One year after his return to the IndyCar Series following a brief stint in NASCAR, Dario Franchitti captured the 2009 series title by winning Saturday’s season-ending Firestone Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Franchitti, the pole sitter, capitalized on a late-race pit strategy and then held off Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe from Team Penske in the final laps to score his fifth victory of the season.
The 300-mile race was the first caution-free and second fastest in series history.
With the victory, Franchitti clinched his second IndyCar championship, finishing the year 11 points ahead of Dixon and 12 in front of Briscoe. He became the third driver with multiple titles, joining Dixon and Sam Hornish Jr. MiamiHerald.com
“I still can’t believe it,” said Franchitti, the scent of champagne obvious on his soaked race suit an hour after the checkered flag came out in his honor. “Really, I can’t.”
Maybe it was all in the numbers: On the 10th day of the 10th month of the year, Franchitti’s No. 10 car won a championship—the 10th win of the season for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, to boot.
Franchitti’s IndyCar contract with Ganassi was drawn up on a cocktail napkin. In the end, it was genius.
“There’s a lot of guys who can win races,” Ganassi said. “There aren’t as many who can win championships.” Los Angeles Times
“When we started losing ground in the first stint, we had to go to a different strategy. We lost so much ground we were in conservation mode. It would have been fun to run up full rich with those boys but a win is a win.”
Franchitti finished on 616 points and won the season crown by 11 points over Dixon and 12 over race runner-up Briscoe. Brazil’s Helio Castroneves finished fourth in the point hunt. American Danica Patrick was fifth in the title chase.
“I can’t be too disappointed,” said Briscoe, a three-time winner in 2009. “We knew it was going to be tight. This was the hardest and best race I’ve ever run. Dario snuck home on us on fuel. It was a little bit frustrating.”
It was the fifth win of the season for Franchitti, who ran out of the fuel while celebrating moments after the finish. With no slow-downs for cautions, it was the second-fastest race in IndyCar history at 201.420 mph.
Franchitti won the 2007 series title when Dixon ran out of fuel on the last lap of the final race of the season. AFP
Franchitti jumped to NASCAR after winning the IRL title in 2007.
He won’t toy with that again.
“I’m absolutely where I should be,” Franchitti said.
Danica Patrick was 19th in the race and a career-best fifth in the standings this season. She gave her strongest clue yet she is returning to the series in 2010 when she said, “We know what we need to do, and we’ll be ready for next year.” Seattle Times
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