ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Helio Castroneves is no longer at Team Penske, but he was cheering for Austin Cindric at the end of Sunday’s 64th Daytona 500.
Castroneves joined Team Penske at the end of the 1999 season and was part of the team through the 2020 Indianapolis 500 and the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car season. He joined Meyer-Shank Racing and became the fourth four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 last May.
After Castroneves won his first Indy 500 in 2001, per tradition, he posed at the famed “Yard of Bricks” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the day after his big win. As team members and partners had their photos taken with the winning driver and car, it was time for the family photos for key members of Team Penske.
Team President Tim Cindric, his wife Megan and his two sons, Tanner, and Austin, were ready to pose with Castroneves. Austin, who was just two years old at the time, was so excited that he nearly knocked over the Borg-Warner Trophy, according to his dad.
That two-year-old has gone on to become a Daytona 500 winning driver as a 23-year-old NASCAR Cup Series rookie at Team Penske.
Cindric won last Sunday’s 64th Daytona 500 in a side-by-side finish with Bubba Wallace.
“I was so happy for Austin,” Castroneves told SPEED SPORT. “Obviously as you mentioned, I’ve seen this kid grow since I’ve been at Team Penske, and all of a sudden, seeing that kid becoming the Daytona 500 champion, it makes me realize that ‘wow, I’m getting up there in age,’ because when you see kids like that, then all of a sudden, they’re drivers.
“But I was so happy for him, for Tim Cindric that obviously kind of like became a good friend of mine, and Megan Cindric, all of them, all of the Cindric family. It was really, really nice to see that result finally coming over, paying off.”
As a youngster whose father was in charge of Team Penske’s daily operations, first in the old shop Reading, Pa. and since 2007, at the massive facility located outside of Mooresville, N.C., Austin Cindric got to know the greats of the game of auto racing.
Eventually, the young driver decided to follow in their path and has already won NASCAR’s biggest race.
“I’ll tell you what, it’s funny because it’s easy to say I knew it, but I remember talking to Will (Power) and talking to all the drivers at Team Penske,” Castroneves recalled. “I was like, ‘Watch out, man, that kid is going to end up taking places in the NASCAR program.’
“Look what’s happening. So good for him. Good for Tim Cindric. Good for Team Penske.”
As for Castroneves, he returns to the streets of St. Petersburg in this weekend’s NTT IndyCar Series opening racing, the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. It’s Castroneves first race in St. Pete since his final full-time season in the NTT IndyCar Series in 2017.
Castroneves won on the streets of St. Pete in 2006, 2007 and in 2012.
That 2012 victory was important because it was the first race since St. Petersburg resident Dan Wheldon was killed in a horrific crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Oct. 16, 2011. When Castroneves won the race, he drove to a portion of the course renamed “Dan Wheldon Way” in Turn 10, climbed the fence, and touched the “Dan Wheldon Way” sign to remember his fallen competitor.
He finished sixth in his last race at St. Pete in 2017, and beginning in 2018, he began attending the race as a spectator.
“Horrible. It was absolutely horrible,” Castroneves recalled of being at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg without being in a race car. “I remember after the first year in 2018 when I was the grand marshal, Will Power said, ‘Man, you should be here in the field.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, thanks, that doesn’t help.’
“But now we’re back, so that’s why it’s so amazing after three years all of a sudden. It’s not that I’ve been just sitting on the couch. I’ve been obviously racing IMSA and learning from other series, but it would be great. It would be great to go back, and that feeling that I always had is still there, and I can’t wait. Honestly, St. Pete is also my favorite place.
“I’m really looking forward to this for this Sunday.”