Castroneves upbeat after fire

The transporter fire that damaged the cars that Team Penske planned to race this weekend at Infineon Raceway has added another challenge for Helio Castroneves, right, in his effort to catch IndyCar Series leader Scott Dixon.
The primary Dallara-Hondas for both Castroneves and teammate Ryan Briscoe were badly damaged in the fire Wednesday on Interstate 80, west of Cheyenne, Wyo. That leaves a pair of backup cars for the two Penske drivers when practice and qualifying get under way Friday on the Sonoma, Calif., road course.
Castroneves, who trails Dixon by 78 points with only three races remaining, took the loss of his best car philosophically.
“If there's a team that can rebound from something like this, it's Team Penske,” Castroneves said Thursday. “They've done it before, and we're going to do it again. It's tough because you have some small bits, seats for example — I loved the seat that I had and I'm going to have to use the spare one. Little details.
“The car was prepared for here. My guys are going to do what they can. We're going to go out there, put that behind us and, hopefully, that will give us even more motivation to go out there and do well.”
Tim Cindric, president of Penske Performance Inc., said it is hard to estimate the cost of the damage from the fire that apparently started from a wheel bearing failure.
“It really comes down to the amount of work that has to be done,” he said. “The difficult part is the amount of time and effort that goes into the customization of the race cars and the trailer and the pit equipment and that type of thing.
“From a financial perspective it's never easy and never fun, but you run a similar risk every weekend when you crash a race car.”
Cindric estimated the cost of replacing the transporter, cars, equipment and uniforms lost in the fire at between $1 million and $3 million.

-- The Associated Press
Photo: Star-Telegram/Sharon M. Steinman