Spiderman back again

INDIANAPOLIS -- Spiderman is back again, but he's not in New York City and he's not feared by all. In fact, the people love him when he crawls up the fence and salutes them. And he did just that Sunday. \nClimbing through the record books at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Helio Castroneves won his second Indianapolis 500 in as many years, defending his dominating performance from last year.\nThis year's run was not so dominating. In fact, Castroneves' win was disputed by second-place finisher Paul Tracy because the finish was so close.\nOn lap 198 of the 200 laps, Castroneves, driver of the No. 3 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone race car, led the field on the front straightaway ahead of Tracy and third-place finisher Felippe Giaffone. The cars were single-file through Turns 1 and 2 as Tracy looked for a way around Castroneves heading toward the backstretch.\nAs the rest of the field worked their way through Turn 2, 1996 Indy 500 winner Buddy Lazier and rookie Laurent Redon crashed into the wall, bringing out the yellow flag just as Tracy made a move to the outside of Castroneves in Turn 3.\nTracy said he thought he made the pass before the caution came out. "I got a good run through (Turns) 1 and 2 and came off, and he was going down the back straightaway and he was protecting his position and I made the move toward the outside," Tracy said. "When I passed him going into 3, he came out of 3, the light was on.\n"I feel that we were ahead when the yellow came out. All I can do, like I said is cross my fingers and pray and hope, and that's what we feel the right outcome is."\nCastroneves said he saw the action a little differently.\n"I was turning in Turn 3 and guys on the radio(said), 'yellow', 'yellow,' 'yellow,' and I was so shocked," Castroneves said. "And then Tracy passed me very fast, and I was screaming: 'He passed on the yellow, he passed on the yellow.'"\nBrian Barnhart, vice president of operations for the Indy Racing League, held a press conference after posting the official results of the race to disclose the reasoning behind his decision. \n"(The finish) is very close," Barnhart said. "The cars are running nose to tail down the backstretch as they come through there, and in looking at the video as the 26 car passes the 3 car on the outside of Turn 3, it's just too hard to tell and too inconclusive from the video as to what the condition of the track lights are and which car is nosed ahead of the other at which point in time. \n"There's just no evidence worthy of overturning our original decision."\nAfter the conference, Tracy's car owners Team Green filed an official protest of the results of the race to Barnhart's office. The hearing was held Monday at noon, but the protest was denied.\nGambling for the win\nCastroneves and his crew chief, Tim Cindric, took a gamble on lap 175 that paid off. \nWhen the rest of the lead-lap cars pitted during the caution, Castroneves and Alex Barron, driver of the No. 44 Rayovac Blair Racing Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone car, stayed on the track. Castroneves wound up first when the others pitted, picking up his first lead of the race.\n"Cindric and I decided to stay out," Castroneves said. "And I couldn't believe it, everybody was coming in, and I said this is the chance that I want ... and I was just trying to keep in good shape, lifting off.\n"When Cindric said that there were three cars a lap down behind me, I decided to let them go and try to draft them and keep saving fuel. It was working really good, but it still was very close and still praying for the yellow."\nMaybe it was his "spider sense" that told him the car had enough fuel to finish. \nCindric said he wasn't sure the car could make it, either. "(I) was making sure he was as informed as he could be because what we kept doing was turning up and down the fuel. When it got to the point whether Felipe or Tracy were close to him, we would turn the fuel back up.\n"At that point, what you don't realize is that a gauge on your dash tells you how much fuel you think is in the car, when you actually fill the car, sometimes you might get a little bit of an expansion, you might not, who knows really how much is in. Sometimes you don't get all 35 in. Sometimes the pressure might give you a little bit more and who knows. So at that point, it was just a matter of going for it when they got close enough."\nTracy said he thought Castroneves would run out of fuel and allow him to take the lead. \n"I didn't think that Helio was going to make it," Tracy said. "I thought for sure he was going to pit."\nThe spectacle\nAt the beginning of the race, no one driver was the favorite to win. The race had been touted to be the most competitive in recent years, and the action lived up to its name.\nThere were 19 lead changes among nine drivers and 11 cars finished on the lead lap. There were also five cautions for 33 laps.\nPolesitter Bruno Junquiera led the first 30 laps of the race and pulled away from the rest of the field considerably before Greg Ray smacked the wall hard in Turn 2. Ray walked away from the accident with no injuries.