Penske Win An Indy Record
Indy rookie Helio Castroneves led teammate Gil de Ferran in a 1-2 finish for car owner Roger Penske at the Indianapolis 500 Sunday.
"It's the best of my life, redeeming myself like this," said Penske, celebrating a record 11th victory at Indy after failing to put any drivers in the race in 1995 and a five-year boycott by Championship Auto Racing Teams.
CART drivers Michael Andretti, Jimmy Vasser and rookie Bruno Junqueira rounded out the top five positions, making it a tough day for the rival Indy Racing League, which considers Indy its centerpiece.
The 26-year-old Castroneves celebrated by demonstrating for fans why he is known as "Spiderman" on the CART circuit. He stopped his red and white car near the finish line after a cool-down lap, jumped up a steel-mesh fence, pumped his fist and signaled for his team to join him.
They did. Marlboro Team Penske raced across the track, climbed a short concrete wall and scaled the fence, to the delight of the Indy crowd.
Tony Stewart, attempting to race in the 500 and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 in Concord, N.C., on the same day for the second time in three years, led for a while and wound up sixth.
Despite seven cautions and a 16-minute red flag for rain, he finished with enough time to get to the other race.
Indy got off to a shaky start when pole-winner Scott Sharp lost control on cold, slick tires and crashed on the first turn of the first of 200 laps.
The green flag came out again on lap seven. But one lap later, Sarah Fisher, the only woman in the 33-car field, crashed in the second turn under circumstances similar to Sharp's. She hit the wall and took out Scott Goodyear's car.
Goodyear, a two-time runner-up, was in good condition at Methodist Hospital with a fractured lower back, the only injury of the race.
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