Helio Castroneves scales back his IndyCar program with the Shank team for 2024 to the Indy 500 – Tom Blomqvist gets full-time cockpit, Castroneves gets share
Helio Castroneves, one of the most veteran IndyCar drivers in history, is scaling back his activities in the racing series from a full-time program to a part-time program for the 2024 season. The Brazilian, who is under contract with Meyer Shank Racing, will only compete in the Indy 500 next season.
Castroneves has won the Indy 500 four times in his long career. A fifth win would make him the sole record holder. At Meyer Shank Racing, the “Spiderman” has to vacate his full-time cockpit, but gets shares in the team and competes in the Indy 500 in a third car of the team.
In terms of results, Castroneves – like the entire two-car team of Michael Shank and Jim Meyer – has been the bug this season. The team’s best individual result is a tenth-place finish, which Castroneves took at Texas Motor Speedway in April. Other than that, neither he nor teammate Simon Pagenaud (currently out of action) nor any of Pagenaud’s three backup drivers have managed a top-10 finish.
One of Pagenaud’s reserve drivers was Tom Blomqvist. The 29-year-old Briton made his IndyCar debut unceremoniously in mid-July on the street circuit in Toronto. However, this ended for him in the very first corner due to an accident that was not his fault. Nevertheless, Blomqvist has convinced the team for which he won the title in the US sports car series IMSA together with Oliver Jarvis in the 2022 season.
Helio Castroneves will only drive Indy 500
Castroneves, whose cockpit will be taken over by Blomqvist next season, says: “First of all, I want to thank Mike, Jim and Liberty [Media] for accepting me as part of the ownership group. Throughout my career I have been fortunate to surround myself with an amazing group of people. This step will now be the next chapter for me and I can’t wait. I’m not done driving yet and I will continue to do so at the Indy 500. “
One of Castroneves’ four Indy 500 wins came in the employ of Meyer Shank Racing, in 2021. Prior to that, the Brazilian won the world’s most famous oval race three times (2001, 2002, 2009) in the employ of the Penske team.
Castroneves contested the majority of his almost 400-race IndyCar career for Penske. He drove his rookie season in 1998, at that time in the CART series, initially with Tony Bettenhausen’s team. He switched to Carl Hogan’s team for the 199 season and scored the first of his 31 IndyCar wins to date in Milwaukee.
From 2000 to 2017 inclusive, Castroneves was one of the regular drivers on the Penske team. During this period, he managed 29 more race victories, but no title wins. He was runner-up four times and third overall three times. When he had to vacate his full-time cockpit in Roger Penske’s IndyCar team at the end of 2017, Castroneves was transferred to the team’s IMSA programme for three years. There, together with Ricky Taylor, he managed to win the title he had longed for as a Penske driver in the 2020 season.
Parallel to the IMSA programme, Castroneves drove the Indy 500 in an additional Penske team IndyCar car in each of the years 2018 to 2020. This part-time programme became a full-time programme again for him shortly after the switch to Meyer Shank Racing. In 2021, it wasn’t time yet, but that year he scored his fourth Indy 500 win overall directly in his first outing with the new team.
For the 2022 IndyCar season, Michael Shank and Jim Meyer’s team then offered him a full-time programme for two years. This programme ends for Castroneves in four weeks (10 September) at the season finale at Laguna Seca Raceway. In 2024, the “Spider-Man” will be seen back in the cockpit at the Indy 500, while Blomqvist will drive the full IndyCar season as a rookie.
Tom Blomqvist gets one of two full-time cockpits
Blomqvist, whose contract runs for “multiple years,” will be one of two full-time drivers in Meyer Shank Racing’s IndyCar program in 2024.
First of all, I want to thank Mike and Jim and all the partners for believing in me and giving me this opportunity,” Blomqvist said, adding, “The past two years in IMSA have been a good experience, but I’ve been itching to make the move to the IndyCar Series. I’m motivated to make the most of this opportunity. “
Whether Meyer Shank Racing’s second car will continue to be driven by Simon Pagenaud in the 2024 IndyCar season has yet to be determined. The current replacement driver for the Frenchman, who has been out of action since Mid-Ohio, is Linus Lundqvist. The 24-year-old Swede made an immediate impression in his IndyCar debut last weekend in Nashville.