after showing potential but lacking reliability while with the bettenhausen and hogan teams, castroneves was signed by penske racing in cart in 2000 following the deaths of greg moore and gonzalo rodríguez during the last races of the 1999 season. moore had signed on with penske but never had the opportunity to race with the team. castroneves immediately became a regular front-runner winning the indianapolis 500 in 2001, the first of three wins where he again performed the crowd pleasing act of climbing the fence at the start finish line in celebration, something he would continue to do after winning races. he switched with the team to the rival irl for 2002, and remained with penske, teamed with gil de ferran, sam hornish jr., and ryan briscoe during his tenure through the 2008 season. during the 2002 season, castroneves tested with formula one team toyota racing at circuit paul ricard. in january 2009, team penske temporarily replaced him with will power, citing the difficulties of remaining competitive while castroneves prepared for trial on federal tax evasion charges. castroneves missed the first race of the 2009 season while the trial was ongoing, but returned to racing at the long beach grand prix.