Helio Castroneves breaks 3-year winless drought in Iowa Corn 300

NEWTON — Helio Castroneves' signature victory celebration was a little more taxing than he remembered.

The Team Penske driver led 217 laps in the Iowa Corn 300 at Iowa Speedway on Sunday en route to his first victory in more than three years. His 30th career win was followed by his trademark climbing of the front stretch fence.

With so much time between trips up the chain link, he almost forgot how much work it was.

'I didn't think climbing the fence would get harder this time,' Castroneves said through a grin after the race. 'It was the same feeling looking through the fence, seeing everyone's faces. That's a feeling no one can take away from you. That's what motivates me more to come back now and do what I just did.'

Castroneves picked up the first win at Iowa Speedway for Team Penske, broke a tie with former Penske driver Rick Mears for 12th on the all-time IndyCar wins list Sunday, and also passed Al Unser Sr. for fourth on the all-time laps-led list, reaching 5,947.

Those 'fun facts' had Castroneves exclaiming at the media center podium, but even more than that, what had him exclaiming after the race was the relief of so many close calls in the last three seasons where he came up short for victories while still being competitive.

The Brazilian had 13 podiums and collected 12 poles in the 53 races between wins, and in the two full seasons in which he didn't win, 2015 and 2016, he finished fifth and third, respectively. There were tire issues, crashes, bad luck on strategy and eight runner-up finishes — most recently this year's Indianapolis 500, in which he led in the closing laps before being passed for the win by Takuma Sato.

It's hard to feel too bad for a guy with 30 wins for the biggest team in the garage, but every manner of thing that could happen to a driver to prevent a win happened to Castroneves during his drought.

'Finally, everything came together,' Castroneves said. 'You can never stop believing, and my team never stopped supporting me on that, and today was great. Everything went great. Didn't have a yellow at the wrong time, we didn't have issues with the tire or anything else or mechanical. Everything was really, really good, and when you have a day like this, you've got to execute.'

Sunday's runner-up finisher, J.R. Hildebrand, jokingly scoffed at a question of what Castroneves has been through the last three years — drivers are preternaturally selfish in the way of wanting to win, after all — saying 'they should go out and be competitive every weekend, and we're here to beat them and take down the Dark Empire.'

More seriously, though, Hildebrand gave a nod to a competitor who represents the sport on a national stage and has brought IndyCar attention no other driver has through his Dancing with the Stars appearance, among other things.

'No BS, though; he does do a great job,' Hildebrand said. 'If somebody has got to win and it's not going to be us in a competitive race like this, it certainly doesn't bother me that it's Helio.

'He's always so excited. He's so passionate about it. You love to see that from guys, particularly guys like him, and him and TK, they're turning back the clock and giving us all a run for our money every weekend. Obviously congrats to those guys, but we'd much rather be beating them.'

Castroneves got congratulations from a bunch of people after the win, but one of the first was his teammate Simon Pagenaud, who finished seventh. Pagenaud jumped out of his car, climbed over the infield wall and ran out to the start/finish line, where Castroneves was being interviewed by TV, to shake his hand.

It was a gesture based on gratitude as much as affection from the defending series champion.

'He's the best teammate you could have,' Pagenaud said. 'When your teammate wins, to me, you've got to be a gentleman and congratulate him for the good job. That's how I am. I love the guy. To me it was a pleasure to go there and feel happy for him.'

Castroneves now sits eight points shy of Scott Dixon, who finished eighth Sunday, in the championship standings. The 20-year veteran has never won an IndyCar title, finishing second in the championship four times — including in back-to- back years in 2013 and 2014.

With his future as a full-time IndyCar driver in question amid hints he'll move to sports cars with Team Penske next year, picking up a win at Iowa and vaulting squarely into the title race is plenty of motivation for the rest of the year.

And maybe if that happens, the fence climb won't be as much of a surprise.

'I always come to this place (thinking), 'This is the year. This is the year it's going to happen. This is the year we're going to break through,' (and) I didn't think different this year, either,' Castroneves said. 'There was no extra motivation. My extra motivation is every time I finish a season I just can't wait to come back again and do better, whether if it's a place that I haven't win, if it's a place, a championship that I'm still looking for, so that's what keeps me motivated.'

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