INDIANAPOLIS — Helio Castroneves isn’t retiring. He made that abundantly clear during an introductory press conference naming Tom Blomqvist as one of the two NTT INDYCAR SERIES drivers for Meyer Shank Racing in 2024. However, he’s also thinking about life after driving too. He doesn’t like to sit around and do nothing. In saying that, the way that the 48-year-old’s brain works is that he can only handle one big task at a time.

So a crossroads he was at.

“This is a passion of mine,” Castroneves said. “Racing is my blood. I don’t want to go anywhere. I want to stay around. I made a lot of friends, not only as a driver or teammate, but also with the press.”

A contract year, stats up-and-down and a chance to do something bigger was on the table. It was a scenario that he had to take.

A sidebar as part of Friday’s announcement was that Castroneves is remaining with MSR for the foreseeable future. It’s just not in a full time capacity. Castroneves will drive for the team still but he’ll also have a stake in the ownership of the team as well.

“We’re also pleased in the arrangement we’ve been working out with Helio, Helio will be joining our ownership group as well as a minority partner, which I think is the first in a long, long time a driver coming into the ownership group,” said Jim Meyer during the press conference. “Obviously Mike (Shank) and I have the majority position in our company. Liberty Media, which was a really great thing for us we announced a couple years ago, now having Helio is terrific. We’re really, really thrilled on that.”

Castroneves will drive in the Indy 500. MSR has worked out a deal with Honda for a third car for Indy only. It’s reserved for Castroneves’ name. Outside of that, he’s open and can race for whomever he wants in any series he wants.

He’s open to that too.

But his main job is being a part-owner of MSR in being a driver coach, ambassador and what Meyer noted helping get them to the next level.

“This is another chapter in my career,” he says. “I want to be very clear: I am not retiring, okay? I just want to make sure people understand that. Actually my line is open now to do other series. I can do SRX, IMSA, NASCAR, Stockcar Brazil, whatever the lines ring.

“Obviously the main focus INDYCAR, in my role, as Jim just alluded to, is different hats, and also Drive for 5. I still have a lot of fire inside me, a lot of energy that I want to burn, but now I’m going to focus that burn in the Indy 500.”

Castroneves says that he’s had an eye on ownership for a while. He’s learned and watch what Roger Penske had over there. He’s learned from Shank and Meyer. He’s hopeful to turn that into a successful ownership role beginning next season.

“I’m learning a lot over the years with Mike and Jim, to be honest,” he said. “I learn a lot in my racing career. I’ve seen a lot incredible, especially my mentor, Roger Penske. It is different. It is something that I’m going to continue learning. I don’t think we know everything.

“The best part for me is being on the driver’s side, I might be able to be able to protect a little bit of that side in case we come to discussion.

“However, I’m willing to understand the other side as a team owner as how to manage all the areas that I normally been in the other side. It will be extremely a learning curve, but I’m willing to do everything it takes to continue this evolution for MSR.

“When the opportunity presented itself, I decided there was no reason for not to be here. I’m still very competitive, don’t get me wrong, but there’s so much you can stretch that.

“When opportunity knocks on the door, you just can all of a sudden say, No, no, I’ll wait. It’s not you that decided when making the opportunity. If the opportunity happens, you got to decide it is now or never. That’s why I was very fortunate to have everyone, the whole entire group, in favor.

“It’s not easy. I know Mike gave his life to becoming a team owner. I know how hard it is. I’ve seen it. Obviously I’ve been on the other side. That’s why I’m very grateful and honored to have Jim and Mike and the whole Liberty group to be accept me in this position.”

As far as how this all came about? The 2021 Indy 500. Castroneves is a marketable driver and when he won a record tying fourth Indy 500, Shank said that he immediately felt like they had a problem.

“We recognized early on, I’m talking the year he started with us in ’21, we won the 500,” he said. “Jim and I looked at each other and said we got a problem. There is nobody in this paddock more recognizable, better with media folks, sponsors, corporate partners especially.

“From that moment forward we knew we would need someone going forward with life to fill an ambassador role, a coach role.

“He gets the business side of what we do also. His network is huge. It just was the right thing in many different departments that made sense for us to be able to go down the road.

“Remember, this isn’t a charity business. I have to be somehow not below the line. How can we best prepare ourselves to do that for the next five years? I thought he was one of the missing pieces.”

Meyer agreed.

“We knew a couple years ago where we were going to go,” he quipped. “It just took us a while to evolve there. It took us discussions with Helio about what he really opted to do, did he want to continue the way we were going or was this a better path. This is where we ended up.

“There’s no drama here. It’s just a really good outcome for everybody.”

This just happens to fit all along with MSR’s plans. From an Indy 500 only start in 2017, to 6 races in 2018, to 10 in 2019 and full-time in Year 4, that’s what they set forth to do. The 5th year the plan was to add a 2nd car. Castroneves was available.

The next 5 year plan was to start as a two-car outfit. They’ve done that. The midway point of that threshold was to get a third car out part-time. 2024 is that date and it lined up once again with Castroneves.

Call it a perfect storm.

Castroneves would surely love to win a series championship, but it’s just at this point of his career, not in the cards. Indy and being the all-time wins leader here is and he knows this is his best opportunity to do so.

In saying that, he has no regrets on coming back full-time the last two years either.

“I wouldn’t change everything I’ve done in my entire life,” he says. “I have no regrets. Even the mistakes that I made in the past made me stronger, made me better person, made me learn from those.

“Absolutely, I’m very, very grateful. Things happen for a reason. So today I’m here because you can call whatever you want to call, destiny. I’m very, very, extremely happy for my new chapter, for sure.”

“I think today is a great day for Meyer Shank Racing,” Meyer says.