Helio Castroneves penalized for Saturday IndyCar crash

Helio Castroneves was docked eight IndyCar Series championship points today for first-lap contact with Scott Dixon in Saturday's Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis, a road race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Castroneves was penalized for avoidable contact for running into the back of the Ganassi Racing driver in Turn 1.

The eight points means Castroneves will receive one fewer than Dixon in the race. It also pushes Castroneves down to 153 season points. Both drivers will retain their finishing position: Castroneves sixth, Dixon 10th.

"I was pretty heated at the time," Dixon said in his first public comment since the accident. "In my view, the penalty that fits the crime is a drive-through. Which should've been done in the first five or ten minutes of the race and we wouldn't be talking about it now. Had they added a drive-through penalty to the finishing results, which maybe on average is about 25 seconds, I'm not sure where it would've put the 3 car exactly but probably somewhere between 12th and 15th."

The penalty announced by IndyCar is consistent with the decision after last month's race at NOLA Motorsports Park when Ryan Hunter-Reay was docked enough points to get fewer than Simon Pagenaud and Sebastien Bourdais, the drivers impacted by Hunter-Reay's move. One difference in those situations: Hunter-Reay also was put on probation for three races; Castroneves was not.

From IndyCar's release:

"With the benefit of additional camera angles during our post-race review of Saturday's race, the stewards determined actions of the No. 3 car (Castroneves) were the cause of the first-lap incident. This obviously changed our view of the entire incident."

Castroneves' team can appeal. Roger Penske said the team has 48 hours to do so.

"We were surprised that we got a penalty, quite honestly," Penske said. "We hadn't been notified of anything, I don't think, during the race there. But we've got 48 hours to review it and see what we're going to do."

IndyCar supported IndyCar.

"They're trying to do the best thing they can as a group," he said of race control. "It's something that should've been addressed right away."

The decision was announced just prior to the oval being open for practice. The session will run through 6 p.m.

Follow Curt Cavin on Twitter: @curtcavin

Updated IndyCar Series points standings:

1. Juan Pablo Montoya, 171

2. Will Power, 166

3. Helio Castroneves, 153 *

4. Scott Dixon, 144

5. Graham Rahal, 144

*Castroneves docked eight points for avoidable contact with Dixon in last weekend's Grand Prix of Indianapolis