New chapter likely for Castroneves with Honda DPi

Castroneves, the three-time Indy 500 winner, is expected to join Penske teammate and fellow Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya as two pillars of the Captain's upcoming Honda Daytona Prototype international program. It's believed Honda will have significant input on the identity of the other two drivers needed to complete the four-person roster for the full 2018 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar.

After transitioning to a part-time role with Penske following the 2016 IndyCar season, Montoya's position as a Honda DPi driver has been anticipated. Thanks to Castroneves' ongoing competitiveness in IndyCar, where he currently holds third in the championship entering Sunday's race at Iowa, the timing of his IMSA transition has been less clear.

If Penske does indeed downsize to three IndyCar entries for reigning champion Simon Pagenaud, 2014 champion Will Power and newcomer Josef Newgarden, the only logical landing spot for Castroneves would be in one of the two Honda DPis that are set to be unveiled in August.

• Penske-Honda DPi program nears unveiling

Although open-wheel racing has been his focus since arriving in America 20 years ago, Castroneves has shown great aptitude for sports cars in the limited number of outings he's made. An LMP2 class win with Team Penske in a Porsche RS Spyder at Petit Le Mans in 2008 serves as the 42-year-old's best result from three starts in the ALMS.

Three starts at the Rolex 24 at Daytona produced a third-place finish in 2008 driving a Penske-Taylor Racing Riley-Pontiac Daytona Prototype, and Castroneves has also made starts in the V8 Supercars series and his native Brazilian Stock Cars championship.