MIAMI—It would be terrible for Penske Racing and the sport if Helio Castroneves, the popular Indy racer and “Dancing with the Stars” champion, were convicted of tax evasion, a top Penske official testified yesterday.

MIAMI—Race car driver and “Dancing with the Stars” winner Helio Castroneves never sought to evade U.S. income taxes and planned to pay the Internal Revenue Service when he received $5 million from a deal made a decade ago, his attorney told a federal jury Tuesday. Defense attorney Roy Black said in an opening statement that the Brazilian driver, a two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, knows nothing about U.S. tax laws and relied on experts to handle his finances. Black said there was no scheme to hide money from the IRS.

INDIANAPOLIS—Helio Castroneves is being replaced on Team Penske by Australian driver Will Power—at least until the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner’s tax evasion trail is resolved. Castroneves, who has pleaded innocent to charges of conspiracy and tax evasion involving about $5.5 million in income stashed in offshore accounts, is scheduled to go to trial in Miami on March 2, just over a month before the IndyCar season begins.