\nMost of the lead cars pitted during the caution, but rookie Tomas Scheckter and 2001 IRL champion Sam Hornish, Jr. stayed on the track. Scheckter had pitted just one lap earlier under the green, so he picked up the lead.\nJunquiera had a slow pit stop and dropped to 19th place for the restart on lap 37.\nScheckter, Hornish and third-place rookie Tony Kanaan began to pull away from the field by a full straightaway before it was time for green-flag pit stops again on lap 64. Scheckter pitted and Kanaan got his first lead of the day.\nWhen he finally came into the pits on lap 67, Kanaan's crew made a very quick stop and got their driver out in front of Scheckter on the track. Kanaan led the next eight laps under green, almost lapping Tracy, Michael Andretti and Eddie Cheever.\nOn lap 74, Hornish brushed the wall in Turn 4, leaving debris from his car on the track. This brought out the second caution of the day and was lucky for eventual second place-finisher Tracy as there were only 11 cars on the lead lap.\nKanaan stayed on the track while Scheckter needed to pit for fuel.\nThe green flag waved again on lap 88, but the run didn't last long as Junquiera's car began to smoke down the backstretch and into Turn 3, spreading oil all along the area. Race leader Kanaan was the first to hit the spot and couldn't slow down enough before spinning on the track and hitting the Turn 3 wall. Rick Treadway also spun in Junquiera's oil.\n"I don't know exactly what happened," Junquiera said. "The car was fine except for the clutch during pit stops. The balance was good. We had no transmission problems, and the car seemed OK. I think I lost my gearbox, and that's what caused the car to fail." \nFelipe Giaffone missed the spinning Kanaan and inherited the lead as he brought the field to the caution, but pitted two laps later and handed the lead to Scheckter again.\nAs the halfway point of the race passed, Scheckter seemed to have control of the race, pulling to a full-straight lead over the third place car of Scott Sharp in only 15 laps.\nOn lap 121, Scheckter had to pit for fuel again and gave the lead to Gil de Ferran, Castroneves' teammate, but re-gained the lead 11 laps later when the last of the lead lap cars made a pit stop.\nScheckter now had a full-straight lead over second place de Ferran, Andretti, Tracy and Scott Sharp.\nWith 50 laps left in the race, Scheckter made a pit stop for fuel again and cycled to the lead 15 laps later, pulling away from Tracy, who was now in second place.\nOn lap 172, though, Scheckter lost control of the car on the exit of Turn 4 and slammed head-on into the frontstretch wall. "I'm fine," Scheckter said. "I don't want to say anything broke because I'm not certain. I had no control over the car. It just went straight. It wouldn't turn. The thing is, we could have won that. The thing was on cruise control."\nWith the strong-racing Scheckter out of the race, most of the top cars, lead by Tracy, decided to pit to make sure they would make the rest of the race on fuel. Castroneves and Cindric decided to take their chances, though, and made it a race all the way to the end.\nBehind the top three cars of Castroneves, Tracy and Giaffone, Barron finished fourth; Cheever, fifth; Richie Hearn, sixth; Andretti, seventh; Robby Gordon, eight; Jeff Ward, ninth; and de Ferran, tenth.\nGiaffone said he could have given Castroneves a run for his money.\n"I was a little bit disappointed, to be honest," Giaffone said. "I really had a good car there. I think I had the best car today, you know. But then at the end, if Dario would not have been in the middle, I could have passed Castroneves. At that point, what happened, I think Castroneves was on the outside, the other guy was on the inside, and I was stuck behind both of them. And then my car pushed a lot on Turn 3; that was when Paul came around and passed me. So I'm a little bit disappointed about that. But, I mean, we finished third. We'll get them next time." \nBarron said his pit strategy paid off like Castroneves'. \n"You know, we know we wanted to have solid pit stops and we did, and that was a key to where we ended up at the end, obviously," Barron said. "We had an awesome pit strategy. The balance of the car was very, very good all race and the guys did just a great job."\nWinning car owner Roger Penske said he thought the competition was incredible.\n"I think there was no question it was the fastest field in history," Penske said. "As you look as the race unfolded, there was no question that (Bruno) Junqueira was very quick, and then they had an issue in the pit stop, and they got behind. It was very, very tough to pass. \n"I thought (Tomas) Scheckter was very quick, there's no question about it. He was running well. Michael (Andretti) came up and then got stuck, I think they had to pit early. (Dario) Franchitti pitted early. Sharp was running well. He had an engine problem. Tony Kanaan really had command of this race, and unfortunately, when Junqueira lost his engine, it was right in front of (him). He was certainly a potential. There were a number of potential winners. I think it was very competitive. Hornish was a real threat I felt in the race. Certainly Junqueira was, but this race seems to always eliminate four or five of the key people, somewhere within the first 100 laps or so, and I think that happened again today"