Helio Castroneves might live forever

I saw a tweet shortly after Helio Castroneves drove his team’s No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura to the win at the Rolex 24 at Daytona on Sunday.

Castroneves, 46, had just won his second straight Rolex 24, with his fourth Indianapolis 500 sandwiched in between.

The tweet asked how hard it would be get MSR a car for the Daytona 500 in two weeks, since the team seems unstoppable.

Pizza Enthusiast 🍕🔰 @portmantonyIs it too late to get @MSRIndy an entry in the Daytona 500? They've got the mojito.

January 30th 20221 Retweet10 Likes

What we really need is for Castroneves to get a ride in the race, and any other race he wants to compete in, for the rest of time.

He doesn’t care about age. He doesn’t care about “the odds.” He doesn’t care what you think.

He just keeps winning.

Castroneves might just keep winning until he dies. He might not even let death win.

The lovable Brazilian won his first Indianapolis 500 in 2001 as a rookie, and followed it up with another win the next year.

In 2009, he won his third 500. The year before, he even won against the IRS, acquitted following a trial on tax evasion charges.

From 2001-2020, Castroneves was winning or nearly there for Team Penske. Of his 16 full time IndyCar seasons with Penske, he finished in the top six in the championship every year but one. He finished in the top three seven times.

In 2014, he almost pulled off his fourth Indy 500 victory, losing to Ryan Hunter-Reay in the last two laps. In 2017, he almost did it again, only to finish second to Takuma Sato, close to racing immortality.

It seemed his IndyCar time had passed, and starting in 2018 Castroneves pivoted to Penske’s IMSA campaign, piloting an Acura DPI for the team for the next three years. He won a championship there for Penske in 2020.

He stuck around IndyCar, doing one-off appearances in the Indianapolis 500 for Penske, but never quite putting a winning drive together with the part time effort.

After the IMSA championship in 2020, it seemed he was done with the pinnacle of motorsports and would go around and drive whatever he wanted. He committed to the Superstar Racing Experience short track series in 2021, driving America’s famous short tracks with racing icons like Tony Stewart, Willy T. Ribbs and, his friend, Tony Kanaan.

He also committed to a part time schedule with MSR’s IndyCar program, and Wayne Taylor Racing’s Rolex 24 effort.

In January, he won the Rolex 24 for the first time, adding the prestigious Rolex watch to his trophy collection.

Then, in May, he won his fourth Indianapolis 500, one of four driver in history to reach that number — one of the rarest in all of sports.

He also become the first driver to win the Rolex 24 and the Indy 500 in the same year.

Now, he’s gone back-to-back at Daytona, and will drive full-time for MSR in IndyCar, looking for his first IndyCar title, and looking to win his fifth Indianapolis 500 this May — one that would set him apart from every driver to ever step foot in a race car.

And why couldn’t he?

We thought he’d peaked. We thought he would have some fun, then retire to a Florida beach, maybe try some broadcasting and enter racing history.

Now he’s rewriting it.

His co-drivers, new MSR IndyCar teammate Simon Pagenaud and full time IMSA drivers Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis, celebrated by climbing the fence at Daytona, Castroneves’s signature ceremony.

Let him climb any and every fence he can get near. And maybe give his old boss Roger Penske a call and see if we can get him in the Daytona 500 next month.

He would probably win it at this point.

Takeaways from the weekend:

Last Friday, I wrote about how I wasn’t a sports car expert, and how I usually only watch the 24 at Daytona and call it a season for IMSA.

I really need to stop doing that. This is fantastic racing.

The race, defined by unseasonably cold Florida temperatures (in other words, an average day in Big Ten country), truly came down to the last half hour.

The GTD Pro class winner wasn’t decided until the last lap. The No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche, driven in the final stint by the driver with the most seat time this weekend — almost 10 hours worth — France’s Mathieu Jaminet, lead the No. 2 KCMG Porsche, driven by Belgium’s Laurens Vanthoor, for the final few hours and seemingly the whole weekend.

With a few laps to go, the No. 9 give up just enough ground to get passed, only to charge back and have a slim lead on the final lap.

The two cars went for the LeMans chicane side by side, and, well, that doesn’t work.

BUM CHILLUPS AKA SPENCER HALL @edsbsTwo Porsches bangin’ like they’re at a dirt track

January 30th 202234 Retweets224 Likes

So yeah, the No. 9 won the class, and the No. 2 ended up a disappointing third after showing muscle but ultimately going for a gap that wasn’t there, or whatever Ayrton Senna said.

We avoided a near catastrophe from that incident. At the 0:14 mark of that clip, you see Helio dive to the inside to miss the spinning No. 2. If the Porsche’s tires gripped and the car went into the racing line, Castroneves would’ve driven his Acura into the passenger side and likely ended up stopped in the grass inside NASCAR turn three, just one corner from victory.

Castroneves had a brief challenge from the No. 10 WTR Acura, the one he won with last year, but seemed to have more fuel at the end and pulled away from driver Jordan Taylor over the last few laps.

In LMP2, IndyCar star Colton Herta got the preferred line into the LeMans chicane with about 20 minutes left. When Louis Delétraz sent it and put his car through the grass, it all but locked up a win for Herta and his co-drivers — IndyCar drivers Pato O’Ward and Delvin DeFrancesco, and Rolex 24 veteran Eric Lux.

Motorsports on NBC @MotorsportsNBC'@ColtonHerta passes FOR THE LEAD in LMP2! @PatricioOWard and the @DragonSpeedLLC team are LOVING IT! #Rolex24

January 30th 2022344 Retweets2,179 Likes

Herta said Delétraz confronted him after the race unhappy about the move. It seems like Herta had the preferred line though, and if Delétraz lifts he likely has a shot at the lead again in turn one.

In other words, it was just good racing.

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend for racing, and a great way to kick off the 2022 racing calendar.

And best of all, rather selfishly, I can feel proud of IndyCar for showing up and showing out.

There’s only three more Sundays ‘till St. Petersburg, get ready folks.

Nate Ryan @nateryanA little further perspective: Of the 235 drivers in the @Rolex24Hours field, there were 12 full-time @IndyCar drivers. And five of them now will depart @DAYTONA with some really nice watches.

Jenna Fryer @JennaFryer@h3lio @MeyerShankRac And as @nateryan notes, "What a day for #IndyCar"

January 30th 20228 Retweets40 Likes