Nobody at the Indy 500 had ever seen anything quite like it.

	Roger Penske signals his 11th Indianapolis 500 win as a car owner, after Helio Castroneves took the checkered flag.

Helio Castroneves, the Brazilian rookie who earned his nickname for similar antics at other tracks, beckoned his crew to help him celebrate his victory. Team Penske came running, and the big crowd roared.

Minutes earlier, Castroneves and fellow Brazilian Gil de Ferran gave renowned team owner Roger Penske a 1-2 finish Sunday and a sweep of the top five spots for Championship Auto Racing Teams.

"It's the best of my life, redeeming myself like this," said Penske, following a record 11th victory at Indy after failing to put any drivers in the race in 1995 and a five-year boycott by CART.

Penske remained in the pits while the 26-year-old Castroneves and crew scaled the fence.

"I'm climbing with him tonight, when nobody's looking," Penske said.

500 DOESN'T DISCRIMINATE

INDIANAPOLIS -- This was one of the most competitive races ever held here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was a nice matchup between drivers that had a little bit of everything. This is one that will go down in the history books. This race is exactly what the IRL wanted. They wanted to go out and compete against the best. And on this given day they came up short. My hat's off to a rookies Helio Castroneves and Bruno Junqueira. Junqueira didn't even think he was going to have an opportunity to run at Indy. Then you had the great performances of Tony Stewart and Robbie Buhl. This is what Indy is all about. Forget about CART, IRL or NASCAR. This is all about Indy. And you know what? The Indianapolis Motor Speedway doesn't recognize sanctioning bodies in the relationship with drivers. They recognize the guy that was the best on this day and ends up with his face on the Borg-Warner Trophy. --Jack Arute

Michael Andretti, Jimmy Vasser and rookie Bruno Junqueira followed the two Penske drivers across the finish line, making it a tough day for the rival Indy Racing League, which considers Indy its centerpiece.

Eliseo Salazar finished seventh in the best showing for an IRL regular.

"We're just fortunate to have this sport, and somewhere along the line we've got to figure out a way to pull it together," Penske said when asked about the CART-IRL split. "There's too many good drivers in IRL, too many good teams and some great talent, and the same thing on the other side.

This was the first oval victory for Castroneves, whose four previous victories -- all in CART -- came on road and street courses.

"This is a dream come true," he said. "I wasn't thinking about history. I was just thinking about winning my first oval race."

In only his second season with Penske, after two years with weaker teams, Castroneves is considered a strong contender in his regular series. At Indy, though, he was less touted than his older teammate, defending CART champion de Ferran, and was one of a dozen or more favorites.

The race appeared up for grabs among the two Penske drivers, Andretti and Tony Stewart when all made a pit stop on lap 137 during a caution brought on by rookie Cory Witherill's harmless spin.

De Ferran led going in, followed by Castroneves, Andretti and Stewart.

As the cars left their pits, Castroneves darted into the outer part of the two-lane pit road, alongside de Ferran and directly in front of Stewart, who braked hard. Andretti banged into the rear of Stewart's car, damaging his front wing.

It was the latest example of bad luck for the Andrettis. Father Mario Andretti won the 1969 Indy 500, but he was never able to do it again despite dominating at times.

His son has often been in contention, too, but something always seems to go wrong. Michael Andretti, who led 16 laps Sunday, is the career leader in laps led without a victory.

IRL officials penalized Castroneves for driving into the outer lane by giving the lead to Stewart before the green, and the former IRL champion stayed out front until he pitted on lap 148.

That was it for Stewart, who never was able to mount another challenge and finished sixth. He left the track quickly after the race in a helicopter, heading for NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 in Concord, N.C., the second time in three years he has driven in both races.

Castroneves inherited the lead and stayed out front the rest of the way, fighting off challenges from de Ferran and IRL regular Robbie Buhl, who spun out of contention on lap 165.

De Ferran's best shot at the leader came on a restart on lap 172 when he tried to get around Castroneves on the outside in the first turn of the 2-mile oval. But both Penske cars had to back off.

Castroneves was unchallenged the rest of the way, beating de Ferran to the finish by 1.74 seconds and joining former Penske winners Rick Mears (four times), Mark Donohue, Bobby Unser, Al Unser, Al Unser Sr. Danny Sullivan and Emerson Fittipaldi.

"Sometimes you want to lead all the race, but it doesn't matter," Castroneves said. "It's the last lap. Save fuel, try to make sure you go longer than anyone else."

Chip Ganassi, owner of another of CART's elite teams, ended the boycott last year with a resounding victory by another Indy rookie, Juan Montoya, who is now racing in Formula One.

Ganassi had four cars in Sunday's race, with Vasser, Stewart and Junqueira all proving the strength of the team once more.

Castroneves and de Ferran raced without the Marlboro sponsor logos they carry in CART, giving their cars a Spartan red and white look. The team agreed to remove the decals because of the settlement with tobacco companies reached by a group of state attorneys general in 1998.

Castroneves, however, celebrated in Victory Lane, drinking from the traditional bottle of milk and wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with a Marlboro logo.

Penske Dallara cars were powered by Oldsmobile engines produced by Ilmor, a company partially owned by Penske and which did not begin building IRL motors until February.

The engines had never even completed a 500-mile test before Sunday's victory.

It was a bad day for former Indy champions, with two-time winner Arie Luyendyk (13th) killing his engine twice during pit stops, Buddy Lazier (18th) and Eddie Cheever (26th) both with electrical problems, and two-time winner Al Unser Jr., (30th) hitting the wall trying to avoid the spinning car of IRL points leader Sam Hornish Jr.