IndyCar – Helio Castroneves imperial in Texas

Helio Castroneves was unbeatable at Texas Motor Speedway. The Brazilian took his first victory on an oval since the Twin Ring Motegi in 2010 by dominating the Firestone 550 where he led more than half the event (132 of 228 laps). By becoming the seventh winner in eight races and offering the first success of the season to Team Penske, the driver of the DW12-Chevrolet n°3 seizes the lead in the Championship with 22 points ahead of Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport). “It just came down to the settings, we did a lot of work. »

Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport) also secured good points by taking second place, still finishing more than four seconds behind the winner. Tony Kanaan (KV Racing Technology), victorious at the Indianapolis 500, shines again on an oval by taking third place. Ed Carpenter (Ed Carpenter Racing) and Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport) complete the top five ahead of Dario Franchitti (Chip Ganassi Racing) and pole sitter Will Power (Team Penske). The engine changes made on the Schmidt Motorsports single-seaters made the race difficult for the French. simon pagenaud took 13th place while his teammate Tristan Vautier finished 18th. Sebastian Bourdais (Dragon Racing) only took 20th place.

Click on this link to watch the Firestone 550 summary video.

Discover the report of theIndyCar at Texas Motor Speedway in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.