Helio Castroneves Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor LONG BEACH, Calif. – Coming off his win one week ago, Colton Herta found himself in familiar territory on Friday’s opening practice for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach with his Andretti Autosport Honda at the top of the board. Reminiscent of his run on the Streets of Nashville back in August, Herta’s car looked to be out of control around the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street course, but the clock doesn’t lie as the 21-year-old put up a lap of one minute, 9.268 seconds toRead More

By INDYCAR MONTEREY, Calif. – Josef Newgarden isn’t going down without a big fight. Two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Newgarden led practice Friday for the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, turning a top lap of 1 minute, 11.7125 seconds in the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet after losing ground to championship leader Alex Palou last weekend at Portland International Raceway. FRIDAY PRACTICE: Results “Overall, we unloaded pretty good,” Newgarden said. “Small differences here or there, but for the most part globally it felt like the carRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The NTT IndyCar Series made its return to the Pacific Northwest Sunday for the running of the Grand Prix of Portland. Alex Palou ended up scoring the victory from pole, regaining the championship lead from Pato O’Ward. Here’s the latest photo gallery highlighting the 110-lap race.Read More

By INDYCAR NASHVILLE – Five laps into the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, Marcus Ericsson’s car launched airborne and limped to the pits with a broken front wing. Seventy-five laps later, he drove the No. 8 Bryant Honda into victory lane Sunday as the winner of the inaugural NTT INDYCAR SERIES race on the streets of Nashville, Tennessee, in one of the most improbable results in recent memory. Ericsson beat Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon to the finish by 1.5596 seconds in a two-lap showdown after a red flagRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer NASHVILLE – At long last, the most anticipated inaugural race in quite some time is here. The Streets of Nashville is the latest street course added on the NTT IndyCar Series calendar, hoping it can join the likes of Long Beach and St. Petersburg as far as longevity is concerned. This won’t be the first time the series heads to the Music City as they’ve last visited the area back in 2008 when they used to run at Nashville Superspeedway. It so happened to be aRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer NASHVILLE – Four-time Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves will make his triumphant return to the NTT IndyCar Series since winning The Greatest Spectacle in Racing two months ago. Rather than the already legendary black and pink No. 06 SiriusXM/AutoNation Honda, Castroneves will be sporting a baby blue Transcard sponsored machine for this Sunday’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix in Nashville. Nevertheless, the Brazilian is excited to be back on an IndyCar circuit, knowing he’ll run the remaining road and street courses before returning full-timeRead More

By Kirby Arnold, Staff Writer  INDIANAPOLIS – Six months ago, I wasn’t sure this day would happen. Or to be precise, could happen.  The COVID-19 pandemic was strangling the world last December, and nobody knew how to loosen that grip or when it would. Positive test numbers climbed at an alarming rate, and while some people got over it fairly easily, many got really sick. And people died, some I knew personally, and it scared the you-know-what out of me. A vaccination was on its way, but when?  Frankly, when I got my first vaccination on Valentine’s Day and the secondRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – “Helio! Helio! Helio!” The Indianapolis Motor Speedway were chanting the name of Helio Castroneves, who won the 105th Indianapolis 500. In one of largest sports gathering since the pandemic, they witnessed history as Castroneves joined AJ Foyt, Al Unser, and Rick Mears as the only four-time Indy 500 winners. This triumph not only marked the 46-year-old’s first Indy 500 win in 12 years, but Meyer Shank Racing’s maiden INDYCAR victory. The organization that was once solely known for sports cars, showcased they gotRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – “I tried everything. It hurts. But to be honest, it’s good to lose against probably one of the best. Well, it’s one of the best, probably the best. Yeah, it’s Helio.” Alex Palou indeed tried everything he could to get and fend off Helio Castroneves. But when Castroneves made the race-winning pass with two to go, Palou saw the Indy dream evaporate. As Castroneves brought home his fourth Indianapolis 500 victory, Palou wound up a crushing runner-up. “I didn’t expect that a secondRead More

By Kirby Arnold, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – A generation has passed since anyone witnessed a driver win the Indianapolis 500 for the fourth time. The most recent was 1991 when Rick Mears joined A.J. Foyt and Al Unser in the four-timer club.  If that makes you realize you’ve been around a long time, how do you think Helio Castroneves feels?  The 46-year-old won the 500 in 2001, 2002 and 2009, and driving for powerful Team Penske it seemed he not only was speeding toward a fourth victory, five (or more) seemed entirely possible.  He’s still waiting.  In the 11 Indy 500sRead More