Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Sports News

Castroneves wins his 3rd Indianapolis 500

|
|
 
  
Helio Castroneves of Brazil, celebrates with the tradition bottle of milk after winning the 93nd Indy 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway May 24, 2009. (UPI Photo/Mark Cowan) 
License photo
Published: May 24, 2009 at 8:09 PM

INDIANAPOLIS, May 24 (UPI) -- Pole-winner Helio Castroneves won the Indianapolis 500 auto race Sunday for the third time, nearly 2 seconds ahead of Dan Wheldon.

The 34-year-old Brazilian led the race's final 58 laps and gave team owner Roger Penske his 15th Indy 500 victory.

"This is the best month of May ever," Castroneves told reporters, referring to his acquittal in Miami on federal tax evasion charges last week.

Castroneves also won the high-profile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2001 and '02.

He is the ninth driver to win the 500 three times.

Among the others are Al Unser Sr. and Emerson Fittipaldi.

Danica Patrick finished third, topping her previous best Indy 500 performance of fourth in 2005, with Townsend Bell and Will Power rounding out the top-five finishers.

The race, which was run on a dry track, featured several wrecks, including crashes by Tony Kanaan, Vitor Meira and Raphael Matos.

Meira was taken to Methodist Hospital and doctors said he suffered a broken back.

Topics: Dan Wheldon, Roger Penske, Vitor Meira
© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Linsanity The Daytona 500 Cheerleaders of 2012
Additional Sports News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
Two ugly-ass endangered Amur leopards born at Minnesota Zoo, just in time for Caturday
Dick Beals, known as the voice of Gumby and many other animated characters dies at the age of 85,...
If you're upset about damage to your truck, don't arm yourself with a knife and chase a pair of...
A precious snowflake gets wait listed, so her parents do what any parents would: make an $800 "donation"...
Bear eats corpse of convicted killer. I bet that was a *puts on sunglasses* Kodiak moment
Man badly burned by sunscreen