Top 25 IndyCar drivers of all-time
By Asher Fair
Top IndyCar drivers of all-time: #17 – Helio Castroneves
Helio Castroneves never won an IndyCar championship and it doesn’t look like that will change given his age as well as the fact that it’s not all that likely that he will run a full schedule again, having not done so since 2017.
But among drivers who never managed to win a title, Castroneves is the easy pick for #1.
Not only did he come close with four runner-up finishes, and not only did he win 30 races, something that only 11 other drivers can say, but he won the Indy 500 three times.
In fact, he is still trying to become the fourth four-time winner of the race. He is set for his 12th attempt at that particular feat this May in what is slated to be his 21st career start in the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”.
He won it as a rookie in 2001, and while many will argue that his 2002 win wasn’t really a “win” and that his second victory really belongs to Paul Tracy, who never ended up actually winning one, the fact is that history shows Castroneves is a three-time winner of the race. The fact that he won it in his first two attempts shows how great he is at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
He became the ninth driver to win the race three times in 2009, and he is one of only four drivers to take at least four pole positions for it, having done so in 2003, 2007, 2009 and 2010. Prior to Simon Pagenaud’s 2019 win, he had been the most recent driver to win the race from the pole position in 2009.