Franchitti Takes Dramatic Indianapolis 500 Victory

Indianapolis, Ind. – Dario Franchitti survived a late-race shootout to win the 96th running of the Indianapolis 500 on an oppressively hot day. In winning, the Scotsman scored his third 500 victory, joining an elite winner’s club.

The three-time victor drove the Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

A near-capacity crowd witnessed the race in near record temperatures. The race record temperature is 92 degrees, and today’s temperature fell one degree short of the mark. Also, the heat index surpassed the 100 mark.

The 500 was hotly contested from the outset and a record 35 lead changes dotted the 200-laps of intense competition. Ten drivers led at least two laps with Marco Andretti heading the charts with 59. At the finish, 17 cars were on the lead lap.

“I want to dedicate this (win) to two of Indianapolis’ finest, Dan Wheldon and Michael Wanser (the 6-year old son of team manager Barry Wanser; the son died one week after Wheldon’s passing),” Franchitti said. “Thanks to all of the Indianapolis fans for their tribute to Dan today. What a race! What a race! I think D-dub (Wheldon) would be proud of this one. To be on the trophy on either side of Dan, that means more than anything. What a great race today, to be able to come from the back of the grid after being hit on pit lane and being spun.”

Susie Wheldon was among the first to greet Franchitti in victory lane, and a lot of emotion was exhibited between the two friends. The pair wore white sunglasses as a tribute to Wheldon. (White sunglasses were distributed to every fan, and they were asked to wear them on laps 26 and 98, the car numbers used by Wheldon for his two Indianapolis victories.)

Franchitti’s car had been struck by E. J. Viso during early action in the pits. Although Franchitti did not lose a lap, he fell back in the running order. But it did not take him long to catch lead pack.

At the time, the strongest performers were Ryan Briscoe, Marco Andretti and Takuma Sato.

As the race wound down, a torrid battle broke out among Franchitti, Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Justin Wilson, Ed Carpenter, Sato and Briscoe. The group battled intensely throughout the final 20 circuits with Carpenter and Sato crashing out of the race. Each incident triggered a caution flag, leading to spirited restarts.

At the end, Sato made a brave attempt to wrestle the lead from Franchitti going into the first turn on the 199th circuit but he crashed heavily, ending his day. The pair did brush together with the winner managing to save his car.

Regarding the tussle with Sato, Franchitti stated, “I moved over when I saw he (Sato) was coming. I came back over and moved up the track. He got loose underneath me. It kind of reminds me of Emerson (Fittipaldi) and Little Al (Unser Jr.) at the end. This means the world to me; this is Indianapolis.”

Sato had a different viewpoint, “I was going for the win. On the last restart, we jumped from seventh to fifth and then from fourth, third and to second. I kept pushing and overtaking. On the last lap, I had a good tow from Dario and thought I had the job done. But he kept pushing and didn’t give me enough room, so that I was well below the white line. What an incredible weekend. It was a very exciting race.”

He was credited with the 17th position.

Addressing his third 500 victory, the winner commented, “The last week I’ve been studying my buddy JR’s book; Johnny Rutherford gave me his book with a wonderful inscription, and he said he hoped to welcome me to the three-time club. To be in the company of guys like that means so much.”

Second was the dejected Dixon, a teammate to Franchitti. “It was co close,” he said. “We definitely had the car (to win) and our fuel mileage was helped us. I wasn’t expecting No. 15 (Sato) to dive in there, although he had been aggressive all day. Until then, I thought we were in a good position. It is good to be so close. Takuma and Dario touched and I have to credit Dario for saving it.”

Kanaan made a valiant attempt to win the race, leading a lap before falling back ever so slightly. He finished a strong third.

“It felt good for the three best friends of Dan to be fighting for the win,” he noted. “I tried everything to do it (win). To lose this one like this is an honor. I think Dan will be happy that we did so well – – his best friends finishing 1-2-3.”

Fourth went to Oriol Servia and Ryan Briscoe took fifth.

James Hinchcliffe, Justin Wilson, Charlie Kimball, Justin Bell and Helio Castroneves rounded out the top-10.

Honda and Chevrolet each had five cars in the top-10.

F1 ace Rubens Barrichello ended up in 11th place in his first oval-track race. He did lead two laps.

Twelfth went to Alex Tagliani, who drives for Bryan Herta, the 2011 winning car owner. In pre-race ceremonies, Herta drove Wheldon’s winning car on a slow lap around the track.

Time of the race was two hours and 58 minutes, and the average speed for the 500 miles was 167.734 miles per hour.

Eight caution flags slowed the race for 39 laps.

Rookie Bryan Clauson drew the first caution with a spin. Sebastian Bourdais drew another slowdown when he made wall contact. In another incident, the cars of Mike Conway and Will Power collided after Conway had spun. Power’s car went underneath that of Conway with the latter becoming airborne and sliding along the wall, cockpit-side against the barrier.

In the final two incidents, Carpenter spun out on the 181st lap and Andretti struck a wall six laps later when a part on his car broke, and he impacted the wall.

The Lotus-powered cars of Jean Alesi and Simona de Silvestro were parked early due to lack of speed.

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