Helio Castroneves rules out Daytona 500 ride next month

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves has ruled out running next month’s NASCAR season-opening Daytona 500.

Castroneves has been chasing a seat since winning one of Tony Stewart‘s summer all-star races last season to win a bet with the SRX head that promised Castroneves help finding a NASCAR ride. He’d tried to put a deal together with Trackhouse Racing, which said last week that it ultimately decided it did not want to run three cars.

Castroneves then tried to talk to Floyd Mayweather’s team, but said Thursday he couldn’t get a deal done with the Money Team Racing in time for next month’s Daytona 500. TMT last year raced itself into the Daytona 500 with driver Kaz Grala in the first NASCAR race for Mayweather’s team.

“Unfortunately, for me, lack of experience, no testing, a lot of things. I believe it will be a little bit tough throwing myself in on such short notice,” Castroneves said. “To go to a place where you’ve got to race yourself into [the race], as of right now, it’s not going to happen. We need to have an opportunity, and we’ve just got to … give me a little more experience.”

Castroneves, who on Saturday will attempt to win the Rolex 24 at Daytona for a third consecutive year, said he’s considering attending the Daytona 500 as a spectator.