Helio Castroneves Biography (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

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 CART series and now in the IndyCar Series.

He won the Indianapolis 500 in both 2001 and 2002, becoming the fifth driver to do so in consecutive years, and finished second to teammate and countryman Gil de Ferran in 2003. Castroneves also won two pole positions for the race, including one in 2007.

Aside from success in racing, he won the fifth season of the American reality TV show Dancing with the Stars with partner Julianne Hough. Castroneves currently resides in Miami, Florida.

Recognition

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. Castroneves was first recognized while driving for Steve Horne's Tasman Racing team in Indy Lights, interestingly as teamate to fellow Brazilian and future IndyCar champion Tony Kanaan.

After showing potential but lacking reliability while with the Bettenhausen and Hogan teams, Helio was signed by Penske Racing in CART in 2000 following the death of Greg Moore who was killed during the last race of the 1999 season in California. Moore had signed on with Penske but never had the opportunity to race with the team. Castroneves immediately 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 Ryan Briscoe.

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

Dancing With the Stars appearance

In Fall 2007, Castroneves became a contestant on ABC's Dancing With the Stars television program in the United States, paired with season 4 champion, Julianne Hough. On a show based on judges scores and fan votes, he was announced the season 5 winner on November 27, 2007, beating out Spice Girl Melanie Brown and Marie Osmond. Castroneves' performances have been mentioned on SPEED TV's The Speed Report.

Performance

Week #	Dance/Song	Judges' score			Result
Week #	Dance/Song	Inaba	Goodman	Tonioli	Result
1	Foxtrot/ "Bewitched theme"	8	9	8	Safe
2	Mambo/ "Para Los Rumberos"	9	9	9	Safe
3	Jive/ "Kids In America"	8	8	8	Safe
4	Viennese Waltz/ "Iris"	9	9	9	Safe
5	Rumba/ "Apologize"	8	7	8	Safe
6	Cha cha cha/ "Get Up Offa That Thing"	9	10	9	Safe
7	Tango/ "Jean Genie" Samba/ Candela	9 9	8 9	8 9	Safe
8	Paso Doble/ "Amparito Roco" Quickstep/ "Hey Pachuco"	9 10	9 10	9 10	Safe
9 Semi-finals	Foxtrot/ "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" Cha cha "Love Rollercoaster"	10 10	10 10	10 10	Safe
10 Finals	Jive "Let's Twist Again" Freestyle/ "Land of 1000 Dances" Quickstep/ "Hey Pachuco"	8 9 10	8 10 10	9 10 10	WON

Motorsports Career Results

American Open-Wheel

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Champ Car

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)

IndyCar

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2001	Penske	PHX Ret	HMS	ATL	IND 1	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	KTY	STL	CHI	TX2							24th	64
2002	Penske	HMS 3	PHX 1	FON 5	NZR 5	IND 1	TXS 4	PPIR 2	RIR 17	KAN 3	NSH 9	MIS 6	KTY 5	STL 2	CHI 4	TX2 2					2nd	511
2003	Penske	HMS 3	PHX 2	MOT Ret	IND 2	TXS 7	PPIR 12	RIR 2	KAN 2	NSH 3	MIS Ret	STL 1	KTY 5	NZR 1	CHI Ret	FON 6	TX2 9				3rd	484
2004	Penske	HMS 2	PHX 6	MOT 3	IND 9	TXS 12	RIR 3	KAN 7	NSH 3	MIL 12	MIS 10	KTY 12	PPIR 6	NZR 5	CHI 10	FON 7	TX2 1				4th	446
2005	Penske	HMS 5	PHX 2	STP Ret	MOT Ret	IND 9	TXS 5	RIR 1	KAN 8	NSH 5	MIL 16	MIS Ret	KTY 5	PPIR 4	SNM Ret	CHI 2	WGL Ret	FON 9			6th	440
2006	Penske	HMS 2	STP 1	MOT 1	IND Ret	WGL 7	TXS 1	RIR 10	KAN 6	NSH 5	MIL 14	MIS 1	KTY 3	SNM 5	CHI 4						3rd	473
2007	Penske	HMS 9	STP 1	MOT 7	KAN 3	IND 3	MIL Ret	TXS Ret	IOW 8	RIR 11	WGL Ret	NSH 6	MDO 3	MIS Ret	KTY 9	SNM 2	DET Ret	CHI 4			6th	446
2008	Penske	HMS 4	STP 2	MOT¹ 2	LBH¹ DNP	KAN 4	IND 4	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	EDM	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI	SRF²	1st*	144*

* 2008 season in progress

¹ Run on same day

² Non-points-paying, exhibition race

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (Non-win)**	Top 10s (Non-podium)***	Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships
8	1	102	25	12	23	41	2 (2001, 2002)	0

** Podium (Non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.

*** Top 10s (Non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

Indianapolis 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish
2001	Dallara	Oldsmobile	11	1
2002	Dallara	Chevrolet	13	1
2003	Dallara	Toyota	1	2
2004	Dallara	Toyota	8	9
2005	Dallara	Toyota	5	9
2006	Dallara	Honda	2	25
2007	Dallara	Honda	1	3
2008	Dallara	Honda	4	4

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.

This biography article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.It uses material from the Wikipedia article "HÃ©lio Castroneves". Reality TV World is not responsible for any errors or omissions this article may contain.