Dario Franchitti

Dario Franchitti

Born:	May 18 1973 (1973-05-18) (age 34)
Birthplace:	Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland
Awards:
Car #, Team	#40 - Chip Ganassi Racing
All stats current as of November 20 2007.

Dario Franchitti (b. 18 May, 1973 in Bathgate, West Lothian) is a Scottish racing driver of Italian descent. He is the 2007 IndyCar Series champion. He used to compete in the IndyCar Series, formerly drove in the CART series, and won the rain-shortened 2007 Indianapolis 500. He also competed in the American Le Mans Series for Andretti Green Racing with his brother Marino and former IndyCar Series teammate Bryan Herta. For 2008, Franchitti has announced that he will drive the #40 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge full time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with a still to be determined sponsor.

Career history

Early career

Franchitti began his racing career in karts, winning the Scottish Junior Championship in 1984, the British Junior Championships in 1985 and 1986 and the Scottish senior title in 1988. He progressed to Formula Vauxhall Junior where he won the championship with four victories in 1991. He moved up to Formula Vauxhall Lotus in 1992, where he joined Paul Stewart Racing. In his first year, he finished fourth in the overall championship, and was named the McLaren/Autosport Young Driver of the Year. Staying with the team for the next season, he won the championship in 1993. He graduated to the British Formula Three Championship in 1994, where he finished fourth and won one race in his first year. However, he was not retained for 1995 and this was his final year in single-seaters in Europe. Instead, Franchitti was contracted by AMG Racing to drive a works Mercedes C-Class in the German Touring Car Championship and the related International Touring Car Championship, where he finished fifth and third respectively. He continued in the ITC in 1996, finishing fourth overall with one race win.

CART

Dario's car being pushed up to qualify for the 2006 Indianapolis 500.

With the demise of the ITC, Mercedes placed Franchitti in Hogan Racing in 1997, making his US debut in the PPG/CART Champ Car World Series series. His best finish was ninth place. In 1998 he joined Team Green (forerunner to the current Andretti Green Racing), finishing 3rd in the season standings with three wins and five pole-positions. Franchitti finished as the runner-up in the 1999 CART series behind Juan Pablo Montoya. Both drivers finished the season with a score of 212 points, but Montoya had seven wins to Franchitti's three and was thus crowned champion. Franchitti's close friend Greg Moore died in a crash during the final race of the year at California Speedway in Fontana, California. A heavy crash in pre-season testing the next year ruined Franchitti's 2000 season, and he only won once in 2001. In 2002 he won the Vancouver Molson Indy. He dedicated his win to Greg Moore, who lived in Vancouver before dying in 1999. He finished 4th in Champ Car in 2002.

IRL

Franchitti waiting to qualify on May 12, 2007 at Indianapolis.

Practicing for the 2007 Indy 500.

Franchitti moved with the Andretti Green team to the IndyCar Series in 2003 but his season was ended by a back injury sustained in a motorcycle accident while on holiday in Scotland. Franchitti missed most of the year, and his place was taken by Dan Wheldon at Motegi, Robby Gordon at Indianapolis and Bryan Herta for the remainder of the year. Franchitti returned to the cockpit in 2004, and won races at Milwaukee and Pikes Peak. On January 3, 2007, Andretti Green Racing announced that Franchitti had re-signed for the IRL team for a tenth consecutive season in American Open Wheel racing. He is also undertaking a limited programme driving an Acura ARX01a in the American Le Mans Series, teaming up with long-time AGR team-mate Bryan Herta and Dario's brother, Marino Franchitti. [1]. On May 27, 2007, Franchitti won a rain-shortened Indianapolis 500, finishing under a yellow flag after an accident involving Dan Wheldon and Marco Andretti following lap 163. The race was halted due to rain three laps later. During the 2007 season, Franchitti survived two huge crashes which saw his car flip upside down both times. The first at Michigan saw him tangle with Dan Wheldon resulting in his car flipping before being hit again by Scott Dixon. The contact with Dixon was only inches away from his head and the accident saw seven cars (including Franchitti) retire from the race. The second flip came a week later at Kentucky. As Franchitti crossed the start/finish line to finish the race, the Scotsman who had not realised the chequered flag had been waved continued to race and crashed into the back of Kosuke Matsuura flipping yet again and hitting the outside wall. Franchitti took full responsibility for the incident. Franchitti finished 1st in points for the 2007 season with four wins under his belt. He finished ahead of Scott Dixon by just 13 points, after Dixon ran out of fuel on the last lap of the season-ending race, allowing Franchitti to win.

NASCAR

On September 9, 2007, media speculation rose that Chip Ganassi Racing would formally announce that Franchitti would be replacing David Stremme in the #40 Dodge Avenger stock car in the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.^[1] On October 3, 2007, it was announced that Franchitti will make his move to NASCAR replacing David Stremme in the #40 Dodge. He made his stock car debut in the ARCA RE/MAX Series on October 5 at Talladega Superspeedway, qualifying 6th and finishing 17th in the #42 Target Dodge Charger for Chip Ganassi Racing. His move to stock cars is similar to his good friend and former CART rival Juan Pablo Montoya's move from Formula 1 to NASCAR last year. Franchitti made his first NASCAR start on October 20, 2007 in the Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway. He drove the #41 Target Dodge Ram truck, owned by Cunningham Motorsports, with Brian Pattie from Chip Ganassi Racing serving as crew chief.^[2] He would finish 33rd after being plagued by rear end problems during the race.

Personal life

Franchitti relaxes at Indy for a few minutes with his wife, Ashley Judd, in 2007

Franchitti has been married to American actress Ashley Judd since 2001. The ceremony was held at Skibo Castle near Dornoch, Scotland. They now reside near Franklin, Tennessee, United States. Though Bathgate-born, his family moved to Whitburn when he was 8 years old. He is a former pupil of Stewart's Melville College and despite his local football clubs being Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian of Edinburgh, he chose to support Celtic Football Club.

Career Results

American Open-Wheel

This section uses abbreviations that may be confusing or ambiguous. Please improve the article or discuss changes on the .(December 2007)

Champ Car

* Franchitti and Juan Pablo Montoya tied on points in the championship, but Montoya was crowned champion because he won 7 races to Franchitti's 3.

IndyCar

(Races in Bold indicate pole position)

** Podium (Non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.

*** Top 10s (Non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

Indy 500 results

Franchitti races through turn one during the early part of the 2007 Indianapolis 500

See also

• Bioethanol

External links

• Driver web site
• Driver details at www.indycar.com

References