Castroneves, man of the people, joins the legends with his Indy win
After Helio Castroneves won Sunday’s 105th Indianapolis 500, he did what he does whenever he wins the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. He sprang from his car and ran to the fence and scaled it like he was Spiderman and not a 46-year-old race driver.
“People don’t understand how these fans in Indianapolis give me energy,” he said after descending from the wire netting and running down the frontstretch, taking almost half a victory lap on foot, waving and fist-pumping along the way.
There’s something to be said for being a good winner, and winning can never be more fun than it is for Castroneves, who connects with the masses the way almost nobody does. How fortunate for him that a pandemic recedes enough for 135,000 people to converge on a city that’s often dismissed as “Indy No Place.”
He won the affections of the Indy-Car base by winning their iconic race three times and spending countless hours signing autographs in public appearances. “Every time we sign the autographs,” he said, “they are like, ‘I’ve never seen a four-time winner. I want to see it.’”
From watching Sunday’s race on NBC, you could hear the roar erupt with four laps remaining as Castroneves pushed his Honda engine to the max and bore in on the leader, 24-year-old Alex Palou.
Castroneves passed for the lead with two laps remaining, and there was no challenging him after that. So the Brazilian became the fourth driver to win this race four times. He joins A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr. and Rick Mears, who had been the last to do it, in 1993. Only Unser at 47 won No. 4 at an older age than Castroneves, who’s the fourth-oldest driver to win at the Brickyard, behind Big Al, Bobby Unser (47) and Emerson Fittipaldi (46).
“I don’t know if this is a fair comparison,” Castroneves said, “but Tom Brady won the Super Bowl, Phil Mickelson won the PGA, and here we go. The old guys are still kicking the young guys’ butts.”
Being a good winner requires candor, which includes a touch of gloating.
Despite his track record, Castroneves last fall was cut by Team Penske, which committed to younger drivers Scott McLaughlin (27) and Josef Newgarden (30), who finished 20th and 12th, respectively, in Sunday’s race over the 2 ½-mile oval.
Castroneves was left searching for part-time employment. Best he could do was the 1-car team of Meyer Shank Racing, which you’d hardly expect to outperform Roger Penske, billionaire titan of NASCAR, Indy-Car and whatever other cars he wants.
“So many guys on this team were here for the first time,” Castroneves said. “But they didn’t have doubts, and they gave me an incredible car.”
With his flair for both the traditional and the theatrical, Castroneves not only sipped from a bottle of milk but dumped it over his head. And then the congratulations came pouring in. A.J. Foyt, celebrating the 60th anniversary of his first Indy 500 triumph, said, “He deserved it, he worked so hard to get it. It wasn’t given to him, and when someone works as hard as he did, I’m glad it happened for him.”
Among those embracing him was his former boss, 84-year-old Penske, who recently bought Indianapolis Motor Speedway for reportedly $300 million. Castroneves raced 310 times for Penske.
His current car owner, Michael Shank, accompanied Castroneves on his true victory lap in the back of a convertible. The journey took 20 minutes, as the driver wanted to allow ample time to be seen by the throngs climbing the fence and cheering as he passed. “All the fans stayed,” Shank observed. “Nobody left. Helio deserves to go for a fifth Indianapolis win. We’re going to do everything we can to make it happen for him.”
Castroneves’ historic day gave a boost to a sport that needed it.
While 135,000 – largest gathering for any American sporting event this year – is nothing to sneeze at—with or without a mask – Indy-Car racing has been in retreat ever since Tony George, Penske’s predecessor at IMS, fractured the sport in the 1990s.
George trimmed the fan base by making it more oval-oriented, which turned off Canadians and Europeans. Key sponsors left. After losing its best-known stars, the Indy 500 took a backseat to NASCAR and the Daytona 500.
In its first year of broadcasting Indy, NBC was happy with its rating of 3.4 – meaning 5.41 million viewers, similar to a year ago. But this represents a huge decline from the 9.74 million who viewed the race in its peak year of 2005. The pandemically squeezed Daytona 500 in February had its lowest TV ratings in decades, but 9.17 million were watching.
All that said, there is reason to be optimistic about open-wheel racing. Penske is very hands-on, touring the facility and making improvements. Sunday’s race was the fastest Indy ever, and was as safe as any. The final time of 2:39.50 was absolutely perfect for an era when the public complains about anything that lasts three hours. NASCAR is very sluggish compared to this.
Indy was always my favorite sporting event, one reason being that the press box leans out almost over the track. It’s an incomparable sensation to view the race from that close-up perch.
Even though science and mathematics did not interest me much in school, I find it fascinating the way they merge at Indianapolis, every year somehow revealing a sleeker, more aerodynamic vehicle. Tony George wanted to make the cars all the same so the story would be the drivers, of which he was or tried to be. But he was wrong. There was so much more to this event, and here’s hoping Roger Penske takes it back close to where it was and that Helio Castroneves can enjoy more of it.
