Castroneves starts record Indy 500 quest with 'perfect' car

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Defending Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves started his record-breaking quest with the perfect car. Now he just needs to run another perfect race.

Less than a month after the four-time race winner slammed his No. 6 Honda into the wall during an Indianapolis Motor Speedway test, the Brazilian gave a stamp of approval to his rebuilt car.

“It's perfect,” Castroneves said as he blew a kiss into the air. “The guys did an amazing job building up the car. It's just perfect.”

When Castroneves is feeling good at Indy, it's bad news for the 32 other drivers entered in the May 29 race.

Not only is Castroneves tied with A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and the late Al Unser for most career 500 wins, he's also a three-time runner-up and has 15 top-10 finishes in 21 starts. His four poles are tied with Rex Mays, Foyt and Scott Dixon for second all-time, trailing only Mears (6).

This year, he's working with 2019 Indy winner Simon Pagenaud at Meyer Shank Racing. The two were also teammates at Team Penske from 2015-20 and were eager to reunite.

“We have the most Indy 500 wins of any team in the race, five,” Pagenaud said. “I'd be happy if he wins the race. Obviously, I want to win but five would be amazing.”

The chase began ominously last month when Castroneves spun coming down the slippery pit exit in a test and crashed his winning car from 2021. His team went home before the second day of testing and did not return until last weekend.

“I told them not to rush it, so it took like a week to put it together,” he said. “Now it's perfect.”

Castroneves posted the 18th fastest lap at 224.928 mph in a practice that was stopped briefly when a fox ran down the track. Two-time 500 champ Takuma Sato of Japan had the best lap,