INDY 500 Hectic de Ferran savors Sunday's turnaround

The two-time CART champion kept his teammate from enjoying a three-peat.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Helio Castroneves took a few steps on the long red carpet, looked up and smiled as he saw that the unlikely doorman was Gil de Ferran -- his teammate, countryman and the Indianapolis 500 winner.
De Ferran, who arrived at the Victory Dinner on Monday night only minutes before Castroneves, greeted the fellow Brazilian at the door. Then they embraced, each knowing exactly what the other was feeling.
"Now is when you really start to enjoy everything. It's a moment to savor," said de Ferran, whose close victory Sunday kept Castroneves from becoming the first three-peat winner of the world's most famous auto race.
It was the time to celebrate, and to relax.
Reversal
De Ferran reversed the order of finish of the 2001 race, when he was runner-up to Castroneves.
"For me, certainly, it's unbelievable," de Ferran said.
De Ferran, a two-time CART series champion, came to the Indy Racing League with Castroneves and Team Penske last year.
He was 10th a year ago, when Castroneves won his second straight Indy 500, then quietly went about his business as his more flamboyant teammate garnered most of the attention in his bid for a third straight victory.
It paid off with a first prize of $1,353,265 from a record purse of $10,151,830 divvied up at the Victory Dinner.
Second
Castroneves, who finished 0.299 seconds behind de Ferran, received $739,665 for second place -- a record prize for a non-winner.
Tony Kanaan, another Brazilian driving for the new Andretti Green Racing team, was 1.2475 seconds behind de Ferran -- it was the closest 1-2-3 finish in Indy history -- and received $486,465 for third place. Kanaan also moved into the lead in IRL series points, 137-123 over Castroneves. Scott Sharp, who came to Indy in first place, dropped to third after his 20th-place finish and leads de Ferran 116-108.
"It's the trophy, that's really the most important prize," de Ferran said. "Winning the Indy 500, certainly it's nice to have the money, but the sense of accomplishment you have is really overwhelming.
"Certainly it's the biggest prize in auto racing. For any driver to claim he or she was the Indy 500 winner is something that is unbelievable."
The Victory Dinner included a video tribute to Michael Andretti, who is retiring as a driver to devote his full attention to running his new Andretti Green team.
Andretti led 28 laps on Sunday before a bad throttle linkage dropped him to a 27th-place finish, the second-worst among his 14 starts at Indy.