Helio Castroneves, Team Penske

The cast: Race engineer – Jonathan Diuguid. Race strategist – Roger Penske. Chief mechanic – Travis Law.

Twitter: @h3lio, @Team_Penske

The car: No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet

The driver: Turned 40 on May 10. … From Sao Paulo, Brazil, and resides in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. … By winning the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race on May 29, 2016, he would join A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and Al Unser as four-time winner of the race. … Completed 17th successive season with Team Penske.

Season finish: Placed fifth in Verizon IndyCar Series standings – the fourth consecutive season in the top five and the ninth time in the past 10 years in the top six.

Video: Helio Castroneves reviews his season

Season stats: Castroneves advanced to the Firestone Fast Six segment of qualifications on road and street course in six of the eight events in which the pole was contested (starting lineup at New Orleans and Belle Isle-2 set by entrant points because of rain). … Average start of 4.9 was second to teammate Will Power among all drivers. … He recorded podium finishes at New Orleans, Long Beach, Texas Motor Speedway, Toronto and Milwaukee. … He tied Power for most races led with 11 for a total of 198 laps, and is the active Indy car leader in laps led with 5,451. … Was running at the finish in 13 of the 16 races (contact at Belle Isle-2, 19th-place finish, contact at Auto Club Speedway, 23rd place, contact at Pocono Raceway, 16th place). … Was in championship hunt entering the season finale.

Year over year: 2015 best qualifying of first four times (4.9 average), best finish of second at New Orleans, Long Beach and Milwaukee (9.3 average). 2014 best qualifying of first three times (5.8 average), best finish of first at Belle Isle-2 (9.3 average) in 18 races.

The gist: Castroneves has competed in 311 Indy car races since 1998, which is sixth on the all-time list. He will pass Johnny Rutherford (315), Michael Andretti (317) and Al Unser (320) if all goes well in 2016. … He has 29 victories, which tied with Rick Mears for 11th on the career list. … Castroneves also added to his total of poles earned with four this past season and ranks fourth on the all-time list. … He is second with 38 second-place finishes, eighth with 86 top-three finishes and tied with Tony Kanaan for seventh with 124 top-five finishes. … Castroneves has made 117 consecutive starts.

The chart (below): Looking at how Castroneves finished relative to his qualifying position: