The RACER.com Guest Mailbag with Acura Team Penske

It was one of those questions that kept popping up: would Penske ever return to sports car racing? And the answer came in mid-2017, when the team and Acura pulled the wraps off plans for a joint multi-year DPi program in IMSA's WeatherTech series. 

The program delivered its first win through Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor at Mid-Ohio in 2018, and backed it up with a championship through the sister car of Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron last year.

Thanks to everyone who sent questions in, and we’re grateful to Helio, Ricky, Dane and Juan Pablo for taking the time to answer them. 

If you missed the previous Guest Mailbags with Mario Andretti, the Haas Formula 1 team and Jimmie Johnson, you can catch up on those here:

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DANE CAMERON

Q: Which is easier to drive – a DPi or GT3 Acura? Are you looking forward to the chance to race at Le Mans?

Jim Kupstas

DANE CAMERON: That depends! DPi is tougher to get the maximum performance out of, as you need to be so precise. But the GT3 is actually a little more physical as you need so much more brake pressure to stop the car, as well as the cockpit temperature being higher. DPi is a softer with the controls, but the big G-forces are hard on the body, especially the neck.

And I am very excited for the chance to race at Le Mans. I have not raced there yet, so it’s at the top of my bucket list! The possibilities that convergence could provide are huge for sports car racing. Fingers crossed, for sure…

Q: Would you trade your sports car deal with Penske for a season in IndyCar?

Ned Smith

DC: Just one season? Tough question. I actually get this one a lot. I grew up watching IndyCar races at Laguna Seca, so a part of me does want to fulfill that childhood dream someday before I am old and slow.

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HELIO CASTRONEVES

Q: Helio, you are truly one of my favorites and I really miss your presence in IndyCar. I have a few questions if you don’t mind? Which driver(s) pissed you off the most on a regular or semi-regular basis, and why? What are your two most disappointing and/or frustrating Indy 500s?

Dunivan Savage

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Thank you, Dunivan. It pisses me off whatever driver is in front me. I want to be in front of them! The most frustrating 500 was in 2003, when I had the best car in the field. I was cruising around until I got to a slow car in Turn 2 and made me lose the lead. I was not able to get it back.

Q: Which is more fun, IndyCars or sports cars?

 Ned Smith

HC: IndyCar is in my DNA, however I’m a racer and any time I’m behind the steering wheel I have fun. I love working together with my teammates and developing the Acura ARX-05 Prototype at Team Penske, and I feel our best is yet to come.

For Helio, the 2003 Indy 500 was the one that got away. He's got three other baby Borgs to console himself with, though. Image by Levitt/Motorsport Images

Q: Are there any types of racing you’d still like to try (stock cars, drag racing, sprint cars, etc.)? Which types and why? Of any past race car drivers, who would you most have liked to compete against? Who was your favorite driver you ever raced against, and in what series?

Thanks,

Brad Hagemann

HC: I would love to try a stock car, just to feel how it is. It would be a honor to compete with Rick Mears, A.J. Foyt and  Mario Andretti. I had a lot of fun with my teammates at Team Penske; they were the best in the business and I’ve learned a lot from them during my career.

Q: You’ve had a long and amazing career, hopefully with lots more still ahead. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned along the way?

Michael Brodie

HC: When you work hard, dedicate your time and dream big… your dream will come true, and God always has a plan.

Q: How difficult has the transition from IndyCars to sports cars been? They do have similarities and differences, with the most obvious similar item being all of the specialists that work on the race teams, and the obvious difference being one driver in IndyCar and up to three drivers for one car in IMSA.

Matthew Jackson, Ohio

HC: There are challenges with the sport cars, for sure. The cars are similar in cornering speeds, but in the race every corner is different because of many different series racing together. Sharing the car means compromising in little details, and that makes a big difference.

Q: Thanks for answering our questions, Helio. I’m a huge fan and have met you at the track a few times, and you’ve always taken time out for fans. Here’s my question. You came so close to winning an IndyCar championship so many times… is there one ‘near miss’ that stings the most?

