Dario Franchitti didn’t return last year to defend his SunTrust Indy Challenge title at Richmond International Raceway. Like several open-wheel stars the past three years, he chased the stock-car dream into the Sprint Cup Series.
The Scotsman, 2007 series and Indianapolis 500 champion, has won two of the first seven races this season, including the race last Sunday in Iowa. And entering Saturday’s 300-lap, 225-mile race on RIR’s 3/4-mile oval, he sits three points behind series leader Ryan Briscoe.
“It’s like riding a bike, and I was riding the same bike for a lot of years,” Franchitti said. “When I went away to try NASCAR, it was a different type of racing than I’d ever done.”
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“When I went back the other way, it was all familiar and easier to get back up to speed.”
Should Franchitti find the combination of speed and handling he did at RIR two years ago, the rest of the field will be racing for second place. Franchitti led a record 242 of 250 laps (the race expanded to 300 laps last year) and trailed for a total of about 100 yards under the green flag.
“That is definitely one of the races I look back on with a great deal of pride, although now I’m with the Target (Chip Ganassi Racing) team rather than Andretti-Green,” he said. “We made some very big changes after practice and guessed on the setup.”
Although he’s happy to be back home in the IndyCar Series, Franchitti is glad to have tackled the challenge of racing in NASCAR. For those like former Andretti-Green teammate Danica Patrick, who are considering a similar move, Franchitti has two pieces of advice: Get good equipment and start below the Cup level.
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