INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Helio Castroneves knew he needed a perfect race to win the Indianapolis 500 from the No. 19 starting spot.
He almost did it — again.
After barely avoiding two crashes, he failed to make the go-ahead pass on the second-to-last lap of Sunday’s race and the three-time Indianapolis 500 champion wound up settling for his third runner-up finish. The Brazilian also finished second in 2003 and 2014.
Castroneves was 0.2011 seconds behind Japan’s Takuma Sato, and it came on his eighth attempt to get a record-tying fourth 500 win.
Still, it was the brightest moment on the 500 schedule for the usually strong Team Penske. The five-driver pack struggled over the previous two weeks in practice and qualifying.
