Hélio Castroneves

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Helio at the 2006 Nashville Superspeedway race.

Hélio Castroneves (born Hélio Castro Neves on May 10, 1975 in São Paulo, Brazil) is one of the top drivers in North American open-wheel racing, first in the Champcar series and now in the Indy Racing League. After being occasionally misidentified by U.S. media as "Helio Neves" he at first changed the spelling to Helio Castro-Neves and then to the current spelling. He has one sister, Katiucia. After showing potential but lacking reliability while with the Bettenhausen and Hogan teams, Helio joined Penske and became a regular front-runner. He switched with the team to the rival IRL for 2002, and has remained there ever since, now teamed with American Sam Hornish Jr.

He won the Indianapolis 500 in both 2001 and 2002, and finished second to teammate and countryman Gil de Ferran in 2003. He only started one other IRL race in 2001, hence his low championship position.

Racing fans have given Castroneves the nickname "Spider-Man" because of his victory celebration, in which he climbs the track-side debris fence, a practice since adopted by NASCAR driver Tony Stewart in the 2005 Nextel Cup season.

Throughout his racing career, Castroneves has worked with performance scientist and consultant Dr. Jacques Dallare, on physical and mental testing and to improve conditioning.

1 CART Champ Car career results
2 IRL IndyCar career results
3 Indianapolis 500 results
4 External links

[edit] CART Champ Car career results

Year	Team	Wins	Points	Championship Finish
1998	Bettenhausen Racing	0	36	17th
1999	Hogan Racing	0	48	15th
2000	Penske Racing	3	129	7th
2001	Penske Racing	3	141	4th

Best championship: 4th (6 series victories)

[edit] IRL IndyCar career results

Year	Team	Wins	Points	Championship Finish
2001	Penske Racing	1	64	24th(competed in only 2 races)
2002	Penske Racing	2	511	2nd
2003	Penske Racing	2	484	3rd
2004	Penske Racing	1	446	4th
2005	Penske Racing	1	440	6th
2006	Penske Racing	4	473	3rd

Best Championship: 2nd (11 series victories)

[edit] Indianapolis 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish
2001	Dallara	Oldsmobile	11th	1st
2002	Dallara	Chevrolet	13th	1st
2003	Dallara	Toyota	1st	2nd
2004	Dallara	Toyota	8th	9th
2005	Dallara	Toyota	5th	9th
2006	Dallara	Honda	2nd	25th

Castroneves's finishes for 2001 to 2003 is currently the best 3 race finishing streak in Indianapolis history. It is equal to the streak posted by Al Unser from 1970 through 1972.