Effusive and emotional by nature, Helio Castroneves could offer up only a simple and humble greeting when he arrived at his team's trackside garage area in Long Beach, Calif., shortly after sunrise Saturday morning."Hey guys, I'm home," Castroneves, 33, told the Team Penske crew, who loudly applauded his arrival -- hugs and handshakes all around.
Only 18 hours earlier, the two-time Indy 500 winner was hearing six verdicts of "not guilty" in his highly-publicized tax evasion case in a Miami federal court. The jury was hung on a final charge prompting the judge to declare a mistrial on that count. After seven months of legal worries, Castroneves -- and his co-defendants, sister Katiucia and attorney Alan Miller, who were also acquitted -- was free to return to the IndyCar circuit.
"It feels like I just woke up from a nightmare," Castroneves said before taking a few moments to compose himself in his first post-trial press conference on Saturday.
"Everyone knows I'm a pretty emotional guy and to go through that with my family, it was difficult. ... I tell you, I never lost faith. I might have questioned it a bit every now and then, but those prayers that people sent me kept me really strong and focused. ...
"My life is definitely starting all over.''
And yet, it is also picking up where it left off.
Driver Will Power, who had been driving Castroneves' No. 3 Team Penske car turned over the keys, so to speak, telling him, "The car's ready for you, the car's fast." And Castroneves climbed in, belted-up and posted the seventh fastest speed of 23 cars in practice -- his first laps in nearly six months.
"He asked me, 'Is it a dream?' " Team Penske President Tim Cindric shared, adding with a grin, "I told him, 'No, it's reality, so don't stall it. A lot of people are watching.' "
"And I didn't, I was focused on that," Castroneves said as the room erupted in laughter.
Castroneves followed up his practice session with an eighth place qualifying run and will start his first race since October from the fourth row. Equally as impressive, Power jumped into a third Team Penske car and with only one practice session in the new ride still managed to win the pole position for Sunday's race.
Castroneves' team owner, Roger Penske, flew in Saturday from the NASCAR race in Phoenix to be with his lead driver. Far from cutting ties with Castroneves after the federal indictment, the legendary team owner has been supremely loyal and committed -- just as publicly supportive of Castroneves as he has been supportive in private.
It was Penske's idea to make sure there were three cars at Long Beach so that should Castroneves be cleared in time, he could race immediately.
"I felt until he was proven guilty, there was no reason for me not to support him,'' Penske said. "Obviously we were concerned ... but he had to know that the people he's been around were still with him. We had to in some way, say, 'We've got our arms around you.' "
The Long Beach Grand Prix is slated to start just after 3 PM ET on Sunday.
"Now I just want to go back to my normal life, talk to my engineers and set up my car ... that kind of thing," said Castroneves, who insisted, "It feels like riding a bicycle and I could never ask for a better way to forget."
Added Penske, "To me, it's over. He's back to where he wants to be."
Now let's go race.
