Inside Line: Best Brazilian?

Today’s question: Brazil will be represented full time next season in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and INDY NXT by Firestone with Caio Collet and Enzo Fittipaldi, respectively. This recent influx from the South American nation with a rich racing heritage raises the question: Who was the best Brazilian driver to compete in the INDYCAR SERIES?

Curt Cavin: The best Brazilian to have raced in the INDYCAR SERIES is Emerson Fittipaldi, and I don’t think it’s close, although Gil de Ferran deserves more credit than I believe he gets. But I’d like to use this space to say Helio Castroneves’ body of work is worthy of the top tier. Yes, he spent most of his career with Team Penske in its heyday, but don’t forget that the team was in the doldrums when de Ferran and Castroneves (photo, above) arrived for the 2000 season. That first year together, Castroneves won three races to de Ferran’s two, and over their four years together, Castroneves won more races (11-9). Castroneves has accumulated 31 race wins and 50 poles, and there are only three drivers in history to have exceeded both of those totals (A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti and Will Power, and only Foyt has as many Indy wins as Castroneves). Castroneves is often criticized for not having won a season championship, but he finished second four times over a 13-year stretch and was only two points from the title when he finished third in 2006. Statistically, he has the best INDYCAR record of the Brazilians.

Eric Smith: For me, it’s Emerson Fittipaldi. He brought two Formula One titles and 14 wins with him to his CART debut in the 1984 Long Beach Grand Prix. Over 12 years in CART, Emmo captured the 1989 championship and two Indianapolis 500 victories, in 1989 and 1993. He finished his INDYCAR SERIES career with 22 wins across 195 starts. Remarkably, he began that chapter at age 37. If his INDYCAR SERIES career had started earlier, I have no doubt Fittipaldi (photo, above) would have added plenty more to those totals, which equates to him being the best Brazilian to grace this series.

Arni Sribhen: The brightest stars burn the fastest, so we have to appreciate them while we can. That’s the way I see Gil de Ferran’s nine-year INDYCAR SERIES career. De Ferran’s top-line accomplishments are well known – back-to-back INDYCAR SERIES titles for Roger Penske in 2000 and 2001 and winning the 2003 Indianapolis 500. But before he was a Team Penske star, de Ferran burst on the scene in 1995 when he nearly won in Cleveland for Hall/VDS Racing. He would score his first win later that year at Laguna Seca and was named the CART Rookie of the Year. Known for his analytical approach and always finishing near the front, de Ferran (along with Greg Moore) was hand-picked by Penske to lead his team’s reimagining at the start of the millennium. His outright speed is best remembered by his most famous pole run, when he set the closed-course speed record of 241.428 mph at California Speedway in 2000 (photo, above), but he was fast on all types of tracks and ranks 14th all-time in pole positions with 21 in his career. And while his numbers don’t reach those who raced longer (12 wins and 50 podium finishes in 160 starts), he was a race winner for every INDYCAR SERIES team he drove for and finished third or better in the championship in five of his nine seasons. De Ferran went out on top, winning his final race in 2003 and taking his place among the INDYCAR SERIES’ finest, regardless of country.

Paul Kelly: The answer must be Emerson Fittipaldi. I applaud Curt and Arni for paying deserved respect to Helio Castroneves and Gil de Ferran, respectively, but Emmo has the most successful mix of titles and Indy 500 wins (two of each) of any Brazilian. Plus, there’s another factor to consider about Emmo that Castroneves, de Ferran and fellow Brazilian Tony Kanaan didn’t face when they arrived in the INDYCAR SERIES: The racing world thought Fittipaldi was washed. Fittipaldi won his second Formula One World Championship in 1974 and finished second to Niki Lauda in 1975. He was at the peak of his powers when he made the ill-fated decision to drive for the Fittipaldi team owned by his older brother, Wilson, in 1976. After the 1980 season, he retired from F1 at 33 after only earning a best finish of second with his brother’s team. Emmo took four years off from the cockpit before reviving his career at age 37 in the INDYCAR SERIES in 1984 with Patrick Racing, with which he earned his first Indy 500 win and series title in 1989 before moving to Team Penske in 1990. It took big stones for Fittipaldi to further risk his worldwide legacy – already tarnished by the Fittipaldi team debacle – in North America. He pulled it off with skill, creating a successful second act rarely seen in global motorsports.