By Dick Mittman
indy500.com

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

Rick Rinaman and Clive Howell have been around most of the great drivers that team owner Roger Penske has put on the track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the past 20 years. You would think they had seen it all.

But Helio Castroneves' scintillating, pole-winning run of 231.725 mph in 40-mph wind gusts May 11 was more than even these veteran racing team members could believe. And now the brilliant Brazilian Castroneves is preparing to make them rub their eyes even further in disbelief by becoming the first driver in Indianapolis 500 history to win three times in a row.

"To do three in a row, of course, is an accomplishment probably bigger than any achievement in any sport," said Rinaman, crew chief for Castroneves' Indy victories in 2001 and 2002 and still heading Helio's crew.

Added team general manager Howell: "He's come a long way since 2000 when we first started working with Helio. He was very young back then, very, very talented."

Both team members came to Marlboro Team Penske in the early 1980s. Howell was crew chief in 1987 when Al Unser scored his fourth Indy victory in a car pulled out of a hotel lobby at the last minute. Rinaman worked with Rick's Mears' victories in 1984 and 1988. He later was crew chief with Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr. when they won in 1993 and 1994, respectively.

"What Helio brings with him is not just his talent," Rinaman said. "What we appreciate more from him is his energy. He comes into the garage, and it just lightens up. If you're down, maybe if you had a problem the day before or you weren't running as well as you wanted to, you may be down for five minutes.

"He walks into the room regardless if he had a bad previous day, and he's a totally different person. He lights up the room. It energizes everybody."

Howell, an Englishman, remembers that Castroneves drove a car very fast when he first joined the Penske team in 2000. He wanted to 'qualify' every lap he drove, just the opposite of teammate Gil de Ferran, who was described as having a more methodical style in preparing for a race.

"Over the last year, I've really seen Helio mature," Howell said. "He's not the analytical type of guy like de Ferran is, but he's more of a thinker now than he was before. He was more seat-of-the-pants, South American passion, that kind of thing. Now he's a lot more measured."

On Pole Day this year at Indy, everyone saw Castroneves' No. 3 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Toyota/Firestone pulled out of line and assumed it was because Penske Racing was making a strategic move to beat the brisk winds. That wasn't the case at all.

"We had no choice," said Rinaman, who praised all of the drivers' courage for qualifying on such a treacherous racing day.

"We unfortunately spooked our driver in the morning by trying a downforce to compensate for the wind. We spooked him. We weren't going to get it back by jumping in the qualifying line.

"It had nothing to do with wind conditions because we're up on weather conditions, as is any team. The wind wasn't going to diminish. We only pulled out to get Helio some confidence, get him back in that seat, to get his confidence back to be able to go into Turn 1 and 2."

The team worked on Castroneves' psyche and the car, and finally in mid-afternoon, after practicing a number of laps, Castroneves told them he was ready to go.

But Rinaman said he didn't expect more than the outside of the second row. Castroneves had fluctuated between 227-231 mph during his practice laps. Tony Kanaan was on the provisional pole at 231.006.

"For what he did that day was unbelievable," Rinaman said of Castroneves. "I have more respect for him for that qualifying attempt than I ever had."

Castroneves' pole run was as surprising as Unser's victory in '87, Howell said.

"That qualifying that he did last week, I mean, in 40-mph wind gusts and 232 mph, was fantastic," Howell said. "With those kind of things, those guys just suck it up when the time comes.

"He was working the car all the way around. That's the kind of thing he wouldn't have done two years ago. He would have stood on the gas and taken what it gave him. He was working the bars and weight-jacker and everything. Each corner all the way around that 10-mile run, he was adjusting things in the car.

"He wouldn't have done that a couple years ago. He would have been happy to make the race. He's come a long way."

Rinaman said sometimes Castroneves wants to be the engineer. Rinaman said they catch him a few times.

"Helio would say, 'Oh, maybe I should just shut up and drive the car,'" Rinaman said. "And we say, 'Yeah, right.'"

Castroneves and the crew get one more appearance on the track during Miller Lite Carb Day practice Thursday, and then it is a wait for "Lady and gentlemen, start your engines" on Sunday morning. Meanwhile, Castroneves and the crew will be inundated with the question: Can Helio win three in a row?

"It's easy to get caught up in it," Rinaman said of the hoopla. "You keep reminding yourself that you have to win it first, and there're 32 other people trying to take that away from you.

"And the pressures may be a little bit more. The New York Yankees, any sport where the team has accomplished victories, goes through that. It's tough to compete. Everybody gets on their big game, brings their best game to the track when they're trying to beat the best."

At the moment, Castroneves is the best, Rinaman said.

Rinaman noted that he heard Al Unser Jr. on a radio show one morning, lamenting that he woke up in the middle of the night and wondered how he could beat Castroneves at Indy. Other drivers wondered the same thing for several years about Unser Jr. when the races were at Long Beach or Portland, Rinaman said.

"We're just fortunate that Helio Castroneves has picked Indy to be his magical track," Rinaman said.

Rinaman pointed out that a Penske Racing driver has won four of the last Indianapolis 500s in which the team has competed - Fittipaldi in 1993, Unser in 1994 and Castroneves in 2001 and 2002. He calls it mind-boggling.

"And for us to think we can do three in a row, that's even more mind-boggling," he said.

"I think until he actually comes down and sees the checkered flag, it won't even be our thought. Again, one in a row is tough to do. Two in a row, now you're getting into the unbelievable. And to do three in a row, I don't even think about it."

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