On the Road to the Daytona 500 with four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves

BRUCE:

IndyCar fans, it's time to start your engines. Welcome to Pit Pass Indy, a production of Evergreen Podcast. I'm your host, Bruce Martin, a journalist who regularly covers the NTT IndyCar Series. Our goal at Pit Pass Indy is to give racing fans an insider's view of the exciting world of the NTT IndyCar Series in a fast-paced podcast featuring interviews with the biggest names in the sport. I bring nearly 40 years of experience covering IndyCar and NASCAR, working for such media brands as NBCSports.com, SI.com, ESPN SportsTicker, Sports Illustrated, AutoWeek and SpeedSport. So let's drop the green flag on this episode of Pit Pass Indy. Welcome to this special bonus edition of Pit Pass Indy as we begin our fifth season of giving IndyCar fans an inside look at the most exciting form of racing on the planet, the NTT IndyCar Series. As we get back to work in the early days of 2025, leave it to four-time Indianapolis 500 winning driver Elio Castroneves to give us an early reason to get excited. On January 6th, Castroneves and NASCAR's track house racing team owner, Justin Marks, announced that they would team up for the 67th Daytona 500 in the Project 91 Chevrolet, sponsored by Wendy's. It will be the first NASCAR Cup Series race for the 49-year-old Castroneves, and it comes with one of NASCAR's most exciting opportunities with Project 91, an additional entry for Trackhouse that was created to bring big names from other forms of racing around the world and give them a chance to experience NASCAR. It also provides Castroneves with a dream opportunity to compete in another one of the world's biggest races, the Daytona 500. Castroneves is the latest in a long line of Indianapolis 500 winning drivers who have competed in the Daytona 500. The two most successful are four-time winner A.J. Foyt, who won the 1972 Daytona 500, driving the famed No. 21 Wood Brothers Mercury to a decisive win, and 1969 Indianapolis 500 winner Mario Andretti, who won the 1967 Daytona 500, driving for the famed Holman& Moody factory Ford team. Castroneves becomes the first Indianapolis 500 winner to compete in the Daytona 500 since Jacques Villeneuve started 40th and finished 22nd in the 64th Daytona 500 on February 20th, 2022. Villeneuve won the 1995 Indianapolis 500, the 1995 Kart IndyCar Championship, and the 1997 Formula One World Championship. I was able to catch up with Castroneves on the phone as he was on the road to Daytona International Speedway earlier this week for this exclusive Pit Pass Indy interview. Joining us now on Pit Pass Indy is one of the legends of the Indianapolis 500 who is going to become a NASCAR Cup Series rookie in the 67th Daytona 500 on February 16th. It's none other than four-time Indianapolis 500 winning driver Elio Castroneves who earlier this week was named to the ride at Project 91, which is part of Trackhouse Racing and team owner Justin Marks. Elio, I know you've been working on a Daytona 500 ride for at least since 2021, 2022. How does it feel to finally get this deal put together?

HELIO:

Well, Bruce, thanks again for having me on your show and I'm super excited. I can't thank enough, you know, Justin Marks and the entire Trackhouse people and the Project 91 as well for able to not only put this together with Wendy's, but also thinking about me and show me this opportunity to finally drive a cup car. And because of that, of course, it wasn't only a group of people, but again, a situation that happens when I was racing with SRX with Tony Stewart, Don Hawk, and Don Hawk basically and I made a bet. If I win a race in this SRX, he would do everything he can to put me at the cup and he is the one who initiated all of this. And well, I guess when you plan to see, now the results show up for next, for this year.

BRUCE:

So you're not a stranger to stock cars. You've driven SRX, you've driven at Daytona in IROC, which was around the oval. You've also driven at Daytona in the Rolex 24 IMSA race, where you use a lot of the high banks. You use both ends of the track, the high banks on both ends of the track as part of that road course. Do you feel that that's going to work in your advantage when you get out there and try a NASCAR Cup Series race in the Daytona 500?

HELIO:

I'll be honest with you, Bruce, I don't know. I have no idea. I need to ask the experienced drivers, you know, that they did those type of races and they already run at the Cup Series. So, I'll ask them. If they say yes, it's going to feel like that, then I know what to do. If they say, look, everything you learned from those cars is the opposite, then, again, I'm going to learn as it goes. I'm going to have 500 miles to figure it out.

BRUCE:

But you've got some great talent on your team, led by Crew Chief Darian Grubb, who was Tony Stewart's Crew Chief when he won the NASCAR Cup Series Championship in 2011. To have that type of experience on your team, how valuable is that? Oh, incredible.

