Castroneves Stripped of Edmonton Win, Goes Crazy at IRL Officials

Last weekend's IndyCar race at Edmonton was full of controversy, as Team Penske's Helio Castroneves was stripped of a win he gained on the track. The Brazilian driver crossed the finish line in 1st place but was later handed a time penalty that demoted him to 10th place in the overall classification of the event, a move that got Ganassi's Scott Dixon his second win of the season.

The most frustrating thing about the whole situation is that it was Team Penske who had the most to suffer from it, as the penalty was enforced by the IRL officials after Castroneves blocked the line of his teammate Will Power at the restart of the last caution of the day.

It happened with 3 laps to go, and the IRL informed Team Penske that Castroneves should make a drivethrough run in the pits in the remaining few miles of the race. The Brazilian did not enter the pits and was consequently not shown the chequered flag, which eventually went to Dixon (who had passed Power in the process).

An angry Castroneves then reacted emotionally (to say the least) after getting out of his cockpit, grabbing IRL security director Charles Burns by the collar while blasting IRL technical director Kevin Blanch (the guy in charge with waving the chequered flag at the end of the race). He did calmed down eventually, but insisted that he did nothing wrong to deserve such a penalty.

“Obviously, I disagree with the decisions made by the race officials on the last restart in today's race, but there is no excuse for my actions after the checkered flag. Obviously, I am a very emotional person and today I let my emotions get the better of me and I'm very sorry for that,” said Castroneves.

“I apologise to my team, our sponsors, the fans and the entire IZOD IndyCar Series community for my behavior. My actions were totally wrong and I acted inappropriately to some people who are my friends and people I respect very much,” concluded the Brazilian driver.