Helio Castroneves
Helio Castroneves
Hélio Castro-Neves, better known as Hélio Castroneves, is a Brazilian auto racing driver competing in the IndyCar Series. In IndyCar competition, Castroneves has 23 wins and 38 poles, and placed second in the season standings four times, third two times and fourth four times. Prior to IndyCar, Castroneves competed in the CART championship, with a highest championship points finish of fourth; he recorded six wins and seven pole positions in the series...
NationalityBrazilian
ProfessionRace Car Driver
Date of Birth10 May 1975
CitySao Paulo, Brazil
CountryBrazil
When everyone jokes about (taking chances), there's a little bit of truth to it, ... Hopefully people have learned from what happened (at Sonoma).
Motor racing is going to miss a phenomenal race driver and I'm going to miss a good friend. I think I will learn a lot with Sam. He is an experienced driver even though he is young. He's been fast at a lot of tracks where we haven't done well so I hope to learn from him.
It's a track where everyone can go flat easy. It's a track where equipment sometimes takes over for the driving. But that's for speed. The draft is very important here and we have been learning what it takes, so hopefully we will be able to learn from that and win.
Every time you go out on the track, which is very technical and unique, you learn something different. This place, if you keep practicing, keep running and learning every corner, you'll be consistently fast.
I hope my competitors did not learn anything,
I was just trying to get the side draft. We were trying to get so slow. I wasn't sure if Sam was trying to pass or push. I didn't know which way he was going. I really thought the finish line was ahead of me. I was thinking, 'Look! It's right up there!' And they were telling me on the radio that the race was over.
I was just trying to follow Dan but my car kept moving up. Then I saw Sam coming and that put me side by side. If this was like NASCAR and we had bumpers, I would have won. I'm kind of sad to be second but then again I'm kind of happy to be second. I have mixed feelings.
I don't know what the heck he was thinking. He just decided to pass everybody in one corner, and he ended up taking everybody out,
I don't know what the heck he was thinking. He decided to pass everybody in one corner, and he ended up taking out everybody.
He had a great car. I don't know what he was thinking.
There is more to this world than just this race.
On oval (tracks) he's a rookie, but on road courses and street courses he's not. He showed that again here.
I wouldn't take anyone for granted. But hopefully we'll continue to do what we do.
Let me show that I have that (talent).