Oliver Mizzi

HC: Thanks Oliver for bringing those memories back. Yes, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2017… You know, I may not have won a championship, but what I am most proud of is that every year from 1998 till 2017, I was only out of top five in four seasons…1998/1999/2000/2011. That shows I really fought hard, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

Q: Hi Helio. One of the amazing things about your IndyCar career is how consistent you were in the championship standings – for years and years, you were almost always somewhere between second and fourth. The outlier was 2011, and I’m curious about what didn’t click for you that year, whether it was mentally hard to manage a season when things weren’t going right, and what it felt like to rebound by winning straight out of the gate at St. Pete in 2012?

Thanks!

Michael Mills

HC: They changed the rules that year for double-file restarts every time there was a yellow, just like NASCAR. I did not adapt well and it forced me to change my style from right foot braking to left foot braking. Once I adapted to the new style, I was ready for 2012!

Q: I wanted to tell a quick story about Helio. Back in the late ‘90s my father and I were going to our local kart track in St. Louis to run some practice laps on a hot Saturday in the summer. As I park the trailer, I see this guy walk past with a pristine white driving suit and impeccable hair. Some time passes, we are unloading the kart, and he walks by again and I glance up and see was a Mercedes Benz decal across the visor on the helmet that he is carrying as he walks by. Now I am intrigued.

I look down at where he is parked and there is a Hogan van, a kart, and maybe two other people. So I start to put it all together – Hogan van, clean white driving suit, perfect hair… it’s Helio Castroneves! So I tell my father, and he looks at me like I am crazy.

I wait for Helio to go out on the track and I make sure that I introduce myself. We shake hands, I tell him he had a good run at Michigan (maybe the week before?) and I leave him alone. I do notice that the drivers’ suit said ‘Patrick Carpentier’. So at the end of the day as he is packing up, I walk up to him and ask him to sign my helmet. We have some small talk about how he needs a Ford Cosworth instead of that underperforming Mercedes. He laughs, and they are on their way.

Who would have thought in the years to come that he would be a three-time Indy 500 winner? At the end of that year, Greg Moore died tragically and Helio signed with Penske. I still tell my daughters that I once shared the track with an Indy 500 winner on our drive home from Indy. 

Greg Seep, St Louis, MO

HC: Thanks for the story Greg, who knows I will go back again to St. Louis!

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RICKY TAYLOR

Q: Sometimes you see one family like the Unsers where everybody is quick, and then in some families you get members that aren't as quick as the first guy. What makes a whole family like yours so fast?

John G. Hill

RICKY TAYLOR: It’s very hard to describe. What’s been useful for me and Jordan is that we are a really close family. More than genetics, I think it’s the approach and teaching that goes on between father and son, and vice versa.

Q: It’s been fun watching Scott McLaughlin’s forays into IndyCar. Are you taking sideways looks at other Penske programs in the hope of someday doing something similar? Bathurst looks like it would be fun…

Richard Broomham

RT: Yeah, that’s the cool thing about Team Penske. Within the program you can do just about any race around the world. I think I need to earn it first, as Scott has with his championships. I’m certainly going to be watching him. Bathurst or one of the IndyCar road courses would be ideal for me. Road America in an IndyCar would be awesome.

While Penske's Supercars star Scott McLaughlin likes the look of IndyCar, Ricky Taylor fancies a trip to Bathurst. (Although an IndyCar at Road America would be fine, too). Image by Klynsmith/Motorsport Images

Q: What did it feel like the first time you had to go door-to-door with one of the Wayne Taylor Racing cars?

Ryan Savage

RT: It didn’t happen as often as we thought it would, but the very first year at Long Beach (2018) my brother and I had a big battle. It was a lot of fun, but I also wanted to show them I will race them hard. I definitely couldn’t crash into them, but we had a great battle that day. It was the most intense battle we’ve had, so it’s calmed down quite a bit since then.

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JUAN PABLO MONTOYA

Q: Juan, you’re probably one of the most diverse drivers in the modern era. What was the most difficult open-wheel car to handle on an oval: the CART-era stuff, IRL machines, or the modern DW12?

Thanks, Kevin from Michigan

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: Probably the most challenging was the CART-era car, because of the speed. Whereas they are doing 215mph on the intermediate ovals now, we were approaching 235-240mph. That made it much more challenging.

Q: Hey Juan! One of my favorite races of all time was you driving the wheels off of Chip's Daytona Prototype at Indy [in 2012], and the wheel-banging in T1. It was spectacular to watch. What do you remember about that race?

