The top two championship contenders triumphed Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway as Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dario Franchitti and Team Penske’s Will Power won Race 1 and 2 of the Firestone Twin 275s respectively.
Franchitti bested teammate Scott Dixon in the first race by a mere .05 of a second after leading 110 of the 114 laps. After an intermission and a blind draw to determine the grid for the second race, Power (who drew the third starting position for Race 2) was able to hold off Dixon by .94 of a second in the nightcap to claim his first-ever oval win in the IZOD IndyCar Series.
“That means so much to me and the boys,” a relieved Power said about finally breaking through for a victory on an oval. “We’ve been trying at this for so long…Yes, man! I’m so happy. Just a great race.”
In the first race, Franchitti, Dixon, Power, pole sitter Alex Tagliani and Takuma Sato were the top five finishers, while in the second race, the top five ran: Power, Dixon, Ryan Briscoe, Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan, who got the pole position in the blind draw on Race 2.
Power will now take a 21-point IZOD IndyCar Series championship lead over Franchitti to the Milwaukee Mile next Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC) with Dixon running 70 points back of the Australian in third place.
More to come…
