Teamwork the name of the game for Team Penske

RICHMOND, Va. — When Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti wound up dueling side-by-side — then feuding afterward — during an IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway this season, their big names drew plenty of attention to the spat.

That they were teammates only made it spicier.

It also served to highlight how the drivers under the Team Penske umbrella — Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe — have managed to make working together benefit each other, even while both are always chasing the same checkered flag and top spot in the points race.

“Ryan and I, we’ve been working really, really well together,” Castroneves said during a test at Richmond International Raceway in advance of Saturday night’s visit to the shortest oval the series races. “My philosophy, if you get along with a guy, that can improve your car as well, help you, because remember, we have limited testing. So if he tries something and I’m trying totally the opposite, and we find something, that is benefiting both of us.

“The bad side is he’s going to have the same thing that I have,” said a smiling Castroneves, “but the good news is we’re going to be better than the rest of the field. So if my day’s bad, I’ll hopefully finish second. … The team’s going to have the result.”

It’s a philosophy that Penske insists on, and that both drivers embrace. Briscoe has one victory through seven races and is leading the point standings, and Castroneves has won twice in six starts and is fourth in points, just 29 behind, despite missing the opening race while on trial for tax evasion. He was eventually acquitted.

Penske’s Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, each with two victories, are 2-3 in the points.

“For me, it comes naturally,” Briscoe said, adding it was evident when he interviewed to join the organization that a team-first mentality is something Penske looks for in a driver.

“Internally we all believe that it makes the team stronger when we can work with each other and not against each other,” Briscoe said at RIR.

Patrick, who made an appearance at Richmond International Airport on Thursday, said the communication on her Andretti-Green Racing team also is what makes that unit strong.

She arrives at Richmond fifth in the points race, the top-ranked non-winner.

“What makes you a strong team is that you are honest with each other and that you talk a lot, and that’s something that we always do as a team,” she said. “We always communicate.”

As for the Penske team, if there are differences, owner Roger Penske sets the tone on how to handle them, Castroneves said.

“Obviously people make mistakes. We have emotions. People are human beings,” he said. “But if something like that happens, Roger is the right person to come and talk. It’s not like a father, like, ‘Hey, you cannot do that.’ I just think communication is the key.

“It’s like when you wash clothes, you wash in your house - you don’t go out there and show everybody,” he said. “That’s just the way Team Penske conducts themselves.”

Briscoe said it helps that Penske, with successful teams in NASCAR as well as open-wheel racing, has been a part of the sport for decades, and a great success in business as well.

“He’s a racer. He knows what it’s like to drive a car and he knows what it’s like when the car might not be handling very well and he just really understands what we need and what we can be going through at time,” Briscoe said. “Just a great man to work with.”