HELIO:

The whole entire group that is putting this together. Darian and I already, we spent basically all day together when I was doing the seat fitting and also spent time at the same Chevy facility, which was incredible. So we're both talking about it and trying to, you know, understand the lingo, which is completely different than IndyCar. So it was very, very, extremely important to have this type of people with experience to guide me through this process, because it's a process and it's going to take a little time. But as long as I follow their lead, things are going to fall into the right place.

BRUCE:

I believe it was a couple of years ago when you were trying to find an opportunity to run in the Daytona 500. You asked me for my advice, and I said Justin Marks would be the guy. How long has he been on your list in terms of being able to put this deal together? I'm not taking credit for it by any means, but I really was impressed with what Justin Marks was able to do, especially with the Project 91 effort.

HELIO:

Yeah, no, we've been talking, again, at the beginning of I guess when Don actually contacted most of those guys and he was able to again plant a seed and sort of like this could be a good project and I would have called it two years ago and because of that Again, I end up getting their list, which made a lot of sense. You know, one person at 18500 is too active and could be a third guy that 18500 and Daytona 500 would be an amazing situation, which anything can happen. We all see the race. Towards the end, there was a lot of crashes. You know, as long as we stay out of trouble, that could be a lucky opportunity for us. Who knows? But at this point, we just got to make sure we make the race and put ourselves in a position to just to stay there competitive and follow my teammates. You know, I have phenomenal teammates that I believe I can trust, I can learn, and then we can go towards the front.

BRUCE:

For those who may not be familiar with the name Don Hawk, he's a longtime motorsports executive and he got to know you through the SRX series when he was highly involved with that. He has a very extensive list of contacts in NASCAR. So just how valuable was it to have him helping connect the dots for you?

HELIO:

It made all the difference, to be honest. Don, like I said, we sort of joking around, but he's certainly the guy that has been in the business for a long time, but especially in the business of NASCAR. So because of that, you know, I understand it was sort of like a bet and joking around. However, it became serious. and a great marketing as well for everyone you know I feel that putting bring this together it's gonna obviously have a lot of the open wheel people the sports car people fan and bring you to watch a little bit of the more already or added to the incredible amount of fans that they have in NASFAR. So for me, it would be, it was great. It was definitely a great idea. And without Justin, of course, that would be difficult to make it happen, but it was the right thing to wait for the right time.

BRUCE:

For all the times you competed in the Rolex 24 Daytona sports car race, how often did you look around that track and ask yourself, I wonder what it would be like to run here in the Daytona 500?

HELIO:

Oh, things we start talking about it. And today I know a lot of the drivers. from the Cup side, and it will be nice. It will be nice to learn with them. It will be nice to talk to them. I'm sure I'm going to ask for a lot of advice. Some of them might be able to give me some, or some not, or wrong advice. But in the end of the day, I will trust exactly on the Project 91 and the entire group that they were able to guide me to the right place.

BRUCE:

As team owner Justin Marks mentioned the other day when he announced this project, that he's going to have four entries in the Daytona 500 with four drivers from four different countries. We start off with Ross Chastain, one of the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series, who's a watermelon farmer in Southwest Florida, down around the Fort Myers area. Then we have Daniel Suarez from Monterey, Mexico, who also happens to be friends with Pato Award, an IndyCar star. And then we have Shane Van Gisbergen, the Supercar Series legend, who is the first driver to win his first NASCAR Cup Series race since Johnny Rutherford won at Daytona in 1963, when the qualifying races still counted as official NASCAR Cup Series races. And now we have Elio Castroneves, a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner from Brazil. How cool is that, that in NASCAR, there's that much of a diverse, multicultural team?

HELIO:

Amazing. Honestly, I met Chastain at the race shop. In fact, Homestead last race of the season, or not last race of the season, but at Homestead. which was great. Daniel Suarez, I already met him before. In fact, he raced in Brazil in one of the NASCAR stock cars over there. And SVG actually, believe it or not, when I raced in Australia with the V8 Supercar, it was him, when we were practicing in Queensland, that he gave me some tips. And I tell you what, his tips really helped me a lot. I'm gonna, you reunite with him again and say, hey man, you'll be running with the cup car. So now I'll give you again those tips that helped me a long time ago, which I believe will work for you all. So it's fun. It's fun to have that kind of scenario. We just gotta put it together and work together.

BRUCE:

How impressed are you with Justin Marks? He has a big idea out of the box. way of thinking, he sees what racing can be like, not next season, but 10 seasons down the road.

HELIO:

I agree with you. The vision that he had at such a young age and the way that everything works, I guess, through racing, because he was a driver before. That's how I met him before with MSR, with Mike. and to see him having this vision and being able to be aggressive, but at the same time execute well, having the buying a team at the MotoGP. So, yeah, it's incredible. So very impressed and looking forward to working with him and learn from him as well.

