Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti will make his Busch Series debut Saturday at Memphis Motorsports Park.
It will be the third race for Franchitti, the reigning IndyCar Series champion who is moving to NASCAR full-time next season. He’s already raced in an ARCA event at Talladega and made his NASCAR debut last Saturday in the Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway.
Franchitti will drive the No. 42 Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing at Memphis. He plans to test on Wednesday at Kentucky Speedway in preparation for the race. CanadianPress
Franchitti is following a similar schedule to what Juan Pablo Montoya did last year during his transition to NASCAR’s top-tier Nextel Cup series. Montoya made his debut at Memphis, where he finished 11th.
He made his Nextel Cup debut in last year’s season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Team owner Chip Ganassi has yet to reveal Franchitti’s entire schedule. InternationalHeraldTribune
Franchitti made his NASCAR debut in the Truck Series race at Martinsville. He and fellow open-wheeler Jacques Villeneuve, who made his third Craftsman Truck Series start and his fourth in NASCAR, were both eliminated in accidents.
Franchitti got as high as 15th, for 20 laps at mid-race, before he was involved in an accident and retired in 33rd position due to rear-end failure.
“It was down to my experience level, ” Franchitti said. “When it got a little tight I was struggling with how to drive the corner a little different. I think some of that was inexperience on my part in setting up the truck [Friday] in that I didn’t know what to expect [Saturday] and how the truck was going to react, and some was the inexperience of the crew, because this was the first time they’d ever run a truck. ” NASCAR.com
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