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Sunday, Dec. 22
The Indiana Daily Student

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Castroneves wins 3rd Indy 500

Helio Castroneves holds three fingers in the air following his third Indianapolis 500 win Sunday afternoon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Just seconds after taking a gulp from the victor's bottle of milk, Helio Castroneves broke down in tears in front of the Borg-Warner Trophy.

"I think my tears speak for everything," he said during an interview with ABC.

Castroneves won his third Indy 500 only weeks after being exonerated on federal tax evasion charges.

"You gave me my life back," Castroneves told team owner Roger Penske.

Castroneves gained a sizeable lead after a late restart and was untouchable for the last 13 laps. Second-place finisher Dan Wheldon and third-place finisher Danica Patrick battled for the No. 2 position after the restart, which only helped Castroneves build on his lead.

"Thank you," Castroneves yelled through his team radio shortly after crossing the bricks. "Thank you, God. Thank you."

Below is a recap of the race from finish to start. Check back later for more updates.

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Finish
Helio Castroneves propels out of a caution and puts the race out of reach with about 13 laps to go. Castroneves wins his third Indianapolis 500, just weeks after being cleared of tax evasion charges.

Castroneves is the ninth driver to win three races.

Dan Wheldon finished second and Danica Patrick finished third.

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Lap 180
It was a pretty nasty wreck, but neither driver was seriously injured.

Ryan Briscoe pits, which moves Dan Wheldon into second and Danica Patrick into third.

The race is still under caution.

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Lap 175
Rookie Raphael Matos and Vitor Meira get tangled up heading into Turn 1 on Lap 174, sending the race into caution.

The caution eases many teams' fuel concerns as the race winds down. Most drivers gassed up with about 35 laps to go -- and with this caution they won't burn as much fuel.

Team Penske controls the top as Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe are running one and two, respectively. Dan Wheldon, Danica Patrick and Will Power round out the top five.

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Lap 162
Justin Wilson scrapes the wall after losing control heading into a turn.

The biggest winner: Helio Castroneves. Will Power was challenging Castroneves for the lead when Wilson hit the wall.

Dario Franchitti will also benefit from the caution.

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Lap 150
Castroneves still leads Scott Dixon by about half a second. Will Power, Dan Wheldon and Townsend Bell fill out the top five. Danica Patrick is slowly moving up; she's now running seventh.
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Lap 144
A bad ending to a pit stop sends Dario Franchitti back several spots, and now he's running out of the top 10.

Helio Castroneves stole the lead from Scott Dixon following a restart, and the two-time winner is up half a second on Dixon.

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Lap 125
Target Chip Ganassi Racing continues to dominate. 2008 winner Scott Dixon is leading and teammate and 2007 winner Dario Franchitti trails closely in second.

The closest competitor is 0.7 seconds back from Franchitti.
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Lap 100
The leaders pit at the end of the lap. Scott Dixon maintains a lead he gained after an earlier restart. Teammate Dario Franchitti is in second.

Danica Patrick dropped four spots during that pit stop.

The race is at its halfway point.

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Lap 98
Tony Kanaan, who had been running third, hit the wall hard on the backstretch after losing control of his car, Kanaan had led every Indy 500 he entered until this year.

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Lap 85
Under caution, Dario Franchitti steals the lead from teammate Scott Dixon coming out of the pits.

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Lap 75
Scott Dixon is still the leader. Dario Franchitti sits in second, and Tony Kanaan is third. Danica Patrick crept into the top 5, right behind rookie Raphael Matos.
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Lap 65
Leader Ryan Briscoe gets smoked on a restart and drops back more than five spots. Briscoe pulls into pit lane to try and fix whatever was slowing him down.

Last year's winner, Scott Dixon, now leads.
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Lap 61
Graham Rahal hit the wall on Turn 4 at Lap 56, ending the day for the fourth-place qualifier. Rahal was running in the top 10.
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Lap 53
Ryan Briscoe passes Dario Franchitti to take the lead. Now, the frontrunners have to weave through lap traffic.
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Lap 50
Not much has changed since Lap 25 as all drivers have managed to stay out of trouble. Franchitti still leads and has pushed his margin to nearly one second. Scott Dixon bumped Castroneves back one spot to third.

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Lap 25
Now under caution, 2007 winner Dario Franchitti is the leader. Franchitti grabbed the top spot from Helio Castroneves early on and has held it since. Ryan Briscoe nabbed second from Castroneves, his teammate. Despite the rearrangement, the first row is still intact.

Danica Patrick moves from 11th to 9th after a first round of pit stops.

Ryan Hunter-Reay hit the outside wall of Turn 4 on Lap 21, which brought out the yellow flag.

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Lap 1

Forty years of bad luck for the Andretti family continues less than 30 seconds into the 93rd Indy 500.

Twenty-two-year-old Marco Andretti got into a wreck with Mario Moraes between turns one and two just seconds after the green flag. The Andrettis haven't won a race since Mario, Marco's grandfather, took home the trophy in 1969.

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Welcome to the Indiana Daily Student's live coverage of the Indianapolis 500.

The green flag drops in less than one hour at the Brickyard, and most of the fans are already in the stands. The remaining few are sifting through the gates in preparation for the 93rd running of the race.

Two-time winner Helio Castroneves will start from the pole position, looking to give Penske Racing its 15th Indy 500 title.

Check back at idsnews.com as we will be updating this story throughout the race. Better yet, let us know what you think by leaving us a comment below.

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