Castroneves eliminated from "Dancing with the Stars"

Helio Castroneves' hopes for a second Mirror Ball trophy came to an abrupt end Tuesday night on "Dancing With the Stars: All-Stars." The Team Penske IndyCar driver and his professional dance partner, Chelsie Hightower, were eliminated from the celebrity competition after their Week 3 performance.

All three judges gave the couple 8.5s for a total of 25.5 (of 30) for their Quickstep, which tied for fourth of the 11 couples. But viewer/fan voting constitutes the other half of a couple's weekly total. Team Helio was in the "bottom two" following their Week 2 performance of the Jive, which also received judges' scores that put them in the middle of the pack. Drew Lachey and his pro partner, Anna Trebunskaya, also were eliminated, leaving nine couples to contest for the trophy on the ABC show. Lachey was the Season 2 winner.

"I have to thank everyone; it was a lot of fun again," Castroneves said. “I want to thank my family, Chelsie, and I want to thank America … I couldn't be happier.

“In my opinion, as a competitor, yes, you're disappointed because you did your best but you understand sometimes when you win and when you lose and you have to deal with it. I think the racing community was overconfident that everything was fine. It didn't happen.

"As a person, I got a great opportunity to come over here and have fun and I'm thankful for having an incredible partner to teach me how to dance free, which was the best part."