Castroneves fined!

[Down F0rce]

FORT WORTH, Texas – IRL officials penalized Helio Castroneves for jumping a restart late in the Chevy 500.

Castroneves, driver of the No. 3 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Toyota/Firestone, will keep his victory in the IRL IndyCar® Series season finale, but was fined $50,000 and docked 15 points for accelerating before the designated restart point on the track during the final restart.

Castroneves remains fourth in the final standings. - From IndyRacing.com

Too be expected really, that was a pretty obvious jump start.

[Kicking-back]

I think he decided that it would be worth paying such a penalty to guarantee winning the race.

[luke]

Although it ensured him the victory I still think they made the right decison.

[GP Racer]

He's had some terible re-starts this season, one that cost him a race, and others that lost him several track positions.

Yeah, there's a good chance he knew about jumping that re-start, and said the hell with it, I need to win this race! To bad though, we could have had a nice 3 way battle for the finish!

[MLM]

It was a "classic, open-wheel" (or as my Dad would say "classic sprint car" ) start.
Not too much different from the re-start Emmo pulled on Nigel Mansell at Indy (1993).

Those Brazilians are quick learners!
(wish we had more like them in school! )

[esorniloc]

I think they have should have taken the win off him.

I mean he lost 15pts, but he still won the race.
What's to say that next season someone is in a similar situation and they make a similar jump and it gets them the win as well.

It sets an unfortunate standard for the future.

[Team Owner]

The IRL has learned what Nascar and many other forms of motor racing have learned and that is the fans saw Helio win the race and left the track thinking he had won. You don't cheat the fans. He was docked enough points and the fine was pretty high. He did jump the restart but understand this. Lets say you're Dan or any of the other drivers behind Helio, you KNOW he's gonna jump the start so why didn't Dan tuck up behind him and go when he goes. Dan Wheldon learned a little Sunday. If Dan had gone with Helio, nothing would have happened. Dan got "brain-screwed " by a very experienced driver.

OBTW, Helio jumped the start by 200 yards <G>

[N I Tram]

Very true Team Owner. Formula 1 has made the msitake far too often of imposing reprospective penalties, which essentially mean that the guys who pay good money to go and see the race haven't seen the full event. $50,000 isn't a small amount of money to be fined. It's not as if Helio endangered anyone.