NEW YORK, NY (April 3, 2002) - Since joining Team Penske in 2000, Helio Castroneves was able to fully demonstrate his talent, including winning six CART events in 2000 and 2001, and best of all, the prestigious Indy 500 victory in 2001. In 2002, Roger Penske decided to move his Team Penske operation to the rival series Indy Racing League. Castroneves, along with his teammate Gil de Ferran, got off a good start right from the get-go, including his second IRL victory at Phoenix.

Before his testing session at Nazareth, PA, Helio Castroneves sat down with NYAutoRacing.com's Kevin Ma at Midtown's Brasserie 8 ½ and talked about the transaction between series and his perspective of winning the Indianapolis 500 last year.

KEVIN MA: Helio, how's life with the Indy Racing League. What are the differences compare to the years you spent in CART?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: The cars are different, and the competitors are different. Since I spent more of my time in CART, when you came to a new series in different cars with less power and more downforce it was quite difficult. Okay we have a fantastic team, but in this kind of situation you do have to adapt. We tested a lot in the beginning to find the basic setup, and since we have only ovals in the series that means it is even more competitive. On the road courses sometimes the car is not very good and in many cases you just need to hold on and wait for the pit stops, but on the ovals when the car is not good you just want to park it and go home. By saying that it is more of a team and more of a car instead of just the driver. I still think the series is more about the whole package. Again, when we joined Team Penske (I am speaking for Gil [de Ferran] as well), we knew that we have to work together. I won a lot of races and Gil won two [CART] championships. Moving to a new series, we have to start all over. Thinking about the job we have accomplished, naturally the results are going to show. We started right off at Homestead, which for me it was a great result. Second race we were first and second and third race we were fourth and fifth, basically Gil and I were following each other! Do I miss the road course? Yes! It is where I raced and grew up with -- turning right and left, but you can't just thinking about the past. You have a totally new challenge in your career and sometimes you just have to go for it. So far it's been good, but we still have to work twice as hard to make sure we keep our good performance in the future.

KM: Based on the first three races, it looks like the championship will come down to Team Penske and Panther Racing. Sam Hornish Jr. and his Panter Racing certainly have more experience in the series. What sort of things you and your teammate Gil de Ferran can do to overcome this deficit?

HC: Well, we are testing, that's one of the reasons why we are going to tracks that we haven't been there. Unfortunately one thing everybody has to consider - any tracks we go, it is going to be our first time except for Indy. We just have to do what we think and use the data to adjust our cars. I think more teams are going to show up later in the season, like last year Buddy Lazier won four or five races in the middle of the season. In this business, you can never count out your competitors; they may find something all of the sudden and be competitive from then on. My attitude is to keep working, keep collecting points and obviously win the Indy 500. It is going to be tough and I just have to keep up.

KM: Was Fontana a good indication for the Indy 500 in terms of qualifying? Also how will the team's experience come into play for the 500-mile race?

HC: I think Fontana is close to 500 miles and it was a good indication in terms of reliability, but I don't think the track will have anything to do with Indy. First of all, Fontana has a lot of banking compare to Indy, as it is very flat from my viewpoint. We used 1-inch Gurney at Fontana and it is different at Indy. We are going to have the whole month at Indianapolis, so we are going to have the basic setup then adjust the car accordingly. With the ever-changing conditions, it is going to be a totally new experience and patience is going to be the key.

I was so upset last year after qualifying 11th, then we went back to Japan [for CART's Motegi race] and I saw the drama of Michael Andretti trying to qualify, and then I thought 11th isn't that bad! Again in the race, it doesn't matter where I started, I just kept my pace on the top ten and with 50 laps to go, and I was leading the way. I was patient the whole race and it was good enough in the end. I am sure this year's race will have a wheel-to wheel finish, and I am still learning, which is good.

KM: There will be more competition this year with your olds friends from CART returning to the Memorial Day event. Is this year's Indy 500 going to be more exciting than ever because of that?

HC: Old friends?

KM: What do you call them?

HC: Competitors is more like it. Everybody always wants to be in the Indy 500. I think it is even more fun to have some of them racing there. A lot of drivers like Tony Kannan and Dario Franchitti have never raced at the track before, and they will have to go through rookie orientation [the Speedway eventually skipped that process for CART drivers], and I am going to go there and say "Been there, done that." Having them over there is going to make the experience more fun and I do think the race will be even more competitive. When you go to school, it is always nice to see people from your old class, and I have the same feeling about having them over there. I do think the race is going to be more successful.

KM: What is the prestige of the Indianapolis 500? Looking back you can't just pick any driver to win the race.

HC: Since 1911, basically when you have a tradition like that, everybody wants to be a winner. You also notice, not always the fastest guy win the race over there. If I am not mistaken, it is the more experienced drivers who won the race. Aside from regular IRL drivers, we are going to have CART drivers racing there, and in the past we had Formula One drivers and last year we had NASCAR drivers [Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon]. I do believe that's the prestige of the race. It is out of this world already when you are able to participate, and on race day when the grandstands fill up it is just something else. Paul Tracy once told me when you go into Turn 1, it is all fans and noise, and it is just something magical about the race. I eventually experienced last year and it was unbelievable.

KM: I talked to Emerson Fittipaldi few weeks ago and he said he is so proud of you to win last year's 500 as a Brazilian. How do you feel, as a Brazilian, winning this special event for your home country?

HC: When Emerson won the race and I believe it was the first time I saw the race. He won a million dollar prize and we all said "Oh my god he is a rich driver now." And then I came here and with the fallout between CART and the IRL in 1996, I just saw myself not being in the race in the near future. Obviously Indianapolis is THE race, the most famous race in the world. As you know, soccer is huge in Brazil, and last year the Indy 500 clashed with the Brazilian soccer finals, but people still watching the race. I heard people have two TVs, one for the Indy 500 and one for the soccer finals. It was nice that people saw me on TV when I won the race.

KM: Do you enjoy ovals more with the higher fencing, compare to the ones on road courses.

HC: It is different. At Phoenix I climbed pretty high. When I won the race, the first thing came to my mind was to climb the fences. Nowadays people are expecting me to do that, so it is a good feeling.

KM: Yes, you climbed pretty high and you almost reached the flag stand at Phoenix. Can you climb up the fences and land on the flag stand next time you win the race?