Castroneves, MSR Win Indianapolis 500

Helio Castroneves drove to his fourth Indianapolis 500 victory on Sunday, giving championship-winning IMSA squad Meyer Shank Racing its first NTT IndyCar Series win in the series’ biggest race.

The Brazilian took his Honda-powered Dallara to a narrow win over the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing entry of Alex Palou in the fastest Indianapolis 500 in history.

It came in Castroneves’ debut with the Ohio-based team and in only his second race start of the year after winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona in Wayne Taylor Racing’s Acura ARX-05 in January.

Castroneves becomes the first driver to win both the Indy 500 and Rolex 24 overall in the same year.

“I had to put my elbows up to fight there at the end,” Castroneves said.

“Meyer Shank Racing gave me everything I needed to go fight for the win. Thank you so much to Jim (Meyer) and Mike (Shank) for giving me this chance, and to AutoNation and SiriusXM for supporting us.

“It was so great to be powered by Honda today. We had such an amazing car and the team did an unbelievable job. I can’t believe it!”

Castroneves was driving a second entry from MSR alongside the team’s full-season IndyCar driver Jack Harvey, who finished 18th.

“I don’t even know where to start,” added team co-owner Mike Shank. “Helio drove an incredible race-his experience in this race was there for all to see.

“I’m so proud to have the partnerships that we’ve built to get to this point.

“That starts with Jim, who has made such an impact on this organization since coming on board and goes to AutoNation and SiriusXM, and of course Honda and the folks at HPD have been just amazing.

“This is going to take a long time to soak in, but right now I just am a little at a loss for words to be standing here right now after winning the Indianapolis 500!”