Dario Franchitti of Scotland enjoys the traditional
victory toast of milk with team owner Chip Ganassi in Victory Lane
after hanging on to win the 94th running of the Indianapolis 500.
(Nick Laham/getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Winning the Indianapolis 500 for the second time -- and
doing so on little more than fumes down the stretch -- would have been
achievement enough for Dario Franchitti. That he was able to elevate
team owner Chip Ganassi into a class by himself in motor sports made it
all the more memorable.
When Franchitti crossed the finish line on Sunday under the yellow
caution flag, having led 155 laps and survived the perils of unstable
track conditions on this sweltering afternoon, Ganassi became the first
owner to win the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 in the same season.
Only one other owner, Roger Penske, a rival on the track and a close
friend off it, also has won the two most prestigious prizes in auto
racing. But even the legendary figure who has captured a record 15
Indianapolis victories cannot lay claim to both at the same time.
"I'm a lucky guy to be in this business to work with people who accomplished that," Ganassi said before catching a flight to Charlotte for NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600. "I didn't drive either car. I didn't change any tires. I didn't put any fuel in the cars. I didn't do any of those things. I'm very, very lucky is what it comes down to."
Turns out good fortune had much to do with Franchitti and Target Chip Ganassi Racing achieving the unprecedented feat, though it came at the expense of two drivers, Mike Conway in particular, on the final lap.
With Franchitti's car running precariously low on fuel, the Ganassi team was weighing strategy that could determine if this afternoon would be historic or deflating. At issue was trying to keep an aggressive posture to maintain adequate separation, while easing back a bit to conserve what little was left in the 22-gallon fuel cell. That's when Conway touched wheels with Ryan Hunter-Reay, and the wreck that ensued brought out the ninth caution of the day.
As Franchitti sputtered across the finish line, littered behind him was the debris from Conway's No. 24 car, which had gone airborne, collided with the catch fence and came to rest on the blistering asphalt with the engine and four tires completely dislodged from the rest of the body. Hunter-Reay, meantime, had hit the outside retaining wall.
An emergency medical team sped to what remained of Conway's vehicle and extricated the driver, who had orthopedic damage to his left leg diagnosed after being stabilized at the track. Conway then was flown to a nearby hospital for precautionary reasons. Hunter-Reay escaped without serious injuries, was examined at the track and released.
"That wasn't good for your heart, was it, Chip?" Franchitti said,
drawing robust laughter as he turned to his boss sitting to his left
during the postrace news conference. "It would have been much easier had
we been able to just get on it and keep the foot down because the
Target car was quick. Great day. To win two of these things is pretty
damn special."
Franchitti became the 17th driver with at least two Indianapolis 500 victories and the first Scottish-born driver to win the Greatest Spectacle in Racing more than once. Franchitti, who has two IndyCar points championships after winning it last season, also won the Indianapolis 500 in 2007 to go along with his first points title that year.
Franchitti's triumph in this edition of the 500 came after surviving a field that included three-time champion and heavy favorite Helio Castroneves and a rampaging Tony Kanaan, who made a game bid to become the first driver to win the race starting from the last row. Kanaan, in fact, was dead last among the 33 drivers who qualified, yet at Lap 160, the car immediately visible in Franchitti's rear view mirror was that of his former teammate with Andretti Green Racing.
"I thought, 'I knew it,' " said Franchitti, who raced with the Andretti team in 2007 before trying his hand -- and failing miserably -- at NASCAR the next year.
But Kanaan ultimately didn't have enough to keep pace with Franchitti, who at the end held off runner-up Dan Wheldon and third-place finisher Marco Andretti in a race that featured a record four women in the field. Danica Patrick was the highest female finisher, coming in sixth despite a car that was uncooperative most of the week.
The race began with a clean start after honorary starter Jack Nicholson waved the green flag, but that belied the disorder that would unfold soon thereafter, when two cars wrecked over eight laps. The first casualty was Davey Hamilton, who at 47 was the oldest driver in the race and began in the middle of the fifth row. His day ended in Turn 2 of the opening lap when he went into the wall trying to avoid Tomas Scheckter. At that point, Franchitti passed pole-sitter Castroneves and Will Power to move into first place.
"Tomas Scheckter is an idiot," Hamilton said in the garage area. "He tries to be a superstar. He tries to go three wide. . . . He's a knucklehead."
