Helio Castroneves didn't wake up on Monday thinking that his Verizon IndyCar Series race day at Pocono Raceway would end in the pits with another car on top of him. But that's pretty much what happened during the second round of pit stops on lap 64 as Alexander Rossi's No. 98 Honda made contact in pit lane with Charlie Kimball's No. 83 Chevrolet. Rossi’s car then went airborne and over the top of Castroneves' No. 3 Chevrolet. Kimball’s car was able to continue, but both Castroneves and Rossi were knocked from the race with significant damage to their cars. Rossi was penalized 20 seconds for avoidable contact and making contact with pit equipment. “Everyone is going to have their own opinion but I was staying in the slow lane,” Rossi said. “Kimball was obviously trying to come in his box, but then Helio was being released. So I don’t know. It’s very unfortunate. This car was awesome today. We were at the front with relative ease and we were waiting for the end to go to the front for the final time. As for Castroneves, he was happy to avoid serious injury. "It's just a shame," Castroneves said. "The Hitachi Chevy was really having a good day and we just had another good pit stop when I was coming out of the pits. All of a sudden there was a car on top of me. It was a little strange to be honest. The Team Penske guys worked really hard to try and fix the car but there was a lot of damage. It's certainly unfortunate because this will hurt us in the championship battle but our team will never give up. We'll move on to Texas where, fortunately, we've had a lot of success. "Inside the car, I was actually more protected than what it looked like. Sometime people don't realize the Verizon IndyCar series are so much about safety and today is the proof of that. Very glad that nobody got hurt."
