Helio Castroneves earns first win in three years at Iowa Corn 300

It had been over three years since the last time Helio Castroneves won a Verizon IndyCar Series race when the series entered Iowa Speedway this weekend. However that streak ended Sunday when the Penske racer took home the win at the Iowa Corn 300.

Helio Castroneves earns first win in three years at Iowa Corn 300

The last time Castroneves won an IndyCar race was at Belle Isle in Detroit in 2014, which was 54 races ago.

“We focused on something we knew we needed to work on, which was the ability to maintain the life of the tire,” said Castroneves. “That was it. We were finally able to put it together.”

Castroneves’ win was Team Penske’s first at Iowa in 11 attempts.

“We have always been very quick here,” Castroneves said. “We have had a lot of pole positions as a team here.”

After the last cycle of green flag pit stops had taken place, Castroneves came out behind J.R. Hildebrand, who had had the best car on long runs during the race.

“It was definitely the right call to try and challenge for the win,” Hildebrand said. “We held off everybody but one.”

The series now heads to Toronto next Sunday in the first of their last six races of the season. It will be televised by NBCSN at 3:00 p.m.

Iowa Results
1. Helio Castroneves
2. J.R. Hildebrand
3. Ryan Hunter-Reay
4. Will Power
5. Graham Rahal
6. Josef Newgarden
7. Simon Pagenaud
8. Scott Dixon
9. Tony Kanaan
10. James Hinchcliffe
11. Alexander Rossi
12. Ed Carpenter
13. Esteban Gutierrez
14. Max Chilton
15. Charlie Kimball
16. Takuma Sato
17. Marco Andretti
18. Ed Jones
19. Conor Daly
20. Carlos Munoz
21. Mikhail Aleshin