IRL News - Castroneves Controls Michigan
30/07/2006
Helio Castroneves moved into the IndyCar Series Championship lead after his victory in the Firestone Indy 400 on the 2.0-mile superspeedway at Michigan, with just three races left on this year’s condensed schedule.
In doing so, he completed a milestone for Bridgestone/Firestone. As the Brazilian climbed the fence to celebrate his race victory, Firestone were celebrating the 11th anniversary of their first IndyCar win, which also came at Michigan – and they’ve not been beaten since at that track.
It was also the 11th win of Castroneves’ IndyCar career, and with the retirement of Marlboro Penske team mate Sam Hornish Jr, it put him into the driving seat for the title.
Castroneves’ 1.6229-second win over countryman Vitor Meira, came at an average speed of 193.972 mph, the third-fastest in IRL history and the fastest IRL race at Michigan. It also completely reversed Castroneves’ fortunes, sending him from 30 points behind to eight points ahead of Hornish.
“You know what it feels like? It feels like the weather,” Castroneves said. “It’s sunny and then it rains. It’s exactly like that. Thank God we ended up in the sun. It was hard on everybody – not only myself, but also the entire team. That just goes to prove that you can’t ever give up.”
Hornish encountered trouble with the cooling system on the No. 6 Penske Dallara-Honda early in the race and finished 19th. Scott Dixon, who trailed Hornish by five points for the points lead coming into the race, also encountered problems early in the race, running out of fuel and eventually finishing 16th.
“I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I know it was an issue with the engine,” Hornish said. “We’ll have to use the next few days and take a look at it and see if we can figure out what caused the problem. It’s a shame to end the day like that, but that’s how it goes sometimes.”
But it was Meira, who has finished second seven times in his IRL career and has yet to win a race, who gave Castroneves the toughest challenge. He led 75 laps – 14 more than Castroneves, costing the new leader three precious points for leading the most laps. “How many laps did he lead?” Castroneves asked reporters after the race. After being told, Castroneves replied, “Son of a gun. He took my three points.”
Castroneves now has 376 points -- eight better than Hornish, 17 better than Wheldon, 31 better than Dixon and 56 better than Meira.
“I came into this race and said, ‘I’m going to drive like it’s the last race of the season,” Castroneves said. “I’ll take whatever we get because it’s very important. Leaving here with the lead has given us even more of a boost.”