Always the bridesmaid: Castroneves narrowly misses out on IndyCar title again
Helio Castroneves has achieved the epitome of any racers' dreams by winning the Indianapolis 500 three times in his career. He has won 29 IndyCar races to tie him with the legendary Rick Mears for 11th on the all-time wins list and his 41 poles are the fourth most in IndyCar history.
But there is one glaring omission from Castroneves' list of career accomplishments -- he has never won a series championship.
That continued in 2014 as Castroneves finished 14th in Saturday night's finale to finish second in the championship race, 62 points behind Team Penske teammate and newly-crowned champion Will Power.
For the second season in a row and the fourth time in his career, Castroneves fell short of a championship by one position.
"Will Power did hell of a job and he's the champion," Castroneves said. "Congratulations. I'm proud of the team. I'm happy. I'm tired. And, well, it's another second place we collect in our trophy collection."
Castroneves started on pole while Power started in the back of the 21-car field. He would have the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet in front three times for 41 laps and was in contention for the victory when he made his final pit stop with 33 laps to go. But Castroneves was penalized for a pit entry violation and was assessed a drive-through penalty that he served on Lap 220.
That put Castroneves one lap down and Power went on to clinch the championship by finishing ninth.
"It was an interesting night," Castroneves said. "The car was actually pretty good. Not stellar, maybe the fastest guy out there, but we were able to manage pretty well -- stay in the top five, top three. The pit stops, we were doing great. And I think the biggest, not only on the tire change, but also on the in and out lap, my first one was really bad. And I made myself improve here and we made huge improvement on the in and out.
"In fact, one point they put us in the lead and I was just cruising. The yellow came out, did not want to do that because then when we had the pit stop for the lead, went up to third and it was just chaotic. After that pit stop, my car changed a little bit -- I was getting a lot of understeer. And the last pit stop, I thought the only chance for me to get it is to do another mega in and out.
"And unfortunately I actually went over the line on the apron in between Turn 3 and 4. So that's a penalty. If they say it's in the pit lane, it's not because I was not fast on the pit lane. And then if you cross over, that's the right penalty. Unfortunately, like I said, with the spinout, and I tried to control it Unfortunately, when you touch the line, the car pulls away and I was two wheels over actually. So that's what put us one lap down. And after that it was just bring it home."
Castroneves admitted his best chance of getting to the front would be to make the passes in the pits and was attempting to get on to pit road as late as possible. But the commitment line violation was a very tricky proposition and the Team Penske driver was penalized.
"All the drivers knew it including myself," he said. "And it just, it was a mistake.
"Once you're in the lead, I think the way the tire degradation, we had a chance to win it. The car was able to give me an opportunity to take some chances in different lanes. And that's why, when Tony Kanaan took the lead, he was really fast in the end. I'm sure we could have finished in third place; it was not a problem because that's where we were most of the day. That's why the only chance for me to be in the lead, it would be through the pit stops. That's what we were doing, we were doing great pit stops this last race, and it's a shame I made a mistake."
When Castroneves finished second to Scott Dixon in last year's championship battle he smiled afterwards realizing he had given it a great fight. This year, however, the smile was missing from Castroneves face even though a Team Penske driver won the championship.
"It stings a little bit," he admitted. "But that's what motivates me. It's good to be upset when you finish second in a championship, which gives me another reason to come back stronger next year and fix it, what we can fix to win a championship. So I do believe all three drivers work extremely well together.
"We put ourselves to being in this condition. And at the end of the day, two races that we had that probably cost us, and it put us in this position.
"But I'm happy that we're still pushing as hard as we can. And certainly stings a little bit."
Team owner Roger Penske had very mixed emotions. He could celebrate that one of his drivers won an IndyCar Series Championship for the first time since Sam Hornish Jr. in 2006. But Penske also calls the race strategy for Castroneves, who once again had to deal with being in the runner-up position.
"Helio said, 'Can you imagine second again?'" Penske recalled. "I think if he sat back and the way he ran and his run at Indianapolis (finishing second to Ryan Hunter-Reay in the second-closest Indianapolis 500 in history), he'd have to say this was a great year."
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