Castroneves advances 11th spots from starting position
Fort Worth, TX (2 April 2023) – Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) driver Helio Castroneves used the lessons learned in 21 previous IndyCar starts at Texas Motor Speedway to claw his way out of the back half of the field to secure a 10th place finish in Sunday’s PPG 375 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Castroneves (No. 06 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda) used shrewd pit strategy to move into the upper half of the field during a spate of mid-race pit stops and the Brazilian made those gains hold up. Castroneves’ final pit stop on lap 187 saw the No. 06 crew fast at work with the Brazilian gaining four spots in pit lane.
Returning to the fray in 11th for the final restart with 12 laps to go, Castroneves was able to snare another spot on the final green-flag lap of the day to place 10th.
Castroneves’ result is the 29th IndyCar top-10 results for MSR and marks the third consecutive year where an MSR car has scored a top-10 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Simon Pagenaud (No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda) briefly ran in the top half of the field running eight spots ahead of where he started. An early second stop on lap 100 dropped him back in the field leaving him to fight from behind in claiming a 17th-place finish.
The Ohio-based team will have a week off before heading to California for the iconic Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach April 14-16.
Driver Quotes:
Helio Castroneves (No. 06 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda) – Started 21st, Finished 10th: “Really great finish for the No. 06 AutoNation / SiriusXM car today. With a little bit of patience and great teamwork – and I cannot emphasize that enough because they gave me a great strategy and that’s how we were able to move up. We didn’t have the fastest car if I’m being honest, but we stayed out of trouble and we did what we needed to do. It’s a great start to the season for us, we did not have a race in St. Pete, so for us it’s a great start.”
Simon Pagenaud (No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda) – Started 22nd, Finished 17th: “We started the race really well, but then what we found in qualifying continued into the race – the car was very slow. Fortunately the handling was ok and the entire team did a great job extracting the best out of the car. Now we need to work and figure out what is going on. It’s certainly a big set back and it’s not where we want to be. Helio did a great job with P10 so congrats to him and the 06 crew. We finished the race in one-piece this time, but overall we have to do better.”
