JOLIET, Ill. -- Things just got a lot tougher for Helio Castroneves in his quest to overtake Scott Dixon for the IndyCar Series championship.
Castroneves, who has been trying hard to get into Dixon's head as he chases the New Zealander in their title duel, was penalized after Saturday's qualifying for driving under the white out-of-bounds line at the bottom of the banked Chicagoland Speedway oval.
"He didn't just do it once," IndyCar spokesman John Griffin said. "He did it numerous times."
That negated a solid fourth-place qualifying effort for Castroneves, whose Team Penske teammate, Ryan Briscoe, knocked Dixon off the pole and into second place in the 28-car field.
Now, Castroneves has a much more difficult task in his effort to overcome a 30-point Dixon lead in Sunday's PEAK Indy 300 race, the last points-paying event of the season. The penalty doesn't change the fact that Castroneves needs to win or finish second to keep his hopes alive, while Dixon can wrap up his second title -- and first since 2003 -- by finishing eighth or better.
All the Brazilian can do now is try to get to the front and hope that Dixon has one of his rare off days.
In the first 16 races this season, Dixon has a record-tying six victories and 13 finishes of fifth or better. But he does have three finishes of 11th or worse, too.
Castroneves was not available to comment on the penalty and, after dashing to the IRL hauler, team president Tim Cindric quickly returned and said, "They (the IRL) didn't want to talk about it. We have to start from the back."
The way Castroneves ran his four-lap qualifying run surprised Dixon, who commented on it before the penalty was announced.
"We're told even before we go out in qualifying just keep it above the white line," Dixon said. "In the drivers meeting, the same thing. He was clearly below it. They never say what the penalty is for it, but it doesn't really matter, to be honest."
Castroneves also was penalized last week at Detroit, where he was ordered to let eventual race-winner Justin Wilson past after the Brazilian was called for blocking. That cost Castroneves, who went on to finish second, 10 very important points.
This latest turn of events probably negated the effectiveness, if any, of Castroneves' efforts to do a psyche job on Dixon.
Over the past few weeks, each time Castroneves saw Dixon, he would walk up with a big smile, poke him in the shoulder and say, "You feeling the pressure, buddy?"
