IndyCar's Castroneves drives into Detroit on a roll

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DETROIT -- The effervescent and engaging Helio Castroneves does not keep a whole lot to himself, but in his few private moments, the Brazilian-born IndyCar Series driver has to be asking himself: "What does a guy have to do to win this championship?"Castroneves, a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, has followed the formula that is supposed to take one down the path to a season title. If he hasn't been the model of consistency, then no one ever has.Castroneves is the only driver in the series with 13 top-five finishes in the 15 races this season. He had a record seven second-place finishes in the first 14 of those events, but finally shook the bridesmaid role with a win last weekend at Infineon Raceway in California.The Team Penske driver rolls into town this week for Sunday's Detroit Indy Grand Prix trailing series leader Scott Dixon by just 43 points. The Dixon advantage had been 78 points heading into last weekend, and the victory by Castroneves nearly cut that in half."It's like all the hard work has paid off," Castroneves said, reflecting on the win at Infineon, his first in the IndyCar Series since April, 2007, at St. Petersburg.There was more work than anticipated in the final frantic days before the Infineon race. A Team Penske transporter carrying race cars from North Carolina to California caught fire on Interstate 80 in Wyoming when a wheel bearing overheated. Penske had to pull a couple other cars out of storage and quickly prep them for the race."It was a difficult week," Penske president Tim Cindric said, "but it shows the determination of the group that we have and the depth of the team. We would not have won the race if Helio hadn't driven the wheels off it when he needed to. It is a testament to the organization. We will keep going and see where we end up at the end of the year."The Raceway at Belle Isle, a tight 2.906 mile, 14-turn street course, will have a lot to say about where Castroneves finishes the season, since it hosts the first of just two remaining races before the 2008 series champion is crowned. After what the team endured last week, Cindric sees no reason to change strategy now."I think our approach this weekend is the same: We go for broke," Cindric said. "That is the only thing that is going to get us where we need to be."Castroneves earned the first major victory of his open-wheel racing career at the CART race on Belle Isle in 2000, where he unveiled his trademark fence climb. He won the pole here last year and led the race for 26 laps before a crash dropped him to a 14th-place finish."I have so many great memories at Belle Isle," he said. "I'm definitely looking forward to returning, because after being really quick in practice and qualifying last year, we got into some trouble during the race, so I feel like I definitely have some unfinished business there."Dixon, the 2003 IndyCar Series champion who has won a record-tying six races this season, including the Indy 500, was running out front near the end of last year's Belle Isle race before a spin-out left him stranded in the middle of the course. He finished eighth, with Andretti Green Racing driver Tony Kanaan taking the checkered flag.E-mail Matt Markey at mmarkey(at)theblade.com(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)