Helio Castroneves: "In my situation now, I have to win everything I can. I'm not thinking about points anymore. It's just win."
Helio Castroneves, right, lost a lot of ground in the IRL championship race when he was penalized for blocking last week at Edmonton. As a result, the Brazilian says he has to string together some wins, beginning Sunday at Mid-Ohio. Castroneves is talking to Team Penske spokesman Merrill Cain after his outburst following last week's race.LEXINGTON, Ohio — The drama continues for Helio Castroneves.
One race after blowing his cool when he was dropped from first to 10th as a penalty for blocking on a restart, an outburst that led to him being fined $60,000 and put on probation, the popular Brazilian's championship hopes have lasered down to what happens Sunday in the Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Race Car Course.
"I've got to win it," he said Friday, sliding to the edge of the leather couch he was sitting on. "I gotta win it to keep hope alive. In my situation now, I have to win everything I can. I'm not thinking about points anymore. It's just win."
Castroneves currently rests sixth in the standings, 115 points back, with six races to go. The 50 points he lost for being black-flagged in Edmonton, Canada, would have him sitting third behind series leader Will Power, and still a tenuous 65 points out of first. But now the desperation to win on the twisting, 13-turn, 2.258-mile Mid-Ohio course is as much about redemption as it is about victory.
By Castroneves' own estimation, Edmonton was his best racing performance of the season. His strategy had been near flawless, his passes clean and crisp. "We were really working hard," he said. "We were tuned in. We were right there."
Then a late-race yellow trimmed his sizable lead down to a car length with only a few laps to go, leading to a confluence of IRL rules interpretations and one race leader's instincts. Castroneves didn't follow the rules on the restart, blocking the field behind him. He crossed the finish line first at the end of the race, but was relegated to 10th place, leading to his post-race tirade that got plenty of play on television.
"I'm not proud of it," Castroneves said of the clip that shows him grabbing the lapel of IRL security director Charles Burns. "It affected me, my championship and my season."
Burns is seen smiling through it all ("I was adjusting his collar," Castroneves joked.) But the diminutive driver credits Burns as the guy who "put the fire down," probably because Burns could not understand Castroneves, who speaks several languages, including his native Portuguese along with Spanish and English.
"At that point, I was probably speaking everything," Castroneves said.
The end result is, not much has changed from the final outcome, and that includes Castroneves' connection with the fans who love him. At one point he reached into his pocket and pulled out a note given to him earlier by a little girl at the track. "Dear H," it began. "I'm sorry about your win. I don't think you blocked that other driver. Love, Monica."
The note goes back into Castroneves' pocket and he sits back down.
"I'm ready to move on," he said.
In the one-hour IRL practice Castroneves was third-fastest of the day with a hot lap of 118.881 mph, behind surprising Graham Rahal at 119.005 mph and series leader Power at 118.964 mph.
On point: The racing team of Jonny Cocker and Paul Drayson with Drayson racing landed on the pole for today's 3 p.m. American Le Mans Series Race with a top speed of 116.069 mph.
"We were fastest in both practices and quickest in qualifying and that is a fantastic result," Cocker said.
Call it "field and stream": From the park-like open field setting of the Mid-Ohio Race Car course, Friday's practices and today's American LeMans Series race will be streamed live at americanlemans.com/live.
The online race broadcast will start at 2 p.m. The play-by-play radio broadcast will sync with video feed from picturesque Mid-Ohio. The race will also be the subject of INTERSPORT's next production of the American Le Mans Series. It will air at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 15 on WOIO-Ch. 19.
New faces: The IRL grid of 27 drivers is the largest this season outside of the Indianapolis 500 (33 cars), and the eight rookies are the most of any field including Indy. The eight neophyte drivers are Takuma Sato, Alex Lloyd, J.R. Hildebrand, Adam Carroll, Francesco Dracone, Jay Howard, Simona De Silvestro and Bertrand Baguette.
Inside that number are three former Indy Lights Champions --Howard (2006), Lloyd (2007), Hildebrand (2009) -- bringing the total to four Lights champs in the field including second-year driver Raphael Matos (2008).
Park it: With the large field, getting in and out of the pits cleanly will be a major obstacle during the race.
"When you've got 27 cars here it [pit lane] gets tiny," said Rahal, the fastest IRL driver during practice. "It will be a factor."