The drivers managed just another seven laps before the second yellow caution flag forced drivers to stand down following a wreck by Bruno Junqueira, who had one of the faster cars in the field.
Another yellow in Lap 65 signaled disappointment for John Andretti, who said his car got away from him as he approached Turn 2. He got into the wall, and the result was damage to his right rear suspension that included a tire being displaced, serving as forewarning for the dramatic crash that helped shape the outcome on the last lap.
"We're here to win. All he wants to do is win," Franchitti said of Ganassi, whose team won the Daytona 500 with Jamie McMurray at the wheel. "If you're not interested in that, or if you take your eye off the ball, he lets you know. That's all he cares about, and that's cool."
"I'm a lucky guy to be in this business to work with people who accomplished that," Ganassi said before catching a flight to Charlotte for NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600. "I didn't drive either car. I didn't change any tires. I didn't put any fuel in the cars. I didn't do any of those things. I'm very, very lucky is what it comes down to."
Turns out good fortune had much to do with Franchitti and Target Chip Ganassi Racing achieving the unprecedented feat, though it came at the expense of two drivers, Mike Conway in particular, on the final lap.
With Franchitti's car running precariously low on fuel, the Ganassi team was weighing strategy that could determine if this afternoon would be historic or deflating. At issue was trying to keep an aggressive posture to maintain adequate separation, while easing back a bit to conserve what little was left in the 22-gallon fuel cell. That's when Conway touched wheels with Ryan Hunter-Reay, and the wreck that ensued brought out the ninth caution of the day.
As Franchitti sputtered across the finish line, littered behind him was the debris from Conway's No. 24 car, which had gone airborne, collided with the catch fence and came to rest on the blistering asphalt with the engine and four tires completely dislodged from the rest of the body. Hunter-Reay, meantime, had hit the outside retaining wall.
An emergency medical team sped to what remained of Conway's vehicle and extricated the driver, who had orthopedic damage to his left leg diagnosed after being stabilized at the track. Conway then was flown to a nearby hospital for precautionary reasons. Hunter-Reay escaped without serious injuries, was examined at the track and released.
Franchitti became the 17th driver with at least two Indianapolis 500 victories and the first Scottish-born driver to win the Greatest Spectacle in Racing more than once. Franchitti, who has two IndyCar points championships after winning it last season, also won the Indianapolis 500 in 2007 to go along with his first points title that year.
Franchitti's triumph in this edition of the 500 came after surviving a field that included three-time champion and heavy favorite Helio Castroneves and a rampaging Tony Kanaan, who made a game bid to become the first driver to win the race starting from the last row. Kanaan, in fact, was dead last among the 33 drivers who qualified, yet at Lap 160, the car immediately visible in Franchitti's rear view mirror was that of his former teammate with Andretti Green Racing.
"I thought, 'I knew it,' " said Franchitti, who raced with the Andretti team in 2007 before trying his hand -- and failing miserably -- at NASCAR the next year.
But Kanaan ultimately didn't have enough to keep pace with Franchitti, who at the end held off runner-up Dan Wheldon and third-place finisher Marco Andretti in a race that featured a record four women in the field. Danica Patrick was the highest female finisher, coming in sixth despite a car that was uncooperative most of the week.
The race began with a clean start after honorary starter Jack Nicholson waved the green flag, but that belied the disorder that would unfold soon thereafter, when two cars wrecked over eight laps. The first casualty was Davey Hamilton, who at 47 was the oldest driver in the race and began in the middle of the fifth row. His day ended in Turn 2 of the opening lap when he went into the wall trying to avoid Tomas Scheckter. At that point, Franchitti passed pole-sitter Castroneves and Will Power to move into first place.
"Tomas Scheckter is an idiot," Hamilton said in the garage area. "He tries to be a superstar. He tries to go three wide. . . . He's a knucklehead."
The drivers managed just another seven laps before the second yellow caution flag forced drivers to stand down following a wreck by Bruno Junqueira, who had one of the faster cars in the field.
Another yellow in Lap 65 signaled disappointment for John Andretti, who said his car got away from him as he approached Turn 2. He got into the wall, and the result was damage to his right rear suspension that included a tire being displaced, serving as forewarning for the dramatic crash that helped shape the outcome on the last lap.
"We're here to win. All he wants to do is win," Franchitti said of Ganassi, whose team won the Daytona 500 with Jamie McMurray at the wheel. "If you're not interested in that, or if you take your eye off the ball, he lets you know. That's all he cares about, and that's cool."