<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
Earlier Friday in a Miami courtroom Helio Castroneves was acquitted on charges of evading more than $2.3 million in US taxes, creating what may become the Grand Prix’s most compelling storyline. <\/span>The two-time Indy 500 winner is in Miami awaiting Robert Penske’s private jet, which has been dispatched from Detroit—when it arrives, he’ll be whisked to Long Beach, where he will race for Team Pensky, adding another huge name to an already jam-packed race. <\/span>The addition will bump last year’s Grand Prix champ (and first-year Penske racer) Will Power from the No. 3 Penske car to the No. 12 car, in Sunday’s race.<\/p>\n In a press conference, the Indy Racing League’s president, Brian Barnhart expressed his satisfaction. <\/span>“We look forward to having him back on the race grid here at Long Beach. <\/span>Helio has played an integral part in the growth of the IndyCar Series on and off the race track the past few years and has an incredible legion of fans.” <\/span>He added, “It’s nice to have the IndyCar family back together.”<\/p>\n Power played the part of true team player, saying, “I couldn’t imagine what Helio was going through, and I’m really excited for him to come back.” <\/span>Power, who will also race in the No. 12 car for Penske at the Indy 500, added, “Racing in the No. 3 has been a great opportunity for me.”<\/p>\n In a written release, Robert Penske said, “The team has supported Helio throughout this process and will continue to as the matter goes forward—Penske Racing is pleased and excited to have Helio in the No. 3 Team Penske car at this weekend’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.”<\/p>\n At the press conference, Penske’s president, Tim Cindric, said he expects Helio to rise above the hectic pace and schedule of the last few days. <\/span>“If I hadn’t known him and worked with him for ten years, I might expect him to be out of it. <\/span>I expect it’ll be like riding a bike for him.<\/p>\n “We just let Helio know, ‘We’re ready for you, and he said, ‘I’m coming, man.’” <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves is flying to LB to enter the Grand Prix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4142"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=4142"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}