Castroneves the lone star through Texas in points

As Helio Castroneves’ exuberant celebration after winning the Firestone 550 on June 8 wound down, the four-time race winner at Texas Motor Speedway turned his attention to the future.

“We can't stop right now, because the championship is still wide open,” said Castroneves, who opened a 22-point lead over Marco Andretti in the standings.

Indeed, there’s no security in being the front-runner through eight races – seven that have produced different winners. There are 11 races remaining on the diverse schedule, including two street circuit doubleheader weekends that carry full points for each race and sets of two short oval and two superspeedway events.

“A win, certainly, is a great feeling,” Castroneves added. “A championship, I don’t know that yet, and I would love to have that feeling at the end of the season.”

The three-time Indianapolis 500 winner has been agonizingly close to the title multiple times in 11 IZOD IndyCar Series seasons, including runner-up to Sam Hornish Jr. in 2002 and to Scott Dixon in ’08. Additionally, the 2006 title battle that also came down to the final race is frozen in time.

Castroneves carried a one-point advantage over Team Penske teammate Hornish into the season finale at the 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway oval. Dan Wheldon, who won the race by .1897 of a second over Dixon, also picked up bonus points for earning the pole and leading the most laps to tie Hornish, who placed third, with 475 points. Hornish won the tiebreaker of season victories (4-2) to claim the championship. Castroneves started and finished fourth in the race to claim third in the season standings with 473 points.

Consistently running up front when the checkered flag flies is a strategy as old as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to produce a championship season. Castroneves has four top-five and seven top-10 finishes overall – all by qualifying no higher than fifth in the opener at St. Petersburg.

“We've got to be consistent when you have opportunities (you have to seize them). At this point, just got to keep moving,” said Castroneves, who broke a tie with Johnny Rutherford for 12th on the all-time Indy car list with his 28th victory and first on an oval since September 2010 at Twin Ring Motegi. “Monday, got to turn the page and focus on the next race.”

That’s the Milwaukee IndyFest on June 15. In 12 starts, including Champ Car, Castroneves has three pole starts and a best finish of second among four top 10s. Current chief rivals Ryan Hunter-Reay, who is 27 points off the pace, won at The Milwaukee Mile last year to jump-start his drive to the championship. Tony Kanaan, who’s fourth in the standings, was last June’s runner-up and the 2006, ’07 winner. Andretti has one pole and two top-10 finishes in six starts.

The stretch of five races on consecutive weekends concludes June 23 at Iowa Speedway, where all of the top five in points have had success. The first Indy car event at the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway since 1989 follows July 7 before the bulk of the street/road course schedule kicks in.

“Tony and I were on the podium for the next two races last year, and then we have some new challenges,” said Hunter-Reay, who claimed his maiden series title in a season-finale shootout with Will Power at Auto Club Speedway.  “I like Pocono being on the schedule, it's a new challenge and it will make everybody think, take everybody out of their comfort zone a little bit.

“But we have doubles at Houston and Toronto, and there's a lot of curveballs coming at us, so it should be an interesting championship. I think it will come down to the end, the last race like it always does.”

Castroneves’ title standing through the past decade of competition