Helio Castroneves says IndyCar doubleheaders a ‘bit rough’

IndyCar will have its second double-header of the season this weekend, this time in Toronto, a format that series point leader Helio Castroneves said is “a little bit rough” on drivers and teams.

As it did in Detroit in early June, the Izod IndyCar Series will hold a race Saturday on the streets of Toronto followed by another race there Sunday. The format is one way IndyCar hopes to boost the popularity of the sport.

“We don’t have power steering,” Castroneves told reporters on a conference call Tuesday. “Street courses are very bumpy. It is very physically demanding” to race on back-to-back days, he said.

After the two Detroit races, “the next day I was like, man, I feel it,” he said. But Castroneves added that “all the drivers are really well-prepared physically.”

Castroneves, 38, is a three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, but the Brazilian still is in search of his first IndyCar championship. He holds a 23-point lead in the title standings over reigning champion Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Castroneves, a former “Dancing with the Stars” winner, won the race in Texas on June 8 and overall has six top-five finishes through the first 12 races of the season.

“Of course we still have a long way -- eight races more -- to go [with] a lot of points [left] in the game,” Castroneves said.

The season finale is Oct. 19 at Auto Club Speedway, the two-mile oval in Fontana about 50 miles east of Los Angeles.

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