Franchitti’s teammate scores runner-up at Infineon
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Two-time IZOD IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon hasn’t been officially eliminated from this year’s title fight, but at 95 markers back of leader Will Power, his chances for a third series crown are fading fast.
As a result, his job in the final four races of the 2010 campaign is cut and dry: Help Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dario Franchitti win the championship by taking points away from Power.
Unfortunately for TCGR, he wasn’t able to do that in the closing stages of Sunday’s Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon Raceway. Dixon was able to stick with the Australian during the final restart of the day at Lap 69, but he wasn’t able to come up with a winning pass. He had to settle for second place, which wound up grabbing five points away from Franchitti, who finished third after Dixon got by him for P2 at Lap 62.
“The tough decision for our side was what to do with Dario, because obviously he’s the closest in points to Will,” said Dixon. “We felt we were in a good position to maybe challenge Will and get close to him and maybe win the race and take some points away from him that way. We didn’t have enough. Obviously, Will won the race. We probably didn’t help Dario’s chances in that. So that was probably the downside to today.”
Franchitti (who was on the primary “black” tires at the time) said that once he was informed that Dixon was on the faster “red” alternate tires, he let Dixon go by him so he could try and take Power off the top spot.
“They came on the radio and said Scotty was on reds,” the Scotsman recalled. “So I let him go, because it would definitely suit me for him to go and pass Will. I let him go. He chased after him. The yellow came out. On the restart, I could see he was giving it everything he could to get past him.
“At that point on the blacks, I was just trying to stay ahead of [Ryan Briscoe] who was on blacks behind me. I had nothing for the two guys in front. So, yeah, a little frustrated there. But it’s one of those things.”
Franchitti saw his deficit to Power grow on Sunday to 59 points. But TCGR has done well at the four ovals that will complete the 2010 campaign: Chicagoland, Kentucky, Motegi and Homestead, all of them 1.5-mile speedways.
Dixon was looking forward to the opportunity to “try and just keep [Power] back in the pack and take some points off him.”
“Obviously, my job is going to be to try to help Dario and myself close the gap as much as possible, apply as much pressure as possible, and hopefully put them under enough that they make mistakes,” he said.
“I think that’s really the only options left for us. We’re confident going in. We have to work together as a team, obviously finish 1-2 to try to overcome the points deficit at the moment.”
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All quotes were taken from yesterday’s post-race press conference transcript. Video credit goes to the Indy Racing League.
