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However, Castroneves was getting itchy to get back in a car and do some racing. As a part-time participant in the SRX series, Castroneves was not in the listed lineup for the Season 2 kickoff at Five Flags Speedway on Saturday in Pensacola, Florida. | Jonathan Bachman/SRX/Getty Imagesįour-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves had the weekend off. Helio Castroneves won a race that wasn’t on his schedule Hélio Castroneves celebrates after winning a Camping World Superstar Racing Experience event at Five Flags Speedway on June 18, 2022, in Pensacola, Florida. But it sounds as though he could drive in a NASCAR race to be determined. Helio Castroneves may or may not have been serious. Other fuel mileage hopefuls were Dixon, who managed to unlap himself during Rahal’s yellow, and Josef Newgarden.Leave it to a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner to win a Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) race and then perk up the ears of NASCAR fans with a postrace disclosure. He was leading when he pitted on Lap 158, meaning he would need only a short splash-and-go fuel stop around Lap 190 to go for the win. His teammate Sato, however, was still on the same strategy and hopeful of benefiting from it. “We had ’em,” a dejected Rahal said afterward. That brought out a yellow caution flag that bunched the field, jumbled the order and neutralized the best fuel strategies. But at the 300-mile mark, fuel mileage was taken somewhat out of the equation when Rahal, the fuel economy champion to that point, lost his left rear wheel after a pit stop, causing him to crash Daly clobbered the loose wheel.
Helio castroneves drivers#
Generally speaking, it seemed the drivers powered by Honda engines were getting better mileage than the Chevrolet runners. That would be a savings of as much as three-quarters of a lap. Thinking of the end of the race, they hoped to make one fewer fuel stop than the rabbits up front. Veterans like the 2014 winner, Ryan Hunter-Reay Castroneves the two-time winner Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal were wisely stretching an extra lap or two, or more, out of every tank. In the next segment, the sport’s vaunted youth movement, which has turned Ind圜ar’s entrenched order on its head so far this season, established itself at the front of the field: the Indiana native Conor Daly, 29, moved to the lead ahead of VeeKay, 20, followed by O’Ward, 22, Herta, 21, and Palou, 24.ĭespite their raw speed, however, another key factor, fuel mileage, was starting to come into play. Before they could get restarted and refueled, they each lost more than a lap, knocking some prerace favorites, including the pole-winner Dixon, out of contention. Those still on the course, like the former Indianapolis 500 champions Scott Dixon, Alexander Rossi, Tony Kanaan, Pagenaud and others, were unable to make their planned pit stops - and ran out of fuel. That strategy backfired when Stefan Wilson crashed on pit road, closing it. Half the field had made their regular stops, while the other half tried to stretch their fuel economy to the limit. The race’s first plot twist came during the initial round of pit stops, starting at Lap 30. Released last season after 21 years with Team Penske’s Chevrolets, Castroneves revived his career with this one-off gamble in an untested Honda-powered racer for Meyer Shank Racing. Third place went to the 2019 winner, Simon Pagenaud, who was followed by Patricio O’Ward and Ed Carpenter.

He managed to keep the lead as they came up on slower traffic in the final lap, with Palou dogging his every move. “The young guys aren’t getting us yet.”Ĭastroneves, 46, passed Palou, who was competing in just his second Indy 500, with a gutsy move on the outside while entering Turn 1 with two laps left. Championship, now me winning Indy - the old guys are still kicking it,” Castroneves said. “You know, you see Tom Brady winning the Super Bowl, Phil Mickelson winning the P.G.A. INDIANAPOLIS - Helio Castroneves of Brazil raced his way into the Indianapolis 500’s most exclusive club on Sunday, winning the event for the fourth time and finishing ahead of Álex Palou by three car lengths in the fastest 500 miles in the race’s 105-year history.
