To sum up Helio Castroneves' week in NASCAR simply: It's been rough. The veteran driver, but rookie competing with Trackhouse Racing for Speedweek's Cup and ARCA races at Daytona, has found himself in a litany of incidents. But much like his edge and persistence in his driving career, he, along with his team this week, have made extensive efforts to keep things literally on track.
It started with Daytona 500 qualifying, where he clocked in near the rear of the field. Yet unlike the other open cars, Castroneves didn't have to worry about racing his way into Sunday's field as he could fall back on the guarantee offered by the newly created Open Exemption Provisional, of which he was eligible to take if need be.
But the Brazilian driver needed practice and still wanted to learn the ropes of stock car racing at the 2.5-mile superspeedway. The Duel qualifying races were going to be a great opportunity for that. He needed laps, but unfortunately, didn't get many. Just 14 laps into the Duel 1 race, Chandler Smith wrecked near the front of the field, and Castroneves, running seventh, couldn't slow down in time — ending up in the outside wall. The car was wounded but not completely destroyed ... yet. Castroneves entered Turn 3 under caution when his car came out from under him and slammed into the wall far harder than before. The car violently came back down the banking and came to a halt on the infield grass. He had to opt on his fall back plan to use the provisional so he can line up 41st (last) on the Daytona 500 grid as an additional entry.
“In one of the wrecks, I got hit and ended up hitting the wall in turn two pretty hard and broke a toe link," Castroneves said in a post-race interview. "I should have actually just brought it in slower. We went really fast trying to fix the car, and then obviously when I hit the banking, the car just snapped to the right. It’s disappointing because the No. 91 Wendy’s Chevy was really good. The boys on the Project 91 team did an amazing job. They have a little bit of work to do, unfortunately. It wasn’t the night that we wanted, but we’ll take the provisional. So many people have been talking about it, but we will take it and we will learn more for the race.”
Castroneves was also struck by just how much happens in in the middle of a Daytona pack, saying: "There’s so much going on. It’s actually incredible. The way the package is, it’s impressive. There was a lot to learn, no question about it. There was a lot of movement in the car; a lot of air flow and a lot of brake-checking that you need to be aware of. But as long as you hold steady, it’s pretty good. I wish we could have kept it going.”
Running out of backups
As the Duels progressed, three of Trackhouse's four cars were completely destroyed (only Ross Chastain escaped unscathed). This presented a serious dilemma as they only had two backup cars at the track. Those backups went to full-time drivers Shane van Gisbergen and Daniel Suarez while the team opted to work overnight repairing Castroneves' machine.
They replaced the entire front clip, pulling the engine out in the process. The rear of the car was completely pulled apart as well as they essentially rebuilt both the front and rear of the No. 91 Chevrolet. Castroneves missed out on Friday practice as a result, but he did get 14 laps in the final practice session on Saturday.
Helio wrecks his way to an ARCA top-five
While Castroneves was short on the Cup lap experience he wanted, he certainly earned plenty of situational experience in the weekend's wild ARCA race where chaos reigned from green flag to checkered — he was in the middle of it all.
Within the first five laps of the race, the beginning of the chaos ensued, setting the tone for the entire event. Exiting Turn 4 as one driver lost control in the draft, Castroneves dove towards the pits, choosing to run through the grass to avoid two spinning cars. He came out of the incident mostly fine, only damaging the front valance. The nonstop ARCA calamity racked up five wrecks in the first half of the race.
"I'm avoiding more the crashes here than trying to learn about racing," radioed Castroneves. Unfortunately, his participation in the crashes wasn't even near done. He spun sideways, touching the outside wall before taking yet another trip through the grass. At this point, frustrations were mounting for the IndyCar legend, who could called it "unbelievable" as the team made repairs to his battered No. 82 Wendy's machine. Among the noticeable battle scars was a massive dent in the right-side door.
Shockingly, the car was still able to run well in the pack. Castroneves climbed as high as second in the field, helping his teammate 'Butterbean' Queen get the lead. On the final lap, he fell back while Queen took the victory, but still crossed the line with an impressive top-five finish. But keeping with the theme of the day, he found himself in the final crash of the race. In one final moment of absurdity, the 'cool-down lap' did not live up to its name as Castroneves got turned head-on into the wall after the checkered flag, crashing heavily at the entrance of Turn 1. As the safety crew came over to check on him, Castroneves could only laugh. His car was completely destroyed, but he still walked away with a top-five finish.
Despite all this, the biggest challenge still lies ahead of him with 200 laps of the NASCAR Cup Series action in the 67th running of the Daytona 500. Entering the week, the IndyCar legend dreamed of matching fellow racers A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti in history as the only drivers to win both the Indy 500 and Daytona 500. However, at this point, he may be thrilled just to make it to the checkered flag with his car in one piece.
Photos from Saturday of Daytona 500
2025 Daytona 500 - Saturday
2025 Daytona 500 - Saturday
2025 Daytona 500 - Saturday
2025 Daytona 500 - Saturday
2025 Daytona 500 - Saturday
2025 Daytona 500 - Saturday
2025 Daytona 500 - Saturday
2025 Daytona 500 - Saturday
2025 Daytona 500 - Saturday
