Castroneves to start patiently, but 'fight hard'

Helio Castroneves says he's going to play things smart as he prepares to start Sunday's Indianapolis 500 from a career-worst grid spot of 19th.

"You've got to pay attention to the people that surround you, make sure that, you control everything on your own, put yourself in a good position so that if somebody makes mistakes, you don't be part of it," he said.

"And being patient, obviously, is always a good thing at this place. Take your time. Obviously when you have a good car, you don't want to rush into things because it's a long race. That's probably what we're going to do."

Castroneves finished on top of the timesheets on Carb Day, the final practice outing before the race, and said that he hoped the performance would be a harbinger of good things to come.

"Qualifying did not work out the way we wanted," he said. "We keep working, digging, obviously finding a way. We're going to fight extremely hard out there and showing a little bit of speed certainly. It creates, I remember [former Indianapolis Colts head coach] Tony Dungy just before the Super Bowl – he finished the practice, everybody really pumped, and I think today it was just a great way to finish practice like this, show that we have a good car, a good balanced car, and we're going for the big one on Sunday."

As well as his solid pace on Friday, Castroneves can take some comfort from history: Several drivers have won at Indy from starting positions lower than 19th, with the all-time record standing at 28th (Ray Harroun in 1911; Louis Meyer in 1936).