Helio has a happy return

Tradition is as integral to the Indianapolis 500 as speed and danger.

It wouldn’t be the Indy 500 without a pre-race rendition of “Back Home Again in Indiana,” which Jim Nabors sang for the 31st time Sunday, or without the thousands of balloons released when its 33 drivers start their engines.

And it’s that reverence for tradition that explains why it was the moment when Helio Castroneves drank milk in Victory Lane -- perhaps Indy’s most famous custom -- that the extraordinary last five weeks of Castroneves’ life hit him so hard and left him weeping.

Leading from the pole position, the 34-year-old Brazilian won the Indianapolis 500 for the third time to complete a triumphant comeback from a tax evasion trial that nearly ended his career only last month.

“I think my tears speak for everything,” Castroneves said. “This is incredible. This place is magical.”

Panther Racing’s Dan Wheldon, who won the race in 2005, finished two seconds behind Castroneves at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which is celebrating its centennial this year.

And Danica Patrick finished third, her best finish in five attempts and one spot better than in 2005, when she briefly led in her rookie year and became one of the popular figures in sports.

“I just didn’t have enough” to catch Castroneves, Patrick said. “So congrats to Helio, he had this standout month. And he’s great for the sport.”

The win also was a record 15th Indy 500 victory for Castroneves’ team owner, Roger Penske.

Castroneves’ other wins came in 2001 and 2002.

Penske, who had stood by Castroneves throughout his legal woes, said to his driver after the race, “I’ve got to take my hat off to you. Thank you.”

Castroneves became one of nine drivers to win the race at least three times. Three of those, A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears, are in the most elite group of all: four-time winners.

After taking the checkered flag, Castroneves yelled “Thank you, God, thank you,” over his team radio during his cool-down lap.

Then he parked his No. 3 race car, climbed out and performed his signature victory celebration of climbing the fence as the crowd of more than 200,000 roared its approval.

The win “is a great way to pay [the fans] back,” Castroneves said. “What a great way to show that I am so honored to have fans like that.”

Call it a Hollywood script, but his win came six weeks after Castroneves didn’t know if he’d ever race again.

He was indicted on the tax evasion charges last October and endured a six-week trial. But a jury in Miami acquitted him April 17 on the tax evasion counts and was deadlocked on one conspiracy count that prosecutors dropped last week.

His sister and business manager, Katiucia Castroneves, and lawyer Alan Miller, who were also indicted for allegedly helping Castroneves evade $2.3 million in U.S. taxes, also were acquitted.

Asked how he kept his concentration Sunday, he replied: “I just put my helmet on and close my visor. When I’m there in my space, in my territory, I know what I need to do.”

For much of the race, “I was just trying to take it easy, I didn’t want to push it,” Castroneves said. “I was waiting for the right time.”

That came on a final restart with 17 laps remaining after a caution period triggered by a crash involving Vitor Meira and Raphael Matos.

Castroneves led the restart and never relinquished the lead over Wheldon and Patrick.

“Certainly at the end, I didn’t have anything for him,” Wheldon said.

Defending race winner Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti, his teammate at Target Chip Ganassi Racing, were sixth and seventh, respectively, after being the dominant cars for much of the race. Together they led 118 of the 200 laps.

Franchitti was undone by a poor pit stop.

“Everybody has to be flawless, and we had a problem in the pits,” he said. When you get too far back in the pack . . . it’s tough to get back to the front again.”

In the most serious crash of the race, Meira suffered two broken vertebrae in his back when his collision with Matos sent him hard into the outside wall.

In an earlier pit stop, Meira and his car were engulfed in flames when fuel spilled. But crew members quickly doused it and Meira returned to the track.

Several drivers were involved in solo crashes that knocked them out of the race.

They included Tony Kanaan, whose car slammed into the wall at 190 mph on Lap 98, shearing off its right-side tires.

The Brazilian, who had led each of his prior seven Indy 500 starts but failed to lead a lap Sunday, has yet to win the race.

