Success can soothe the pain. Helio Castroneves also knows that his anguish from the past six months will never completely disappear. “The scar is going to be there,“ he said. Castroneves spoke yesterday after posing for photos with his Penske Racing team, family members, sponsors and just about anybody else who wanted a picture with latest three-time Indianapolis 500 winner.

INDIANAPOLIS—Pumping his fist as he took the checkered flag and breaking down in tears when he was done, Helio Castroneves capped a perfect month of May with the biggest win of all yesterday at the Indianapolis 500. Castroneves became the ninth driver to win the historic race three times, and his timing couldn’t have been better.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP)—Helio Castroneves has won his third Indianapolis 500, beating 2005 winner Dan Wheldon by 1.981 seconds. Danica Patrick was third, the best finish by a woman at Indianapolis.

At the first Indianapolis 500 I covered for The Associated Press, the pole-winning speed was 170 mph; the 33-car field was all male drivers; the old, cramped garages were made of wood and there wasn’t a single corporate suite. My, how things have changed since 1970. Heading into tomorrow’s 93rd running of the 500—and my 40th and last Indy—Helio Castroneves will start from the pole with a four-lap average of 224.864, there will be three women in the lineup, the spacious, modern garages are made of concrete and there are 128 luxurious suites overlooking the famed 2.5-mile oval.

Here are some of the favorite races, by year, in Associated Press writer Mike Harris’ four decades covering the Indianapolis 500:
  1970: My first 500 and my first interview with Indy icon A.J. Foyt, worried that one of my questions would set off the enigmatic “Mr. Indy.“ It was the first of hundreds of interviews with the first four-time Indy winner.

INDIANAPOLIS When drivers look for help figuring out the treacherous track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, they often turn to Rick Mears. It’s been 18 years since “The Rocket” joined A.J. Foyt and Al Unser as the only four-time winners of the Indy 500. But Mears remains the most sought mentor for young drivers hoping to conquer the narrow, 2.5-mile Brickyard oval.

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.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser Jr. is listed as an extortion victim in a grand jury indictment against the suspected head of an Albuquerque prostitution ring. The district attorney’s office said the suspect, 47-year-old Bobby McMullin, tried to blackmail Unser with claims of a “compromising” videotape in February and March 2004.