INDYCAR: Castroneves Facing An Uphill Battle

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Castroneves Facing An Uphill Battle

Helio Castroneves left the last round at Edmonton on a high, but now he'll need to march from deep in the field to keep his championship run on track.

Marshall Pruett | Posted August 05, 2012

With so many cars to pass, Helio Castroneves is hoping the rain returns for the Mid-Ohio race. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

The ever-changing 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series championship took another series of turns on Saturday when Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves completed an unfortunate trifecta—one that will likely impact his place in the standings.

Currently second in points behind Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay, the Brazilian started Saturday with a clash in the morning practice session with A.J. Foyt Racing’s Mike Conway. The contact broke Castroneves’ left steering arm and caused the steering wheel to snap back and strike his left hand.

Castroneves persevered with the bruised appendage through qualifying, but only managed to set the 13th-best time at a track where passing has been all but impossible.

To make things even harder on the 37-year-old, and with his midfield starting position in mind, the team elected to change Castroneves’ Chevy engine, moving to the latest Gen 8 specification for him to use through the end of the season.

Demoted to 23rd due to the unapproved engine change, Castroneves will get to follow in the wheel tracks of his teammate Will Power who went through the same engine change/penalty process two weeks ago in Edmonton.

Power’s drive from 17th to third was aided by the wide open layout at the airport track, but Castroneves probably won’t be as fortunate today, unless the rain that delayed the Sunday morning warmup returns for the race.

Castroneves is one of the better IndyCar drivers in the wet, but with Power on the pole--and just two points behind HCN in the standings—the driver of the No. 3 car will likely lose a spot in the championship by the time the checkered flag falls.

“We realize that could happen, but we have to look at the whole picture,” Castroneves told SPEED.com. “We’re thinking about trying to maximize things in terms of looking ahead. If something goes wrong with today’s race, at least we have three more races to recover with a fresh engine, the latest spec engine. In fact, we’re in good shape at Sonoma, at Baltimore and Fontana, so we are at least on the same [engine spec] level as Ryan Hunter-Reay and Will [Power].”

With Castroneves and Power now on the Gen 8s, Ryan Briscoe, the third member of the Team Penske fold, is up next for the latest version of the Ilmor-built twin-turbo V6, but after a solid qualifying effort that placed him sixth, the Aussie will have to wait to make the upgrade.

Facing a tough day after missing out on the Firestone Fast 12, Castroneves saw Mid-Ohio as a lost opportunity to move on Hunter-Reay in the championship, and says he and the team immediately switched their focus to maximizing results starting at Sonoma.

“We’d start in the middle of the pack today, we’d start 13th, which would have been really difficult,” he said. “With the rain, if it stays, it makes things easier, but we’re looking at Sonoma and know we need to have a solid finish there. And with so many doubts about the weather today, we said let’s take the hit now and hope for the best. It wasn’t an easy decision; we didn’t want to start that far back, but sometimes you have to choose the decisions you don’t want to.”

With Power starting first, Hunter-Reay in seventh and Scott Dixon, who is 38 points behind Castroneves, set to start third, Mid-Ohio could play a pivotal role in whether Team Penske’s most tenured driver remains in the title hunt.

PHOTOS: Click Here or on the image below to view INDYCAR: Mid-Ohio 2012

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, and covers the IndyCar Series. He also contributes to RACER, Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett.