Helio Castroneves celebrates with a fence climb after winning Sunday’s Verizon IndyCar Series race at Iowa Speedway. Photo by Chris Jones
The victory drought is finally over for Helio Castroneves. Now his chase toward a first Verizon IndyCar Series championship is in high gear.
The three-time Indianapolis 500 winner ended a three-year, 54-race streak without a win by taking the checkered flag Sunday in the Iowa Corn 300 at Iowa Speedway. In the process, the driver of the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet closed to within eight points of the championship lead after 11 of 17 races.
“We’ve been close (to winning) so many times, and finally luck was on our side,” the typically exuberant Castroneves said. “We’ve been working so hard together, but the Hitachi Chevy was on rails. We had a little bit of an issue in the beginning, but after we set up the car it was great. What a great finish. It’s just like the first time.”
Castroneves led 217 of the 300 laps on the high-speed, 0.894-mile Iowa oval, winning by 3.9647 seconds over JR Hildebrand. As anticipated, Castroneves celebrated the occasion by hopping out his car at the start/finish line after the race and performing his trademark climbing of the catch fence to the delight of Iowa Speedway fans.
It is Castroneves’ first triumph since the opener of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix doubleheader on June 1, 2014. It also gave the 42-year-old Brazilian, celebrating his 20th season in Indy cars, career win No. 30 to move him into sole possession of 12th place on the all-time victory list. Castroneves had been tied with retired Team Penske great Rick Mears, who now serves as Castroneves’ spotter on ovals.
“Finally, everything came together,” said Castroneves, who also overtook Al Unser for fourth all time in laps led and now has 5,947. “And 30 wins, we just passed Rick Mears, which is my hero. … I’m honored to be part of this organization, and I can only thank Roger (Penske, team owner), (team president Tim) Cindric and the entire team for supporting me. It’s easy to be behind you in good times, but they’ve always been there no matter the time, so for me that’s priceless. I’m going to continue focusing on this season, and there’s more to come.”
The decisive pass of the race came on lap 268, when Castroneves darted past Hildebrand and leader Marco Andretti into first place. He steadily pulled away to give Team Penske its 192nd Indy car win – most all time – and its first at Iowa Speedway. Castroneves is the ninth different driver to win a race this season, a list that now includes all four Team Penske drivers.
“To see that run that Helio made all day long, I think he controlled the race,” said Penske, who calls Castroneves’ race strategy. “We had very good pit stops, you could see that, but you’ve got to have reliability and you’ve got to have a guy behind the wheel who knows how to climb the fence.”
Hildebrand, in the No. 21 Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing, equaled his career-best finish first accomplished when he was runner-up at the 2011 Indianapolis 500. Hildebrand was driving the same car that Josef Newgarden raced to victory at Iowa in 2016 for Ed Carpenter Racing.
“It feels good,” said Hildebrand, who qualified a career-best second on Saturday and led 38 laps in the race. “I definitely think that, under some slightly different circumstances, we had a car to win out there. The guys made a great call to pit early and get out into the lead at the end and try to hustle all the way.
“I think if we’d been on equal tires with Helio, we’d have had something for him there at the end. But all in all, really excited for the Fuzzy’s Vodka crew to get on the podium here again.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay, a three-time winner at Iowa, equaled his season-best finish of third place for Andretti Autosport. Pole sitter Will Power led 23 laps before finishing fourth for Team Penske.
Points leader Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing finished eighth and has collected 403 points through 11 races. Team Penske drivers hold the next four positions in the standings, with Castroneves second (395 points), reigning series champion Simon Pagenaud third (372), Power fourth (350) and Newgarden fifth (347).
Three drivers – Mikhail Aleshin, Carlos Munoz and Conor Daly – were each eliminated in single-car crashes, though none was injured. The race was also red-flagged for eight minutes after 208 laps for light rain.
The Verizon IndyCar Series returns to action July 16 with the Honda Indy Toronto on the streets of Exhibition Place.
Verizon IndyCar Series
Iowa Speedway – Newton, Iowa
Iowa Corn 300 – July 9, 2017
1. (3) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 300, Running
2. (2) J.R. Hildebrand, Chevrolet, 300, Running
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4. (1) Will Power, Chevrolet, 300, Running
5. (10) Graham Rahal, Honda, 300, Running
6. (16) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 300, Running
7. (11) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 300, Running
8. (17) Scott Dixon, Honda, 300, Running
9. (7) Tony Kanaan, Honda, 300, Running
10. (9) James Hinchcliffe, Honda, 300, Running
11. (12) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 299, Running
12. (4) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 299, Running
13. (18) Esteban Gutierrez, Honda, 299, Running
14. (13) Max Chilton, Honda, 299, Running
15. (14) Charlie Kimball, Honda, 298, Running
16. (5) Takuma Sato, Honda, 298, Running
17. (20) Marco Andretti, Honda, 298, Running
18. (8) Ed Jones, Honda, 297, Running
19. (19) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 168, Contact
20. (21) Carlos Munoz, Chevrolet, 130, Contact
21. (6) Mikhail Aleshin, Honda, 56, Contact
Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 139.702
Time of Race: 1:55:11.2807
Margin of victory: 3.9647 seconds
Cautions: 4 for 44 laps
Lead changes: 12 among 8 drivers
Lap Leaders: Power 1-19, Castroneves 20-96, Hildebrand 97-134, Power 135, Castroneves 136-173, Kimball 174-183, Castroneves 184-252, Power 253-255, Newgarden 256, Pagenaud 257-258, Chilton 259-260, Andretti 261-267, Castroneves 268-300
Verizon IndyCar Series point standings: Dixon 403, Castroneves 395, Pagenaud 372, Power 350, Newgarden 347, Rahal 337, Sato 337, Kanaan 295, Rossi 290, Chilton 268.
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