the sport today the way the cantankerous Foyt did in his heyday, or Mario Andretti, who scored his only Indy victory in 1969. And closest isn’t really close.
In multimedia age in which entertainment options are myriad, the race doesn't command the attention it did then. People aren’t as connected to the automobile and shade-tree mechanics are a dying breed. Racing is more specialized, and personalities seemed to become sanitized to a degree by corporate involvement.
Castroneves has matured over the years – he’s partners with team owner Penske in a Pennsylvania car dealership – and he has evolved as a driver, said Mears, one of Castroneves’ mentors. Otherwise, as he prepares for his 19th Indy 500, though he’s mostly just an older version of the awestruck kid who showed up for the first time in 2001.
“The fire being lit, his desire to win, his upbeat attitude – great for the team and everything else – that’s never changed,” Mears said.
He feels the same excitement, the same race-day nerves.
The game has changed, though Castroneves would be the first to tell you. The field is tighter and talent deeper than in any of the 500s he won.
“The cars are different. The competitors obviously are getting smarter,” Castroneves said. “Lines are becoming more similar; everyone is doing the same. … You can’t do what you’ve done five years ago or 10 years ago.”
And the future?
“It’s year to year,” Penske said. “We’ll look at this and see what we do after this year. A lot of things we have to look at. Sponsorship and commitments.”
So Castroneves will saddle up Sunday for a 19th try, hoping his afternoon will end in the same place it did in first year, his second and his ninth, with a wreath around his neck and a bottle of milk in his hand.
Simple math would tell Castroneves, though, that he has greater odds of going home heartbroken again. If not for the last time, then one step closer, anyway.
“Obviously we’ve been close many times,” he said. “However it doesn’t take away from our quest and desire.
“You’re always looking for positive ways to look and I’m always a positive guy. But realistic at the same time.”