Helio Castroneves Crowned ‘Dancing’ Champ

After ten weeks of competition Helio Castroneves trumped 11 of his fellow celebrities to become the “Dancing With the Stars” Season 5 champion.

“This is an incredible moment right now I can’t thank you enough,” Helio told co-host Tom Bergeron as he was handed “Dancing’s” silver ball trophy.

The win, a result of viewer votes and judges scores, marks the second in a row for Helio’s partner, Julianne Hough. Julianne won Season 4, her first with the show, alongside then partner Apolo Anton Ohno, who cheered her on from the audience on Tuesday night.

The moment was monumental for the yellow-clothed Brazilian. Earlier in the evening he told co-host Samantha Harris he really wanted the trophy, to put alongside his Indy awards.

During finals week, Mel B. scored one point higher than Helio, but the racecar driver seemed to be more consistent from the very start of the competition, regularly putting in the hard work to learn Julianne’s challenging choreography and netting scores to match.

Helio’s monumental moment was greeted with confetti and a half-gallon of milk, which someone presented him with after the win. Immediately after Wayne Newton was the first celebrity to congratulate the racecar driver and later, Cameron Mathison picked up Helio as the Brazilian held his trophy in the air.

“Well done, well done,” runner up Mel B repeated in Helio’s ear.

Earlier in the evening, all of Season 5’s stars returned to the competition for a final dance. Wayne, who has a cardiomyopathy and Floyd Mayweather, who is gearing up for a December 8 fight however, were unable to show off their fancy footwork. Wayne did confirm though that he will be on the “Dancing With the Stars” tour.

Sabrina Bryan, who was ousted in a shocking elimination in late October, also showed off why she was an early favorite during the two-hour finale, redoing the cha cha that left the judges speechless earlier in the season.

While the finale revisited many happy highlights of the season, it was a sad moment for Marie Osmond, who after making it to the final three, was ousted during the finale’s first hour.

“Thank you everybody so much,” Marie told the audience. “You know, I am so pleased to be here at my age … I was telling [my dance partner] Jonathan [Roberts], first of all I love him to pieces and for everything I’ve been through in the last 10 weeks, wow, he pulled me through it.”

Marie also thanked her many fans who got her to the final showdown and even the judges, whom she called “the stepsisters.”

“I like you OK,” she told them, before adding “I don’t’ care what you said, I’m a dancer.”