- HELIO CASTRONEVES LEAVES PENSKE HOW TO
- HELIO CASTRONEVES LEAVES PENSKE DRIVERS
- HELIO CASTRONEVES LEAVES PENSKE DRIVER
I saw a thousand people climbing the fence all around the track.
“I got to physically see the history-in-the-making type of thing. “I thought the neatest thing riding around in that Camaro convertible with him was all the fans stayed, no one left. Ind圜ar’s “little team that could” became what it’s long said it wants to be: The little team that did. And this time he did.Īnd with that, not only did Castroneves prove what he could do.
HELIO CASTRONEVES LEAVES PENSKE HOW TO
He knew the lines to run, knew how to hold the young, hard-charging Spaniard off for another 80 seconds. And with two to go, he took over again, seeing lapped traffic coming fast in the distance. He led with seven to go, then was passed. So as the race closed within 10 laps, and Alex Palou appeared his only formidable opponent, Castroneves picked his spots. He knew exactly what he was doing, and he knew what he had. “I figured out on Lap 155 that everything he was doing was on purpose,” Shank said.
HELIO CASTRONEVES LEAVES PENSKE DRIVERS
Castroneves would pounce when he needed to, provoking the tenacity of drivers nearly half his age all around him. He hadn’t led many laps, but he was there, wasting as little fuel as possible to stay within striking distance. With 50 laps to go, that landmark so many drivers reference as the time when the real race begins, Castroneves’ masterpiece was starting to come into view. So a short ways back he lurked Sunday, letting veterans such as Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi fall victim to an early fueling frustration, while Will Power spun in the pits and Graham Rahal left his pit box prematurely before his left rear wheel spun off with his own chances. “Don’t touch the car,” he remembers pleading in the garages that night.Ī champion well-trained on how something so small can alter a car and dash an opportunity, he didn’t want to let this one go. He went to Meyer and Shank, the two men who promised to throw the kitchen sink at his No. Sunday was the first of six races the 46-year-old was set to run in 2021, despite the driver’s most fervent pleadings.īut when Castroneves finished up last week's post-qualifying practice, sitting eighth on the grid, he was downright giddy. The co-owners were methodical in building Castroneves’ program. We believe in you, and with our technical partnership with Andretti Autosport and as a relatively small team, we can both dedicate you as much attention and resources as anyone. “Of course I thought he had something left in him.” “Jim and I looked at (Helio’s) performance numbers from (his last full-time season in 2017), and I didn’t quite get him not running anymore,” Shank said. Over impassioned late-night chats, the two co-owners of one of Ind圜ar’s smallest outfits, which debuted in 2017 and is only in the midst of its second full-time season with Castroneves’ teammate Jack Harvey, saw this promise in the aging, yet feisty driver.Īnd, quite frankly, they couldn’t understand why Penske no longer could. That’s precisely what Shank and Jim Meyer saw. Oller: Shank's boyhood obsession with cars turns into thriving race team Anytime he’s out there, he’s got a chance.” But, as four-time Indy 500 winner Rick Mears said of Castroneves, “He’s kept that fire lit all these years. Not many gave Shank and Castroneves a chance. Maybe Castroneves would have a shot to win, but he’d also boost a team that needed some veteran leadership at one of the most challenging tracks in the world. Shank, a 1985 Gahanna High graduate, hired Castroneves for the Indy 500 to complement the one-car Pataskala-based Meyer Shank Racing team.
HELIO CASTRONEVES LEAVES PENSKE DRIVER
No one had ever won an Indy 500 after having not done so in 11 consecutive tries.īut Castroneves, still the last driver to win consecutive Indianapolis 500s in 20, insisted he was not done racing yet. Theirs was a working relationship that had been slowly winding down for years and had run its course. But he was eventually phased over to the sports car program before Roger Penske shuttered the team and cut Castroneves loose. INDIANAPOLIS - Helio Castroneves spent more than two decades driving for Team Penske and won three Indy 500s with the group.
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