INDIANAPOLIS – When Helio Castroneves drove to an emotional victory in the 105th Indianapolis 500 to become the fourth, four-time winner of the race, he showed the speed and savviness that would get him to victory lane.
In 2021, Castroneves was among the fastest every day in practice, he qualified eighth, ran in the top three for most of the race and ultimately passed and defeated Alex Palou for the historic victory.
That was the moment that started Castroneves on his “Drive for Five.”
But if the popular driver from Brazil is going to become the first five-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, he will have to race his way from the back of the pack. He starts on the outside of row 9 in 27th position after posting a disappointing four-lap qualification average of 229.830 miles per hour in the No. 06 SiriusXM/AutoNation Honda for Meyer-Shank Racing.
Just once has Castroneves started deeper in the pack and that was in 2020 when he started 28th and finished 11th.
Castroneves continues to believe despite the obstacle, he can win Sunday’s 106th Indianapolis 500.
“Difficult, but not impossible,” Castroneves said. “It’s not going to be easy; I’ll tell you that. However, it’s not impossible.
“I believe we have the car to do that. We just have to make sure we have the strategy. We aren’t going to pass people easily. Everyone seems to have very good speed. The idea is to make sure we take it one step of the way.
“Halfway, we should be in the top 12. That is our goal.”
One way to get there is to make the first pit stop on lap 15 instead of stretching fuel milage to lap 30. That allows a driver to run high speeds instead of saving fuel and hope the caution periods play in a driver’s favor.
“Good question, I don’t know,” he said. “It’s going to be different than last year. Instead of saving fuel, we have to attack. That is going to be our mode. If things are going well, hopefully it will, we will keep it going and not roll the dice.
“If not, that is when we have to think about taking another opportunity and see what happens.”
Team owner Michael Shank said he will have an “A, B & C” plan for both cars including Castroneves’ and his teammate, 2019 Indianapolis 500 winning driver Simon Pagenaud.
“Depending on what happens at the start, if we can advance 5-10 positions with a good start, that will determine the plan,” Shank said. “We’re going to have to do a little more trickery, for sure. But nothing is impossible with these two and I really believe that.
“It is more challenging than we like, for sure. We have a lot of work to do when we come back here next year and I’m already working on that. The weather will be hotter, which means the cars will be sliding around more. We’ll adjust the downforce as needed.”
By contrast to Castroneves starting position in the back, Pagenaud starts 16th, the inside of row 6.
He wants an aggressive race car and is not looking for any “trickery” to get to the front.
“The race car is great,” Castroneves said. “Qualifying wasn’t what we expected. In terms of our speed, the 06 we didn’t achieve the best out of it, but even if we got the best, it wouldn’t have been in the top 12.
“Onto the race. A lot of work ahead of us but we have to keep our head up, make less mistakes and move our way forward.”
At the end of last year’s race, Shank had won his first career IndyCar Series race as a team owner and Castroneves joined AJ Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears as the only four-time winners of the Indianapolis 500.
They were the stars of racing in 2021.
“A lot has changed,” Shank said. “The win was the greatest thing that ever happened to us. It’s helped Helio’s legacy and that is awesome. It has helped our business in multiple ways. We approached this year different than last year. Speeds increased this year, and we don’t have as much speed as we had from last year, but we are continuing to work on it.
“It’s so competitive these days, it’s a real, real war out there in technology to get speed out of these cars. We’ll attack it with the same vigor that we always do. Our goal is to give them the balance in the car for the full 500 miles.”
As Castroneves said, “Difficult, but not impossible.”