Thanks, Dave Sutton

JPM: I remember when I got in the car we had some aero pieces that fell off and we didn’t have good pace. It was actually in T4, and the guy never saw me and turned into me. He made a big deal about it, but I didn’t have much of an issue. You know how drivers can be.

Q: Hi Juan Pablo. You have driven for the greatest team owners during your career. Please would you use just two or three words to describe each one – Frank Williams, Ron Dennis, Chip Ganassi and Roger Penske?

Thanks, Andrew Hodgson, UK

JPM: Frank: Friendship and respect. Ron: Organization and unpredictable. Chip: Passionate and loud. Roger: All of the above. Generous, leader, honest, nice and unbelievable.

Q: Juan, do you feel special pressure from Fernando Alonso in Triple Crown chase? Are you excited about the IMSA/WEC alliance? That will for sure be a dream come true for Roger Penske.

Jakub Dradrach, Wroclaw, Poland

JPM: Very excited about the alliance. I just want to have a competitive car. It’s hard to predict where things are going and how rules are going to be. Honestly, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the Triple Crown. If the opportunity comes, then I absolutely would do whatever it took to win it. It would be an amazing accomplishment, but it’s not something that keeps me up at night.

Q: A two-part question, starting with Indianapolis Motor Speedway as I share fond memories of being in the infield when you won your second Indy 500 in 2015. Now that Mr. Penske is leading IMS, do you see yourself racing again at the Brickyard (Indy 500, NASCAR)? Maybe even in IMSA?

Also, Penske has historical ties with Le Mans, competing both as driver in 1963 (starting from pole) and as a team owner in 1971 with Mark Donohue and David Hobbs. Sadly both outings at Le Mans ended in mechanical retirements. How important is it for you and Roger to return to Le Mans with the introduction of the LMDh category convergence? Would you see yourself returning to Le Mans in LMP2, in anticipation of the new LMDh cars?

Pablo Diaz, natively from Bogota, Colombia and a Houston, TX resident.

JPM: If IMSA runs there, for sure. Would I like to run the oval again? Absolutely, but likely just in a Cup car for the Brickyard 400. Not sure if I want to get in the Indy 500 again. And it would be amazing if we could go to Le Mans. It is in the hands of Acura if they want to go. Personally speaking I think it would be amazing, and I would love the opportunity to represent Roger, Team Penske and Acura at such a historic race.

Montoya dives inside Michael Schumacher at the Bus Stop during the 2004 Belgian GP. "[Schumacher] was great, don't get me wrong, but people just got out of the way for him." Image by Motorsport Images

Q: Among your F1 contemporaries, who was the most underrated and who was the most overrated?

Larry Parker, Aurora, CO

JPM: The most underrated is difficult to tell. When I was there, no one was bringing any money. Everyone was there because they deserved to be there. Most of the drivers at that time were pretty damn good.

Q: Hi Juan. I have followed your career since day 1 in CART and what a career it's been. Congratulations! In CART/IndyCar, F1, NASCAR and IMSA, who would you say was the best/toughest competitor? And overall best of the best?

Thanks much,

Rick Hughes, Deer River, MN

JPM: Every series has its own tough competitors. F1 was hard in some ways but easy in others. Same with NASCAR, IndyCar, etc. Michael Schumacher had the respect of a lot of guys back then. He was great, don’t get me wrong, but people just got out of the way for him.

Q: Thanks for answering our questions, Juan Pablo. I’m curious to know what it’s been like watching [son] Sebastian come up through the ranks? Do you see similarities in his driving style and approach to what you were like when you were 15 or 16?

Eric from Ohio

JPM: He is way ahead of where I was at his age. The young kids are so evolved mentally and physically. It’s been amazing to watch, but it is what it takes. He needs to understand that and to see what it takes to get the job done. I’m very proud of him, obviously and look forward to his future.

Q: Hello Juan. One of the things I like about your career is the range of cars you’ve driven. But how hard was it go jump straight from an F1 car to a NASCAR? Was that the hardest jump you’ve made in terms of the work needed to adapt?

Nicholas Priest, UK

JPM: I think coming back to IndyCar was harder that going from F1 to NASCAR. I thought going back to IndyCar was going to be easy because of my past experience, but it was a shocker in how hard it was.