After facing difficulties in Qualifying, which relegated a 17th position start, Helio Castroneves made a come back during the race on Saturday at the Texas Motor Speedway, coming in 7th place in the seventh race of the IZOD IndyCar Series in Fort Worth, Texas . The checkered flag was taken by Justin Wilson from Dale Coyne Racing.

After starting far back, Castroneves began the race in a strong rhythm and was climbing positions, and leaded in 2nd place between laps 193 and 196 on the 228 laps or 550 km by 1.5 miles oval.

This performance was maintained even after the problem he encountered in the fourth pit stop. While racing in 6th position, Castroneves had a mishap when driver Josef Newgarden, who missed the location to his Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing and stopped instead in the place of the #3 car for Team Penske. This confusion cost the Brazilian four positions.

In the final phase, when disputing first place with his teammate Ryan Briscoe, Helio chose a more conservative driving, since the balance of the car was no longer the same, and a tougher attempt could have caused an accident.

“Yeah, things did not start very good here in Texas. But all of us at Team Penske worked hard and got a good result in the end of the race for the AAA Insurance Dallara Chevrolet, if comparing to the Qualifying. The idea now is to keep advancing for next Saturday,” said Castroneves, referring to the race in Milwaukee, the oval track that will host the eighth race of the championship on Saturday, 16.

Photo by Steve Swope.