Helio Castroneves Tag

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief The Verizon IndyCar Series will take to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval on Friday, instead of the previously scheduled Saturday. The 2.5-mile oval plays host for the first oval test of the season, with the session moved ahead by a day due to the likelihood of inclement weather on Saturday. A surprisingly quick turnaround for the series as it will come just three days following a full field test at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. Chip Ganassi Racing will be represented by all four ofRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Staff Writer This coming weekend the Verizon IndyCar Series will kick off their 2017 season with a return to St. Petersburg, Florida for what has become known as “The World’s Fastest Spring Break Party.” The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is round one of seventeen for the Series in 2017. The event is held on a temporary street circuit, one of five such races on the schedule. The race weekend is scheduled March 10-12, 2017. The defending race champion is Juan Pablo Montoya, who took back-to-backRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter Age: 41 Years in IndyCar: 19 Wins: 29 Podiums: 90 Career Laps led: 5595 2016-17 Team: Team Penske Consistency and level-headedness defined Helio Castroneves in the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series. Although the Brazilian went winless for the second straight season, he still was one of the competitive forces to be reckoned with. He finished inside the top 10 nine times and qualified in the top 10 14 out of 16 races. Only his teammate and eventual champion Simon Pagenaud had a better qualifying average. OtherRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Rainguard Water Sealers will be the official sponsor for the upcoming Verizon IndyCar Series event at Texas Motor Speedway, which will now be known as the Rainguard Water Sealers 600. The water sealant and coating company has signed a three year contract with TMS President Eddie Gossage to sponsor the early June night race that has been a staple of the Verizon IndyCar Series schedule since 1997, which has made it the second longest continued event in modern day IndyCar behind only the Indy 500. “We’reRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter Author’s note: This is part of a 10-part series discussing tracks around the world that I feel would be a good fit for the Verizon IndyCar Series. The opinions here are expressed solely of the author and not necessarily of the Motorsports Tribune. While the Verizon IndyCar Series had a brief stint racing on the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil, the racing was everything that you wanted it to be. The 2.535-mile street circuit, set in the Santana district of Sao Paulo featured a mixRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Staff Writer The 2016 season for the Verizon Indycar Series is now in the books. Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud motored off into the distance at the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma, taking his fifth 2016 race win, and claiming his first series championship in the process. Let’s take a look at some of the headlines coming from California’s wine country. 1 ) No Lingering Questions  This day and age, oftentimes a championship leaves behind lingering questions as to whether or not the points system, or championship system,Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief SONOMA, Calif. – Helio Castroneves nearly found the top spot in Firestone Fast Six qualifying on Saturday at Sonoma Raceway, but his chance at starting on pole for Sunday’s GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma evaporated at the hands of Team Penske teammate and Verizon IndyCar Series championship leader Simon Pagenaud. The 41-year-old Brazilian, who will start second, has witnessed firsthand the dominance that Pagenaud has displayed – scoring what is now seven poles to match seven podiums and four wins. Castroneves, driver of the No. 3Read More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter SONOMA, Calif. — Helio Castroneves was the man to beat in both practices for Sunday’s GoPro Grand Prix at Sonoma Raceway. The 2008 Sonoma winner set the fastest lap of the day during the afternoon session, setting a flying lap of 1:16.6678. “The Hitachi Chevrolet is dialed in,” said Castroneves. “When we left here on Thursday, we felt confident and we tried a lot of bits and I guess it paid off. Today is just a continuation of what we finished that day and it seemedRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Staff Writer And then there were two… With fifteen race weekends in the books, and just one remaining, the Verizon IndyCar Series is set to crown their 2016 champion at the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma on September 18th. The season started with optimism from every team on the grid. Target Chip Ganassi driver, Scott Dixon, was looking at adding a fifth title to his resume.  Team Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya was looking to avenge a season where he lost the crown to Dixon on a tiebreaker.Read More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter Scott Dixon managed to stretch his fuel to back up an amazing pace throughout the entire weekend to claim his fourth win at Watkins Glen International in the IndyCar Grand Prix of The Glen Presented by Hitachi. Dixon picked up where he left off on Saturday and broke away from the field right from the drop of the green flag and stretched out a huge lead over the course of the first stint. Dixon pitted on lap 14 and caught a lucky break when theRead More