The NTT INDYCAR SERIES heads to Long Beach, California, this week for the third race of the season. The younger Herta, who turned 22 last week, is one of three drivers Castroneves will battle this season whose fathers were his competitors in the past. Castroneves has 100 more starts than Bobby Unser and 157 more than Rick Mears. In Castroneves’s series debut in 1998 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Rahal was the only 40-something driver in the field. Castroneves said his experience as a father has been beneficial racing against these younger drivers, and he cited the incident that eliminated him from the NTT INDYCAR SERIES’ most recent race, the XPEL 375 on March 20 at Texas Motor Speedway. Castroneves said DeFrancesco’s father apologized, too. “It was good to see that,” Castroneves said of the apologies. Castroneves will be one seven drivers in Sunday’s 85-lap race to have won an INDYCAR SERIES race on the streets of Long Beach; he won there in 2001.

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