By alley - Dec 4, 2015, 1:52 PM ET

IndyCar season review: Helio Castroneves

What will you remember the 2015 IndyCar season for? Juan Pablo Montoya's teflon coating wearing off right at the time he needed it most? The introduction of the aero kits, several years after they were first mooted? Rocky Moran Jr.'s inspiring hour of track time at Long Beach?

To try to make sense of it all, RACER's Marshall Pruett, Robin Miller and Mark Glendenning asked each other some searching questions about all of 2015's regulars, which for the purpose of this review, includes anyone who started a minimum of half the races. Look for new installments every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

HELIO CASTRONEVES
2015 starts: 16
2015 best finish: 2nd (NOLA, Long Beach, Milwaukee)
2015 championship position: fifth; 453pts

What was more surprising: Helio going without a win for only the second time in the past 16 IndyCar seasons, or his comparative disappearance at Indianapolis, where he's always expected to vie for the win?

ROBIN MILLER: It's probably his not visiting Victory Lane, especially considering it was one of Helio's best-ever seasons in terms of qualifying. His four poles were complemented by the fact he never started worse than fifth through the first 11 races and his average starting spot was a dazzling fourth for 16 races. He lost Long Beach only because of a long pit stop to avoid contact. As for Indianapolis, other than his thrilling duel with RHR in 2014, the three-time winner has not been a factor at IMS the past few Mays but this year was more puzzling because of Chevy's obvious advantage. Finishing seventh and leading only two laps is not what three-time Indy kings are made of and it was the only oval he never really looked like a factor.

What was more surprising, part two: Simon Pagenaud's problematic Penske debut, or Castroneves out-performing Pagenaud at 11 of 16 races?

MARK GLENDENNING: The former. Helio's ultimate peaks might not be as high as those of some of the guys around him - but neither are his dips. For sheer, relentless, grinding consistency, he's like a faster but less-annoying version of Coldplay: you know what you're going to get before you open the tin. And while that might not translate into as many visits to Victory Lane as he'd like, it's what nearly won him the title a couple of years ago, and what kept him in the hunt for most of 2015 despite his failure to ever finish higher than second.

Pagenaud, on the other hand, is definitely better than he looked in his first foray with Penske: he proved it in all three of the seasons that he spent with Schmidt. We've explored the reasons for his 2015 misfire

elsewhere

so there's little point going over it again now; suffice to say that before St Pete, I'd have happily bet that Castroneves would beat Pagenaud a few times this year. That he'd do it 11 out of 16 times looks a bit lopsided, although to some extent you could maybe explain the disparity away as part of Pagenaud's settling-in process with his new team. But I certainly expected Pagenaud to finish higher than 11th in the points and for me, that was far more of a surprise than his head-to-head score with Helio.

Two wins in the past three seasons, none this year. Should we still be judging Helio by the standards of a Dixon/Power, or is he there to do a different job now?

MARSHALL PRUETT: It's almost a running joke by now: since 2012, I've asked whether Helio's upcoming season is his last, yet the ageless Brazilian still manages to go out and produce for The Captain. Helio's anticipated decline has been barely perceptible since turning 40, and his 2015 season was following a familiar and positive pattern until the wheels fell off during the final four races.

Through Milwaukee, Castroneves was equal with Rahal on 370 points - tied for third in the standings - behind eventual champion Scott Dixon and Penske teammate Juan Montoya, then he failed to crack the top-10 from Iowa through Sonoma, which dropped him to fifth in points.

Without the late-season stumble, Helio and JPM would have been the top producers for Penske last season, which makes me think there's no reason to downgrade Castroneves to a lower status of capabilities or expectations.

Maintaining his status will become a greater challenge as his IndyCar career winds down, but 2015 was not the year where we saw definitive proof of a drop-off in performance. He did go without a win, just like his heralded new teammate Simon Pagenaud, and even team leader Will Power, the defending series champion, only managed one victory.

Helio's five podiums and four poles (earned, amazingly, on a street course, road course, short oval, and superspeedway), and his finishing record (running at the end of 13 of the 16 races) tell me he'll be primed for another top-five run in the championship in 2016.

And if, by chance, he begins to struggle, maybe we can start the countdown to the Castroneves Farewell Tour, but I don't anticipate it would be triggered by a lack of performance anytime soon.