Along with Montoya, Penske to also move Castroneves to Sportscars with Acura (4th Update)

IndyCar will lose one of it's biggest stars

IndyCar is losing one of it's biggest stars

UPDATE Team Penske today confirmed that Helio Castroneves will be joining Team Penske’s full-time Acura Daytona Prototype International (DPi) driver lineup in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for 2018.

09/20/17 Castroneves went straight from Sunday's IndyCar championship showdown in California to the Sebring circuit in Florida to get his first taste of the Acura ARX-05 DPi.

"It was fun; the car is awesome," he told RACER. "I was very impressed. It was more to get acclimated, to learn the brakes, all the different stuff, so I could get some seat time. And who doesn't want to drive with Juan [Pablo] Montoya? I was like, 'I miss you, man! It's a blast being together again."

07/11/17 This rumor is 'fact' now. Team Penske scheduled a press conference today at 2PM along with Acura's Art St Cyr to announce Penske's DPI Acura assault on IMSA.

07/09/17 This rumor is upgraded to 'strong' today. With Helio Castroneves appearing likely to be nearing the end of his full-time IndyCar career, all indicators point to the Brazilian staying with Team Penske to begin a new chapter in sports cars.

Castroneves, the three-time Indy 500 winner, is expected to join Penske teammate and fellow Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya as two pillars of the Captain's upcoming Honda Daytona Prototype international program.

It's believed Honda will have significant input on the identity of the other two drivers needed to complete the four-person roster for the full 2018 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar. Marshall Pruett/Racer

Is the Captain looking for more young blood for his IndyCar team?

The captain runs Ford in NASCAR, Chevy in IndyCar and now Acura in IMSAs next to impossible?

03/16/17 As reported on Motorsport.com, a potential Penske sportscar deal is playing a part in The Captain’s ongoing relationship with Montoya, who he said “would be top of the list to drive for us.

"That’s been part of the discussion when he thought about wanting to run another year [full-season with a rival IndyCar team]. I said, ‘Look, let’s run you at Indy – we’ll run you at the road race and the 500. And you’re at the top of the list if we do something [in sportscar]. That’s as honest as I can be."

Penske hinted that a similar arrangement to Montoya’s might also be made for his three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves, who is now in his 18th season with the team’s IndyCar arm.

Penske told Motorsport.com last summer that even if the Brazilian star retired from full-time IndyCar racing, the team wanted to continue running him as a one-off entry in the Indy 500. Last weekend he implied that might be supplemented by a fulltime ride in IMSA.

“[Helio] is an absolute winner at Indy and I thought he had a good chance last year until he got whacked up the back," said Penske. “If we did [sportscars] he would probably be part of that, but we haven’t made a final decision yet."