Helio Castroneves Tag

By Frank Santoroski, Staff Writer The Verizon IndyCar Series will make its return this weekend to the Valley of the Sun for the Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix. About the Race The race will be the second race of the sixteen-race schedule for the Verizon IndyCar Series. It will be the first oval track event of the season, in a schedule that compromises five oval races. IndyCars will be returning to the iconic track for the first time since 2005. Staged as a a Saturday Night event, theRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Contributing Writer The time has nearly arrived for the Verizon IndyCar Series to drop the green flag on their 2016 season. The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will take place the weekend of March 11-13, 2016. The scenic track, located on the harbor of Tampa Bay, has been on the IndyCar calendar since 2005 opening the season each year since 2011. St. Petersburg has hosted professional racing on various street courses on-and-off since 1987, when the city first hosted the SCCA Trans-Am Series. The current version ofRead More

AVONDALE, Ariz. – The Test in the West is already bringing out the best in Team Penske. Record best. Helio Castroneves led four Team Penske drivers in the top six after the first session of the Phoenix International Raceway promoter test Feb. 26, with a lap time that unofficially eclipsed the track record on the 1.022-mile short oval. Indy car great Arie Luyendyk, a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner just named one of three officiating stewards for the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season, holds the official one-lap record of 19.608 secondsRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Contributing Writer With a little less than two months remaining in the Verizon IndyCar Series’ agonizingly long off-season, teams are preparing in earnest for the 2016 season. When the green flag waves at St. Pete on March 13, expect a field that looks remarkably similar to 2015. There was no major driver movement within the top teams and we should see some familiar faces in victory lane along the way. Some of the changes that we will see include the return of Mikail Aleshin to the Schmidt-PerersonRead More

As the NFL is gearing up for the season, and NASCAR is ready for its Chase for the Championship, the Verizon Indycar Season is winding down, as planned, before Labor Day. The final race on the schedule, The Go Pro Grand Prix of Sonoma, will take place this weekend, with a season champion being crowned on Sunday afternoon. With any luck, we will have a longer season in 2016 and beyond, but, I’ll write about that on another day. It will undoubtedly be a subdued celebration on Sunday as theRead More

Helio Castroneves captured his 45th IndyCar pole for Sunday’s ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway and leads an all Team Penske 1-2-3. Teammate Simon Pagenaud set the pace with a 220.485 two lap average that was just a scant .1 mph clear of Will Power. Charlie Kimball initially laid down the fastest warmup lap of the day. A fast warmup lap would lead to disaster as Kimball lost it in turn 3 and hit the outside wall head on and briefly went airborne. The rear of the #83 Chevrolet grazedRead More

Helio Castroneves claimed his second pole at Iowa Speedway and his third pole of the season. From the start of qualifying, it looked as if Chip Ganassi Racing were as gold as they were in practice as Tony Kanaan set a big two lap average of 183.125 mph that distanced himself from the field. Castroneves went out five cars after Kanaan and responded with an even quicker two lap average of 183.480 mph. “The Hitachi car was certainly strong,” said Castroneves. “We proved (last week) that when we have aRead More

April 22, 1975 – Oct. 31, 1999 5 CART Wins 12 CART Podiums 1995 Indy Lights Champion Greg Moore was as much a champion off the track as he was on the track. No matter the circumstances he was someone who was humble, jovial, and always had a smile on his face, but once that visor was closed he was as fierce as they come. That character carried through his peers and it continues even in today’s IndyCar. The Canadian born driver began racing go karts in 1986, and inRead More

Back in April, I was engaged in a round table conversation with some of my fellow motorsports journalists discussing the Grand Prix of Long Beach. It was Joey Barnes of Tribute Racing who made the comment, “There’s no such thing as an exciting win by Scott Dixon.” I pondered that statement for a moment, and then replied. “I guess I’d have to agree. Dixon always makes it look too easy, he reminds me of the Professor, Alain Prost in that respect.” On Saturday night at the Texas Motor Speedway, ScottRead More

Will Power edged teammate Helio Castroneves and set a lap record in qualifying in the final minutes of the Firestone Fast Six to take the pole for race 1 at the Raceway at Belle Isle. Power elected to wait until the final few minutes to take his shot at the pole while Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya, Takuma Sato and Simon Pagenaud all took to the track right away. Castroneves laid down a lap of 1:16.1200 that looked relatively safe to keep the pole but Power was not to beRead More