Rookie Michael Annett, a 21-year-old from Iowa, held off veteran Frank Kimmel by less than a car length to win the ARCA RE/MAX 250. Alas, it barely makes him a footnote among Friday’s storylines.
Another rookie captured more attention than Annett. Dario Franchitti, the 2007 Indianapolis 500 champion, made his stock car debut on Friday, finishing 17th.
“It was a lot of fun out there, ” Franchitti said. “I’m disappointed with the result, but what I learned I don’t think you can put a price tag on. I’m looking at the long game, looking at next year. “
Franchitti has agreed to drive the Ganassi Racing Target Dodge next season, and will spend this weekend here getting further acclimated into the sport. MARK McCARTER, Al.com
Earlier this week, Franchitti, the reigning Indy 500 champ, became the first European driver in the 59-year history of NASCAR to join the series full time. Montoya, who won the Indy 500 in 2000, is Colombian, although he drove for the English-based Williams and McLaren Formula One teams before signing in 2006 with Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.
In 2008, Franchitti, 34, will team with Montoya at Ganassi and run the No. 40 Dodge Avenger. After winning the IndyCar Series championship for Andretti Green Racing this season, Franchitti is looking for new challenges, he said. MIKE BRUDENELL, FREE PRESS
It took Dario Franchitti less than a straightaway to know he was in foreign territory Friday at Talladega Superspeedway.
The reigning IndyCar Series champion and Indianapolis 500 winner saw the green flag wave for the start of Friday’s ARCA RE/MAX 250, his stock car debut, and immediately ran out of room on the highbanked 2.66-mile oval.
“You can’t pass on the left in this kind of racing like you can in IndyCar and people checked up in front of me on the start and I had nowhere to go, ” Franchitti said, grinning. “That was my first learning experience and it continued all day. ” CanadianPress
Franchitti planned to stay here for Sunday’s UAW-Ford 500 NASCAR race, and “get on the radio and listen to the Cup guys [on the Ganassi team] a lot, ” he said.
That will include Juan Pablo Montoya, who moved from F1 to NASCAR this season.
Franchitti qualified sixth in time trials but had to start on the back of the 41-car field.
So with the ebb and flow of the unfamiliar drafting lines, Franchitti went “forward, back again, forward again, ” he said. Ed Hinton, The Times
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