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VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES: MAVTV 500August 30, 2014Helio CastronevesFONTANA, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: We'll begin with the second place finisher in the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series Championship, Helio Castroneves. Another second place finish coming off last year. Talk about your night. HELIO CASTRONEVES: It was an interesting night. The AAA Shell car was actually pretty good. Not stellar, maybe the fastest guy out there, but we were able to manage pretty well, stay in the top five, top three, I think. Pit stops, we were doing great. And I think the biggest, not only on the tire change, but also on the in and out lap, my first one was really bad. And I made myself improve here and we made huge improvement on the in and out. In fact, one point they put us in the lead and I was just cruising. The yellow came in, did not want to do that because then when we had the pit stop for the lead, went up to third and it was just chaotic. After that pit stop, my car changed a little bit‑‑ I was getting a lot of understeer. And the last pit stop, I thought the only chance for me to get it is to do another mega in and out. And unfortunately I believe people confusedthink I speed, that I crossed speed limit. I didn't go fast on the speed on the pits. I actually went over the line on the apron in between turn 3 and 4. So that's a penalty. If they say it's in the pit lane, it's not because I was not fast on the pit lane. And then if you cross over, that's the right to penalty. Unfortunately, like I said, with the spinout, and I tried to control it. Unfortunately, when you touch the wheel, the line, the car pulls away and I was two wheels over actually. So that's what put us one lap down. And after that it was just bring it home. And another great successful season for Team Penske. This time at least we have two chances to win a championship. And one finally we got it. Will did hell of a job. He's the champion. Congratulations. Hope when I sleep in his house, now the rate not in his house, the hotel, doesn't go up. Hope it keeps the same rate. I'm proud of the team. I'm happy. I'm tired. And, well, it's another second place we collect in our trophy collection. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. In all the years of watching this, I've never seen that particular pit road penalty. Were you aware of that before you got run through for it? HELIO CASTRONEVES: Yeah, they said that would be a penalty drive through if you go over the line. Unfortunately, all the drivers‑‑ I mean, we're all trying to make sure that we pit on turn 4 and we end up‑‑ the decision was to pit on turn 3 and so that we did not have a situation like maybe last year end up having cars going down to the pit and cars on the fast lane. So it was a decision that the series took. We all knew it. All the drivers knew it including myself. And it just, it was a mistake. Q. Did you feel that you still had a car capable of winning the race and does this get a little bit more difficult to take considering Will's last pit stop, the handling on his car went away from him and he was struggling to keep it up in the top five? HELIO CASTRONEVES: Well, our chance to pass people, no. But once you're in the lead, I think the way the tire degradation, we had a chance to do it. Like I said, you could‑‑ the good news the car was able to give me an opportunity to take some chances in different lanes. And that's why, when Tony took the lead and he was‑‑ he was really fast in the end. So maybe he'll be really hard to be between the twoGanassis. I'm sure third place, it was not a problem because that's where we were most of the day. And but, yes, that's why the only chance for me to be in the lead, it would be through the pit stops. That's what we were doing, we were doing great pit stops this last race, and it's a shame I made a mistake. Q. Given everything and how long you've been at this, is this the worst one, worst second place finish? HELIO CASTRONEVES: Stings a little bit. But that's what motivates me. Because it's good. It's good to be upset when you finish second in a championship, which gives me another reason to come back stronger next year and fix it, what we can fix to win a championship. So I do believe all three drivers work extremely well together. We put ourselves to being in this condition. And at the end of the day, two races that we had that probably cost us, and it put us in this position. But I'm happy that we're still pushing as hard as we can. And certainly stings a little bit. Q. This race is at night. The other two during the day. Seems like this was a physical, exhausting, demanding race. Is it harder than the other ones that were even at night? HELIO CASTRONEVES: Yes, first of all, it's always very difficult. And especially when the tires were‑‑ there was a difference on new tires versus old tires. Which actually is challenging. To us, you have one lane to run. Sometimes you could take a chance on the middle lane high. That was kind of like difficult to adjust. But I think it was fun. I don't know from a viewer perspective, my view was actually‑‑ I had to focus big time in finding little details on the racetrack so that I can fix the car while we were running and changing. And so I think that's part of the veteran, going that direction. And very happy that we were able to find that kind of condition. But it was very tough on everyone. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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