![]() ![]() ![]() 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.Īs they always have been in building their team, the co-owners were methodical in building Castroneves’ program. “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 Meyer Shank Racing, 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 Mike Shank and Jim Meyer saw. Anytime he’s out there, he’s got a chance.” “You learn how to win the biggest race on the biggest stage, and I think today we saw that’s what Helio does in spades.”Īdded fellow four-time Indy 500 winner Rick Mears: “He’s kept that fire lit all these years. “The hallmark of a true champion is perseverance and consistency, and you don’t ever give up no matter what,” Lisa Boggs, Bridgestone Americas Motorsport director told IndyStar on Sunday afternoon. Maybe the better question: Why did we ask? View Gallery: Indy 500 2021: Amazing race day photos from start to finish No one had ever won an Indy 500 after having not done so in 11 consecutive tries. It had run its course, as all racing partnerships do. Theirs was a working relationship that had been slowly winding down for years and had ended on such a high note. But could we put Castroneves in that same class in open-wheel racing? And, yes, Scott Dixon was still at the top of his game while winning his sixth Ind圜ar championship. Sure, Takuma Sato had just won the 2020 Indy 500 in August, his second in four years. Castroneves was in the midst of winning his first premier racing championship of any kind in IMSA during his third season in Roger Penske’s Acura sportscar program. Some wondered a few months back if that opportunity would surface. As long as I have the opportunity, I will.” I feel, the way technology is, I can go a long time. This is my passion, and these guys I know are passionate about it too. “I still have that fire,” Castroneves said. It’s something you’ll regret if you don’t do it.” ![]() It’s why, when Mikaella knelt by those bricks, hesitant, her father whispered, “Trust me, kiss them. Sunday’s Indy 500 victory was a masterclass in self-belief. That window he could have driven a car clear through was closing. Maybe just himself, and even he knew the chances were disappearing each year. The room where it happens: Why the Pagoda is the 'nerve center' of the Indy 500 Twelve years ago in 2009, who would have thought Castroneves would ever not make it?Ī decade later, out of the sport for all but two races a year, having never won an Ind圜ar championship and having witnessed two premier chances to win the Indy 500 slip away (20), who thought Castroneves had a chance?ĭoyel: Helio Castroneves' 4th Indianapolis 500 triggers historic celebration joined him a decade later, and Rick Mears turned it into a small crowd in 1991. It’s bar for entry simple: Win the Greatest Spectacle in Racing as many times as anyone ever has. By 2009, nine Indy 500s down, Helio Castroneves was on his way to Ind圜ar racing’s most public, yet reserved, fraternity. A year later, he defended his place in history. That day, Castroneves planted a wet one on the Yard of Bricks. It was the day Castroneves' fence-climbing alter-ego was born, and the day the racing world realized that Roger Penske just might have another legend-in-the-making on his hands. The 46-year-old’s exuberance hadn’t seemed to drop since he first captured their hearts 21 years ago, and the 135,000 fans lucky enough to be inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway were back in the trance from that afternoon in 2001. They were chanting his name, scaling the outer fence right along with him and refusing to leave their seats. The world’s largest single-day gathering in 14 months wasn’t deterred. ![]() In all the cacophony of winning his fourth Indianapolis 500 Sunday afternoon, there was a lesson to be learned. And after teammates-turned enemies like Will Power and Simon Pagenaud embraced him in a bear hug, Helio Castroneves managed, somehow, to find a quiet moment near the Yard of Bricks with his daughter Mikaella. After getting into a one-man footrace, headed the wrong way down the front stretch. INDIANAPOLIS – After scaling that front stretch fence like Spider-Man and watching Mike Shank follow right behind. ![]()
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