IndyCar: 21-year era ends in ironic yet fitting fashion

By Asher Fair | Nov 16, 2020

Helio Castroneves, Team Penske, IndyCar (Photo by Greg Doherty/Getty Images) /

A successful era that spanned more than two decades, primarily in IndyCar, has come to an end, and it ended in an ironic yet fitting fashion: a maiden championship.

After 21 seasons of full-time competition together, the Team Penske/Helio Castroneves era, which included six victories in 40 CART races over two seasons, 24 victories in 270 IndyCar starts over 20 seasons and five victories in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 30 races over four seasons, has come to an end.

And it came to an end in an ironic yet fitting way.

The three-time Indy 500 winner, despite tons of success in everything he has ever driven for Roger Penske’s team, had not won any championships throughout his career entering 2020. He recorded runner-up finishes in IndyCar in 2002, 2008, 2013 an 2014 and is widely considered to be one of the greatest non-champions of all-time.

It wasn’t an IndyCar title, but Castroneves’s 21-year run with Team Penske ended with his first career championship.

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It took until his 340th Penske start, but the 45-year-old Brazilian is finally a champion.

With Acura leaving Team Penske’s Daytona Prototype international (DPi) IMSA program now that the 2020 season has concluded, Castroneves, who was signed by the team to run full-time in sports cars after his 18th season of full-time open-wheel racing competition for the Captain’s team in 2017, will be moving on after he and Ricky Taylor secured the title by just one point over Konica Minolta Cadillac’s Ryan Briscoe and Renger van der Zande.

And he will be moving on as a champion for the first time ever.

But let’s not forget that we have already gotten a glimpse of a post-Team Penske era for Castroneves.

This past IndyCar season, Castroneves made his first start for a team other than Team Penske since 1999 when he competed for Hogan Racing in CART.

He competed in two races in relief of the injured Oliver Askew at Arrow McLaren SP behind the wheel of the #7 Chevrolet at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in early October, ending a streak of 310 straight Team Penske starts at the highest level of American open-wheel racing.

Next season, Castroneves is set to return to IndyCar for his biggest role since his final full season with Team Penske in 2017. After running a combined five races for the team from 2018 to 2020 and then the two races in relief of Askew for Arrow McLaren SP, he is set to run a six-race schedule for Meyer Shank Racing.

Castroneves is set to compete behind the wheel of the #06 Honda, the first Honda-powered open-wheel car he will have driven since the 2011 season, as the teammate to Jack Harvey.

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He is set to compete in the race at Barber Motorsports Park, the race on the streets of Long Beach, the 105th running of the Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the second race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, the race at Portland International Raceway and the season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.