Franchitti Pulls Off Win at Chicagoland; Closes Gap in Overall Championship Standings

 JOLIET, Illinois - Dario Franchitti won Saturday night’s PEAK Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway despite running mid-pack for much of the race.  Opting, at the last minute (read: three pits away from pulling into his stall), to not take new tires and--only fuel--during the last pit stop of the evening, Franchitti gained track position and worked with Panther Racing’s Dan Wheldon to bring home the checkered flag for Team Target Chip Ganassi.

Franchitti’s win brings him within 23 points of Team Penske’s Will Power in the overall series championship standings.  Power led 17 laps, but finished in a season-low sixteenth position because he was forced to make an additional pit stop for ethanol when equipment failures prevented him from taking a full load of fuel during his previous stop.

The win also puts Franchitti in the lead in the A.J. Foyt Oval Championship.

Calling the win “really special” because “we pulled it out from nowhere,” Franchitti said that in actuality, the No. 10 team had a fifth place car.  Franchitti was quick to give credit for the gain in track position to both his fueler, Robby, and his engineer Chris Simmons.

Thereafter, Franchitti explained:  “And then from the restart I had a message saying that Dan is going to work with you if you give him some space where he need[s] space on a certain part of the track, and so Dan was great and just pushed me along a little bit, just--and that was helping him too.”

Dan Wheldon finished in second place, 0.0423 of a second behind Franchitti.

Andretti Autosport’s Marco Andretti finished third.  Franchitti, Wheldon, and Andretti also placed 1-2-3 at this year’s Indianapolis 500.

Franchitti led only 28 laps of the 200 lap race.

Robyn Lynne Schechter