Dario Franchitti--2009 IndyCar Series ChampionSaving fuel at 201.420 miles an hour? That (and a little bit of pit road strategy from the Ganassi Racing braintrust) won the 2009 IndyCar title and the Firestone Indy 300 season ending race at Homestead-Miami Speedway for Dario Franchitti of Target Ganassi Racing--his second IndyCar title in three years.. Franchitti started the race from the pole...and got into a battle with Penske Racing teammate Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe. Those three cars were the class of the 201 mile an hour field--the first in the 14 year history of the IndyCar series to complete an event without a caution period, covering 300 miles in 1 hour and 28 minutes. At the checkers...Franchitti bested Briscoe by 4.788 seconds. Franchitti stopped earlier than Dixon and Briscoe--that made the difference.
Franchitti was emotional when he thought of his friend Greg Moore (who died 10 years ago this month in a racing accident at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California), and was also thoughtful when asked about winning the championship. He said that the team's disappointing finish at the Indianapolis 500 was a wakeup call and rallying point, and that those resu.lts galvanized the team to work harder. I guess five wins says a lot about the results.
In the Grand-Am Rolex Series Championship, Hurley Haywood and Joao Barbosa won the race...but by finishing 4th, Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney, won the Daytona Prototype title. Of the 100 laps of racing...a full 25 of them...to include the last 8...under caution. Haywood was a last minute substitution for Barbosa's usual co-driver, the now suspended JC France, suspended for an off track incident in Daytona Beach, FL, where police charged hiom with possession of crack cocaine, DUI and street racing. If his last name sounds familiar, it should. JC is the son of Jim France of NASCAR and International Speedway Corporation. There was no official mention of the incident by Grand-Am.
The race was sparsely attended--unseasonably hot (90 degrees vs 80 degrees) weather and humidity held down the crowds. The tweets at MSRnet explain a bit more.
We'll get back to our headquarters to regroup and get ready to return to Homestead-Miami Speedway to cover the Sprint Cup Championship next month.
1 comment:
CORRECTION
Franchitti and Dixon do indeed drive for Target Ganassi Racing. I was taken up with the FTC disclosure statement, and with the bad glasses I Tweeted about the mistake happened--my bad.
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