FRANCHITTI WINS THIRD IZOD INDYCAR SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP BY FIVE POINTS; RUN-IN WITH WALL ON LAP 134 ENDS WILL POWER’S TITLE HOPES; SCOTT DIXON WINS CAFES DO BRASIL INDY 300
The legend of Dario Franchitti grew once again Saturday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Going into the season-ending Cafes do Brasil Indy 300, Franchitti knew that if he could win the race, plus earn the three bonus points for winning the pole (one point) and leading the most laps (two points), he could snatch the IZOD IndyCar Series championship away from Will Power. Franchitti won the pole on Friday and on Saturday night, he led a race-high 128 laps.
But it turned out that even though his No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing machine was a winning car, he didn’t have to take the checkered flag.
Power, who seemed destined to claim the title for almost all of the season, slapped the Turn 4 wall on Lap 134 and caused damage to the suspension on his No. 12 Team Penske entry — damage that would prove fatal to Power’s hopes.
With his rival watching on pit road, Franchitti focused on the championship and stayed clean for the rest of the race. His eighth-place finish was enough to earn him a third IZOD IndyCar Series crown by a mere five points over Power.
With two Indianapolis 500 wins and three series championships over the past four seasons, it’s clear that Franchitti has earned himself a place in history. But the Scotsman is holding off on figuring out where that place is for now.
“Good haul, isn’t it?,” he said. “…Look back to the start of 2007, I hadn’t won a championship. Won a lot of races, not a championship or Indy 500. Now we find ourselves with two 500s and three championships.
“I’m just going to enjoy it. I think I’m just going to let it sink in, enjoy it. And if you ask me that question maybe, starting next year, I’ll give you a better answer. But I’m very proud of the achievement. And it’s an absolute honor to get to drive for [Target Chip Ganassi Racing] and the equipment they give me. And that feeling of success is great.”
From the get-go, Franchitti had a strong machine and with teammate Scott Dixon serving as a protector behind him in second place, the Scotsman began to pile on the laps led. On Lap 118, he clinched the crucial two bonus points and cut Power’s lead to nine markers.
Meanwhile, Power was simply fighting to stay in striking distance throughout the night. He ran as high as fourth in the event, but didn’t have a car capable of challenging Franchitti at the front.
“Early in the race, the car responded very difficult,” Power said of his early troubles. “And it wasn’t until after that first stop that I realized I’m going to have to always run the high line. This is going to be it for me, because the car wasn’t good enough to run down lower. Once I worked that out, [the car was] reasonably quick. I don’t think it was as quick as the Ganassi guys, but they seemed to have something more. It was just so tough to close the gap to them.”
Eventually, it got too tough and Power wound up slapping the SAFER Barrier to bring out the yellow. He then slid into his pit box sideways during the ensuing stops and eventually, the decision was made to bring the car behind the pit wall and try to repair the damaged suspension.
With his title dream all but done, Power headed back out briefly after the repairs. But he then returned to pit road on Lap 149 for more fixing. Power got out of the car and eventually, he was forced to bow out of the race.
“When you bust up against a wall, you know it’s over and done with,” he said. “Especially when I felt the car sort of grabbing a little. We were in a bit of strife, unless something untoward happened to Dario.”
When Franchitti got word of Power’s woes, winning was no longer the only option for him and Franchitti concentrated on getting the car home in one piece. But that mission got a little hairy when Milka Duno crashed in front of him on Lap 175. Franchitti let off the gas, stayed to the inside and went past Duno just as she completed her spin into the Turn 4 wall.
“I just thought ‑ well, the immediate thought was, ‘Oh s–t,'” said Franchitti about the wreck that could have stopped his own run to the championship.
“I tried to pull the car down off the wall. I heard the noise when the car hit the wall. It was a big old hit.”
He wouldn’t have another scare for the rest of the race. While he cruised along to the title, his teammate Dixon was putting the finishing touches on a race win.
After the end of the Power caution on Lap 151, Dixon and Marco Andretti started to duel for the point while Franchitti fell back. This fight lasted until Lap 168 when Andretti went to the pits for his final stop of the night.
Following the Duno caution, Dixon found himself trying to hold off Tony Kanaan. That job got easier for the New Zealander as Kanaan’s teammate Danica Patrick began to create a battle for second.
While the two teammates put on an entertaining battle for the runner-up position — a battle that would go to Patrick by .0111 of a second — Dixon pulled away to what would be his third win of the season by a margin of 2.7587 seconds.
It was a nice way to cap off a somewhat disappointing season for Dixon — at least according to the standards that his TCGR squad has set recently.
“We definitely had a rough year — lots of missed opportunities and it felt strange coming down to the last race and not really racing for a championship,” said Dixon. “So it was the best we could get out of it for the last race, and obviously, with the team winning, it was a huge day. So everybody’s pretty excited and pretty happy.”
Indeed, it was another banner day for Chip Ganassi Racing in what has been a year marked by banner days. From Franchitti winning the Indy 500 and IndyCar title to Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett taking the Grand-Am title to wins from Jamie McMurray in NASCAR’s Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400, Ganassi is in the midst of his greatest season yet as a car owner.
“I’ve said it many times — I’m blessed with who I get to work with, and I’m honored to represent the companies we represent,” said Ganassi. “And that’s who provides the foundation that our team stands on, is our great group of sponsors and partners. And to have the group of guys that we have in Indianapolis and in Charlotte for that matter — to have that consistency, and to build consistency, and to build history together — you get rewarded with events like this evening.”
Now all that’s left is to wonder what kind of “punishment” Franchitti will get at the awards ceremony on Sunday. After he won the title last year, he was thrown into a hotel pool.
Franchitti reckons he’ll get the same fate this year. But he doesn’t seem to mind.
“I’ll wear old clothes to start the night off and bring a change of clothes with me, because I guarantee that Kanaan, Dixon, et al., all my friends will throw me in the pool,” he said. “So as long that’s all they do and they don’t tie me to a rogue boat and set me adrift in the Atlantic Ocean, we’ll be all right.”
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Photo credit: Ron McQueeney/IZOD IndyCar Series. All quotes were taken from tonight’s post-race press conference transcript.
