Hélio Castroneves can be quite persistent when he really wants to do something. For example, he has wanted to race the Daytona 500 for a very long time.
For the two decades Castroneves spent racing IndyCar with Roger Penske, the answer was always ‘no,’ and that he needed to stay focused on the priority assignments with Team Penske. Then Penske concluded that Castroneves was no longer a viable threat to win the Indianapolis 500, letting him leave for Myers Shank Racing where he won his fourth Borg Warner in 2021.
Castroneves really wanted that race too and did not accept ‘no.’
So when Donald Hawk, then CEO of SRX promised Castroneves a Daytona 500 ride for winning a race at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida, he was relentless in that pursuit as well. It became clear that Trackhouse and Justin Marks was going to be the facilitator but it was taking time to put the logistics together.
Castroneves was persistent over this too as he explained on Tuesday on a conference call about his impending debut in the Great American Race.
“I started bothering Justin more and more,” Castroneves said. “I say ‘Justin, Justin, are we doing this or not, what’s happening,’ and it was just to show how much fire I have for this. The excitement is there.”
For his part, Marks just needed time to put the package together. That meant getting the sponsorship in place, which turned out to be the Wendy’s fast food chain that supported Shane Van Gisbergen in his Project91 foray. It also meant making sure Trackhouse had the bandwidth, which it didn’t last year while getting SVG up to speed in his first full-time season, but now all the human resources are in place to staff it.
Marks says a lot of the shop personnel have vast road crew experience so it was just a matter of resource allocation.
“It’s really a matter of, you know, we’ve got 21 cars to build for the three teams that are going to be competing full time. It’s a matter of going, ‘okay, when we prepare for the Daytona 500 and we’re building those cars, how do we do that?’
“It’s how do we do 25 percent more work for the Daytona 500? It just requires a little bit of extra planning and scheduling with the chassis build schedules and set-up schedules; things like that. We just kind of work it in.”
So now it’s just up to Castroneves to figure out the nuances of racing this NextGen car in the draft at the World Center of Racing. Another reason 2025 just made the most sense for all involved is that NASCAR has scheduled a practice session prior to qualifying for the Daytona 500 for the first time in several years.
Had Castroenves tried this at any point after leaving Penske, his first time driving the car would be trying to lock the car in on speed in time trials. He has pack racing experience in the old International Race of Champions series, so this isn’t foreign, but there are a lot of nuances he needs a little bit of time to pick back up.
“Today I’m very glad I did some of the IROC races three years in a row and had some amazing battles with Matt Kenseth and Mark Martin, Jimmie Johnson,” Castroneves said. “That was really fun and helps a lot. That was a completely different car back then but it at least gives me a little bit of understanding of what I need to do.
“The muscle memory is going to come back and now we’re going to have practice before qualifying, which is great and give me a sense of understanding of what I need to do.”
Castroneves will also be able to make use of simulator time in the weeks leading up to the race, if nothing else, just to get used to processes like going through the gears and hitting his marks on pit road. The Chevrolet simulator is very good for details like that and the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner knows it too.
“I have already been to the simulator and it’s the best, everything you need to get ready and the practice is just a bonus,” Castroneves said.
NASCAR is also permitting Castroneves to conduct a rookie shakedown session in the car, which is also a fairly recent addition to the rule book, and he will do that at Talladega Superspeedway at some point over the next month.
“I’ll probably focus most on pit road, because I’ve never driven a Cup car before, and making sure I know how to get in for the fueler,” he said. “Another thing people don’t understand is that when you go into the pits, you park as close to the wall but you have to be further out in the Cup car so the jack man can raise the car so there’s some tricks to that.
“I’ll take advantage of the time NASCAR is giving us so that I can at least acclimate to that.”
So, does he think he can win?
“I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think I could win.”
Marks echoed that sentiment, and remember, there was skepticism about him placing Van Gisbergen in a car and suggesting he could win in Downtown Chicago too.
“The Daytona 500 has proven itself as a race that really, the doors are open for a lot of people to put themselves in position to win the race,” Castroneves said. “I know we will have a fast race car and that Helio will have an opportunity to learn the draft and with the Duel races on Thursday, get comfortable with how momentum is built and how to move around and get into position.
“So if we can stay out of the mess and put ourselves in a good position for that last run to the checker flag, I mean truly anything, and I mean anything is possible and we’re going to bring race cars capable of doing that.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.
