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Castroneves "dreams every day" about fourth Indy 500 win

Helio Castroneves once again has the opportunity to join an elite group with a fourth Indianapolis 500 victory this weekend.

Helio Castroneves, Team Penske Chevrolet

Helio Castroneves, Team Penske Chevrolet

Scott R LePage / Motorsport Images

Where's victory circle, again?
Helio Castroneves, Team Penske
Helio Castroneves
Helio Castroneves, Team Penske Chevrolet
Helio Castroneves, Team Penske Chevrolet
Helio Castroneves, Team Penske Chevrolet
Race winner Helio Castroneves celebrates

How important is getting that coveted fourth win to Helio? According to him, it's something he thinks about quite a bit.

"I dream every day man," he told Motorsport.com. "Every time I look at this ring here, (I think) it would be great to be in that elite group with Mr. Mears, A.J. Foyt and Al Unser Sr."

Having won this race on three occasions and lost it many more, the 42-year-old is well aware of what it takes to emerge victorious in this event, but there are times where one can do everything perfectly and still come up short.

"Things have to line up together for the possibility to win. You’ve got to put yourself in that position as well. Even when I did that before, I got defeated and sometimes, the track picks the winner. It’s outside of your control sometimes."

But if the Brazilian wants to win on Sunday, he's going to have to come from further back in the field than he ever has before after qualifying 19th. It's a difficult place to be, especially for the initital start where drivers will take the green flag three-by-three. 

"I’m anxious I would say, not concerned," explained the Team Penske driver. "Things could happen outside my control, but I hope everyone understands that to win the race, you got to first finish. Hopefully everybody’s got the same mindset and pay extra attention and we can all get through without a problem. That’s my biggest - not concern - but trying to see if it will be okay."

Despite four of the five Penske entries qualifying deep in the pack, Castroneves remains confident in their race pace. "I know we have (the pace). You don’t win the race in the fastest car, you win the race in a consistent car with good strategy and a good team and we have all the above."

He later added: "We are going to fight as hard as we can. We have a lot of challenges in front of us, but we have a lot of heart too. This team is the best when they are in a pressure situation, and I feel we are going to succeed.”

So what is the No. 3 lacking with just one hour of practice left before the green flag? The same thing many Chevrolet teams are searching for: "Here we feel we have one of the best balanced cars, but you have to have a little more power to help be up front."

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