BRUCE:

From the sounds of the noise, you're on your way to Daytona, and hopefully we're able to keep our signal strong enough for the rest of this interview. Before the Daytona 500, you've still got another race to get ready for at Daytona for the Rolex 24. So how do you look at that?

HELIO:

Yeah, unfortunately, I won't be able to drive. I was pretty disappointed that I was not going to be able to drive four in a row. I'll be in the business, be on the other side of the driver's seat. That Accra decided to add another young Japanese driver, which is great. So, but you know, maybe that door closed, but open up the Daytona 500. So yes, I actually going on my way there to Daytona for the ARCA practice, because I'm going to be doing the ARCA race. on saturday before the 500 which is going to give me another great opportunity to learn uh the 500 miles and and understand how to work even it's a different car however it will give me some directions

BRUCE:

And what are some of the requirements that you had to do in order for NASCAR to approve you to run in the Daytona 500? Obviously, the ARCA race is one, because it's a chance for you to get oval high bank experience in a stock car. Not that a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner doesn't already have experience on high banks. Just how have they been in this whole process? It's a big deal for them to have a legendary name, such as yourself, to be competing against their top drivers.

HELIO:

Correct. And I will have an extra, a task in Talladega. They did not allow me to go at the corner, but I will test in Talladega for at least, you know, learn most of it. I would say not so much about the high banking, but I guess coming in and out of the pits. Remember that in IndyCar we have a what we call a system it's the limit button that you press it and automatically goes to the 60 mile an hour and you can do whatever you want throttle, half throttle and the speed stay constant 60 miles an hour. So you just need to worry about moving from behind on the side coming in and out of the pit box. With the cars you have to do that on your on your own, you have to control the speed on that, plus understanding the brakes, how to do it, how to stop on the box, because remember, within the car, getting closer to the wall is better for the few, the few men, the few person to engage as quick as you can. With a cup car, you have to be a little bit at a certain range, because the jack guy has to have the space enough uh raise the car so all of the strips and details believe it or not i don't have that experience but i'm gonna spend most of the time in those places to make sure that i can understand what are you doing how much are you going into this project with your eyes wide open oh man it's not the eyes only it's the mental uh scenarios and focus the excitement and um i'm doing everything i can i'm doing another sim to make sure I'm refreshed to the race. And yeah, every opportunity that I have learned, I will make it happen. And yes, I know Ricky is those incredible drivers, the top drivers, and the experience that they have. I need to start already with some so that I can at least

BRUCE:

You're one of four four-time Indianapolis 500 winning drivers. Two of them have also competed in the Daytona 500. One of them, A.J. Foyt, won the Daytona 500 in 1972. Al Unser also raced in the Daytona 500. The only four-time winner that didn't get a chance to run the Daytona 500 was our pal Rick Mears. How does it feel to be part of that really illustrious group of four-time Indy 500 winners that's going to show the NASCAR world how talented and what a great legendary group of drivers you're a part of?

HELIO:

I'm honored. I'm honored to be able to be in this elite group when you're talking about Mario and AJ Boyd. Um, it's, it's, it's, wow. Uh, those are, again, I repeat myself, but it's truly the gods of racing, you know, and, uh, I just, um, I can't believe I'm, I'm in sort of a going to attempt to be in the same category of those, those legends. So it's an honor. It's an honor. And, um, that's why I'm really, really focused and excited to, uh, to go for it and I just hope the other guys because of racing up there open the way so that we can do we can surprise a lot of people.

BRUCE:

I asked you the other day are you carrying the flag of the IndyCar series into NASCAR's biggest race?

HELIO:

I feel that I am of course. My entire life is spent in the IndyCar and the open wheel. I feel that I will be represented to be our flag for sure.

BRUCE:

And just on the list of great races around the world, if you're going to live in the United States, obviously the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500 are right there at the top. And now you're going to finally get a chance to see what it's like to race in both of them. People talk about having a bucket list when they get toward the end of their career. Of course, they never like to bring up end of career with you because you don't see an end of a career. You just keep going. To be able to add that to your list, how do you put all that into perspective with everything else that you've accomplished?

HELIO:

Yeah, I'm out of words to be honest because we're talking about the two biggest races in the world, you know, and It will be, it will be huge. I'm just, just talk about it. I'm excited. Remembering obviously watching the show, the beginning of the show, how patient you got to be in the rain. Wow. I mean, there was, there are so much, so much to And again, it's four hours. Normally, our races, I think, in Especially in Paraguay, the maximum it was, it was close to three. So that will be another adjustment that I need to make so that I have to understand it's not a sprint race, it's a marathon. And, yeah, it will be, as I said, I have a lot of laps and a lot of time to learn. I'll put myself in the gold spot.

