Helio Castroneves puts himself back into championship contention following Pocono

As the IndyCar Series headed past the halfway point of the season, everybody looked towards Will Power as being the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series Champion. However, a penalty for Power and a second place finish at Pocono for Castroneves has the pair tied at the top of the points standings. Neither driver has won a championship as they try to return their car owner, Roger Penske, back to championship glory.

Though it wasn’t in the smoothest way that this happened, though, as the penalty for Power involved in a move that he pulled on Castroneves. In the late stages of the race, Power was called on ‘blocking’ Castroneves, therefore brought down pit road for a pass thru penalty.

“Well, we were racing hard.  That’s the beauty of Team Penske.  There is no team order,” Castroneves commented. “I don’t think many teams are able to apply that rule.  Obviously the only rule is do not take each other out, but race hard, and especially both of us in the championship.  I wasn’t expecting anything different to be honest.

“I’m not the one to make the call, but in the end, like I said, we are racing very aggressive.”

Heading into the final seven races of the season and knowing the feeling of being so close with runner-up finishes throughout his career, there is no questioning how badly Castroneves wants to win the championship.

“I want it as much as anybody probably because we’ve been here for a long time, and now a great opportunity,” Castroneves commented. “Houston was very disappointing for me because it was one of those opportunities that you don’t want to miss, and today for us it was great because we ended up collecting a lot of points, and that’s the way we’re going for it.  So now we’re looking for the next ones and continuing with the same pace.”

Heading to Iowa Speedway this weekend, Castroneves will attempt to give Penske his first Iowa win, banking on past success of having six top-10 finishes in seven starts, including a second-place finish in 2010.