His teammate, Marco Andretti, also was collected in a crash at the start of the race, extending the bad luck that has dogged the Andretti family at Indianapolis over the decades.

After the cars took the green flag and moved between the first and second turns, Mario Moraes collided with Andretti, sending both into the wall before a lap was completed.

The Andrettis -- including Mario, son Michael, grandson Marco and nephew John -- together have started 61 Indy 500s but have only one win, Mario’s in 1969.

Moraes, a 20-year-old Brazilian, started seventh and was considered a contender to win after posting some of the fastest speeds in practice. Marco Andretti had started eighth.

Graham Rahal was running in the top five until he hit the wall on Lap 56.

Rahal, son of 1986 Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal, started fourth for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.

--

james.peltz@latimes.com

--

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

From start to finish

Indianapolis 500 winners from the pole:

2009: Helio Castroneves

2008: Scott Dixon

2006: Sam Hornish Jr.

2004: Buddy Rice

1997: Arie Luyendyk

1994: Al Unser Jr.

1991: Rick Mears

1988: Rick Mears

1981: Bobby Unser

1980: Johnny Rutherford

1979: Rick Mears

1976: Johnny Rutherford

1970: Al Unser Sr.

1963: Parnelli Jones

1956: Pat Flaherty

1953: Bill Vukovich

1938: Floyd Roberts

1930: Billy Arnold

1923: Tommy Milton

1922: Jimmy Murphy

Source: Associated Press

--

INDIANAPOLIS 500 RESULTS

Results from Sunday’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (lap length: 2.5 miles). (Start position in parentheses; all cars Dallara chassis, Honda engines.)

*--* Pl (PP) Driver Laps completed 1 (1) Helio Castroneves 200 laps 2 (18) Dan Wheldon 200 laps 3 (10) Danica Patrick 200 laps 4 (24) Townsend Bell 200 laps 5 (9) Will Power 200 laps 6 (5) Scott Dixon 200 laps 7 (3) Dario Franchitti 200 laps 8 (17) Ed Carpenter 200 laps 9 (13) Paul Tracy 200 laps 10 (16) Hideki Mutoh 200 laps 11 (33) Alex Tagliani 200 laps 12 (26) Tomas Scheckter 200 laps 13 (11) Alex Lloyd 200 laps 14 (20) Scott Sharp 200 laps 15 (2) Ryan Briscoe 200 laps 16 (19) A.J. Foyt IV 200 laps 17 (21) Sarah Fisher 200 laps 18 (27) Mike Conway 200 laps 19 (28) John Andretti 200 laps 20 (30) Milka Duno 199 laps 21 (14) Vitor Meira 173 laps, contact 22 (12) Raphael Matos 173 laps, contact 23 (15) Justin Wilson 160 laps, contact 24 (29) E.J. Viso 139 laps, mechanical 25 (31) Nelson Philippe 130 laps, contact 26 (25) Oriol Servia 98 laps, mechanical 27 (6) Tony Kanaan 97 laps, contact 28 (23) Robert Doornbos 85 laps, contact 29 (22) Davey Hamilton 79 laps, contact 30 (8) Marco Andretti 56 laps, handling 31 (4) Graham Rahal 55 laps, contact 32 (32) Ryan Hunter-Reay 19 laps, contact 33 (7) Mario Moraes 0 laps, contact *--*

RACE STATISTICS

* Winner’s average speed: 150.318 mph.

* Time of race: 3:19:34.6427.

* Margin of victory: 1.9819 seconds.

* Cautions: 8 for 61 laps.

* Lead changes: 6 among 4 drivers.

* Lap leaders: Castroneves 1-7, Franchitti 8-52, Briscoe 53-63, Dixon 64-85, Franchitti 86-90, Dixon 91-141, Castroneves 142-200.

* Point standings: 1, Franchitti, 122. 2, Castroneves, 117. 3, Briscoe, 114. 4, Dixon, 111. 5, Kanaan, 110. 6, Patrick, 109. 7, Wheldon, 106. 8, Power, 99. 9, Hunter-Reay, 84. 10, Andretti, 83.