Castroneves

NEW YORK -- Let the Indianapolis 500 officials huddle all they want, study the tapes, break down the video frame by frame. Helio Castroneves wasn't worried. He knew he won the race, and that's all that mattered to him.

"In my mind, I was comfortable and confident I was the winner,'' Castroneves said Tuesday.

So the protest filed against his victory by runner-up Paul Tracy didn't worry the Brazilian, who waited several hours before being officially confirmed as the first back-to-back winner at Indy in 31 years.

Castroneves said he was cool while he waited out the protest hearing.

"I understand the political and legal stuff,'' he said. "I can't control what others think. In my mind, I left as the winner. I celebrated as the winner. I sleep like a champion and that's the way it should be.''

Castroneves, running on plenty of nerve and very little fuel, won the race under a yellow flag, a flag he confessed he was hoping for as he nursed his car through the final laps.

Tracy claimed he passed the Brazilian just before the yellow flag and that the race belonged to him.

Castroneves laughed off that argument.

"The only reason he passed me was because the yellow came on and I lifted off (the gas),'' he said. "I didn't understand the appeal or the controversy. You have to understand, ask any driver, to pass on Turn 3 is not easy. With two laps to go, I wouldn't let him pass so easily.

"I don't feel sorry for Tracy. I know I am the winner. He might be Paul Tracy, but Castroneves was there. He knows how to protect a lead and win a race.''

And also how to make a little gas go a long way.

There is no fuel gauge in Indy cars so drivers must depend on information relayed from the pits. Castroneves knew he was running low, saving every ounce he could.

"I was worried for gas but I had enough,'' he said.

Maybe yes, maybe no.

Team Penske had decided to live a little dangerously, gambling that Castroneves' last tankful of fuel was enough to go the distance. While other drivers pitted at Lap 182, Castroneves drove on, running sixth or seventh.

"We had a chance to gamble,'' he said. "We talked about what to do. We had 22 gallons. It's early to pit. I saw everybody pitting and I thought 'Why?' Let's stay out, but I've got to save fuel.''

There are different ways to economize -- a light touch on the accelerator, drawing on the draft of another car, picking spots when to go all out, finding the delicate balance between saving gas and getting power.

Castroneves did all that, all the time remembering that earlier this year, teammate Gil de Ferran took a similar gamble at Nazareth and ran out of fuel on the final lap while leading the race.

So the young Brazilian turned for some divine intervention.

"I was asking God for a yellow,'' he said. "I spent all my credits with God for the next few months, maybe the next year. It was well spent.''

Sure enough, rookie Laurent Redon and 1996 Indy winner Buddy Lazier crashed coming out of Turn 2 on lap 198. Castroneves had the yellow he needed and soon he had the checkered flag to go with it.

After he climbed the catch fence at the Motor Speedway twice to celebrate the victory and accepted the $1.6 million that goes with it, Castroneves considered his accomplishment.

"Luck is everything,'' he said. "You've got to be in the right place at the right time. I'm the luckiest guy in the world.''