BRUCE:

Before you can win the Daytona 500 or before you can race in the Daytona 500, first you must qualify for the Daytona 500. You're driving for an entry that is not locked into the starting lineup through NASCAR charter. And there's a pretty deep entry list this year for the Daytona 500. So just how difficult is it going to be just to get into the race?

HELIO:

Yes, of course. The year that I'm in, there's a lot of guys out there trying too. I was like, great. Just because it couldn't make it, you know, a little bit less difficult. But it's okay. I guess my entire career has always been a challenge and I will have no problem in with that. I'm not used to, and I'm going to take every second as it comes and in a way that, yeah, the challenge is just step by step. I can't count from one to ten without going to two, three, four, and that's the way I'm going to do every lap out there.

BRUCE:

Drafting is very important at Daytona International Speedway because it is a high bank speedway that's called a restrictor plate speedway. The fields bunch together, separated by inches, but yet you came up in an era of IndyCar racing when there was drafting on the high banks. How much do you think back to the skills and reflexes and everything that you needed from back in the early days of the Indy Racing League, when there were a lot of tracks where there was a lot of drafting that was going on? There's still drafting that goes on today, but maybe not as far back in the pack as we'll see in the Daytona 500.

HELIO:

It's a little tough. It's a different type of draft. The only time, because obviously, as you can see, you have to have a partner. to push you to make a pass, and the car is different. The car in front of you basically sucks you so that you can make a pass. You don't need anybody behind to do that. You can be in control of your own destiny. I do remember with the IROC days, the side ramp was amazing. That's a huge difference. So, hopefully, it's still sort of like the same. Um, but yeah, race against, uh, you know, Matt Kenton, Mark Martin, uh, Ryan Newman, uh, Jimmy Johnson, all of these incredible drivers at the Iraq, um, uh, was able to learn quite a lot from them. And, um, but again, I hope it will do, there was a little similarity to that because, and then you, you pull my muscle memory, uh, alive and, uh, we'll be able to, uh, to try something else.

BRUCE:

And of course, you'll be back at the 109th Indianapolis 500 in an attempt to become the first five-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, driving now for a team you have an ownership stake in, or a partnership stake, Meyers Schenck Racing. After the Daytona experience is over, then when do you just switch and start thinking ahead, not only to your drivers that you have at Meyers Schenck Racing for the full IndyCar Series season, but also when you get to get back into the cockpit at the Indianapolis 500.

HELIO:

look of course the right away um uh and um remember we are switching important technical alliance with from andrea to ganassi so we will have new engineers we just set up a lot of new things um in front of us this year however we're talking about incredible team won a lot of races and championships and i feel that um Last year, you know, a lot of the Penske and Chevy were able to discover quite good and they were very strong. Hopefully, this year we'll be able to work together and do something incredible. So I'm looking forward to, for sure, this year we're going to have setup.

BRUCE:

And wrapping up here with Elio Castroneves, as he continues his journey down to Daytona, what kind of messages have you gotten from both IndyCar and NASCAR drivers?

HELIO:

Incredible. It's been quite a lot, you know, from the teammates. Just saying, you know, looking forward to working together. Brian Blaney, actually, that was a great message that he sent me because we used to work together as a team, working as a team. You know, Marc Andre, other drivers as well, sent me, you know, great notes. So it's really cool to see the community really embracing this opportunity that is obviously very unique. And not many opportunities like that happen.

BRUCE:

Well, he's a man who's made his living out of driving really fast, but now he needs to drive really careful as he drives down the interstate to Daytona to get ready for the big ARCA test this weekend. But Elio Castroneves, four-time Indianapolis 500 winning driver, congratulations on being named to the Project 91 ride for the 67th Daytona 500. And thank you for joining us today on Pit Pass Indy.

HELIO:

Thanks, I'm Steve Bruce.

BRUCE:

We'll be right back to Pit Pass Indy after this short break. And that puts a checkered flag on this edition of Pit Pass Indy. We want to thank our guest, four-time Indianapolis 500 winning driver Elio Castroneves, who will attempt to compete in the 67th Daytona 500 NASCAR Cup Series race on February 16th for joining us on this special bonus edition of Pit Pass Indy. Along with loyal listeners like you, our guests help make Pit Pass Indy your path to victory lane in IndyCar. For more IndyCar coverage, follow me at X, previously known as Twitter, at BruceMartin, one word, uppercase B, uppercase M, underscore 500. This has been a production of Evergreen Podcast. A special thanks to our production team, executive producers are Bridget Coyne and Gerardo Orlando. Recordings and edits were done by me, Bruce Martin, and final mixing was done by Dave Douglas. Learn more at evergreenpodcast.com. Until next time, be sure to keep it out of the wall.