Big Day For Franchitti At Milwaukee 225

By Paul Gohde
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Updated: June 19, 2011

West Allis, WI – Dario Franchitti won the pole, led the most laps, and moved into a tie for first place in the season’s IndyCar Championship by winning the Milwaukee 225 at the Milwaukee Mile Sunday. But according to Franchitti it wasn’t that easy.

Milwaukee 225 IndyCar Series podium, Winner Dario Franchitti (center), 2nd Graham Rahal (left), 3rd Oriol Servia (right). [Mark Walczak Photo]

“I wish it was that simple. Up to the first pit stop the car was really good. I was able to pull away a good margin,” said Franchitti, who led laps 1-115 from the pole in his Downy Target Team Chip Ganassi entry. “After the area of the first pit stop we could see Tony (Kanaan) was looking strong, and sure enough him and I had a pretty good battle.”

Kanaan assumed the lead coming off of pit road on lap116 following a caution caused by a JR Hildebrand spin into the Turn 4 SAFER barrier.
Franchitti, Kanaan and Castroneves then exchanged the lead throughout the middle portion of the race with Franchitti settling into the third spot.

“I was trying to get on Kanaan’s gear box. I was trying to make it happen. I was so spitting mad from what Helio did on that (lap 175) restart. I was doing all I could to get up to him and past Tony as well You can’t give anything. You can’t ever just sit back and cruise,” said the patient Scot.

But Franchitti’s patience was rewarded twice in a 5 lap stretch that saw his two adversaries both fall out of contention.

First Kanaan spun his GEICO-KV Racing Lotus unaided in Turn 4, making contact with the SAFER barrier and ending his day after leading twice for 33 laps. “I was trying. If you’re trying to win races, that’s the way it is,” said Kanaan who finished 19th. “I saw the opportunity when Helio got (caught) in traffic, stepped on it and lost the rear. It was my fault, but, hey, it was a fun race. I’d rather make a mistake trying hard than not trying at all.”

And it wasn’t long before race leader Castroneves was out of the running, too, when he was forced to pit on lap 200 with a slow leak in a rear tire on his Guidepoint Systems Team Penske mount. The three-time Indy winner was able to return to the track, but by then Franchitti was in command, leading Graham Rahal by 1.4271 seconds at the checkered flag.

Oriol Servia finished third followed by Will Power and Danica Patrick.

By virtue of gaining the maximum points today, Franchitti moved into a tie with Power for the IndyCar season’s championship; each having 271 markers.

Franchitti also moved into ninth place in all-time series wins, sharing that spot with Rick Mears. Each of them has 29 victories, and to the historian that Franchitti is, he said that was “pretty cool”. “I was sitting there this morning just before the driver’s meeting and Rick walked up and we were talking about some stuff, just about the races and some ideas he had. And I thought, man, that’s Rick Mears. That is THE Rick Mears. I thought, you know, if I do win another race I would be tieing that with Rick. And it seems very strange to be honest. When I think about it, I’m delighted, I really am. I’m humbled by it.” Just like he humbled the field today.

IZOD IndyCar Series
Milwaukee 225
WEST ALLIS, Wis. – Results Sunday of the Milwaukee 225 IZOD IndyCar Series event on the 1.015 mile Milwaukee Mile, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (1) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
2. (12) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
3. (10) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
4. (17) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
5. (15) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
6. (16) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
7. (3) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
8. (5) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
9. (2) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
10. (13) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
11. (8) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
12. (20) Mike Conway, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
13. (9) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
14. (21) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 224, Running
15. (23) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 223, Running
16. (25) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 223, Running
17. (11) Ana Beatriz, Dallara-Honda, 222, Running
18. (19) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 196, Running
19. (4) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 194, Contact
20. (6) EJ Viso, Dallara-Honda, 163, Contact
21. (18) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Honda, 120, Contact
22. (14) Alex Lloyd, Dallara-Honda, 79, Contact
23. (24) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Honda, 78, Contact
24. (22) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 69, Mechanical
25. (26) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Honda, 11, Handling
26. (7) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 0, Contact

Race Statistics
Winners average speed: 117.390
Time of Race: 01:56:43.5877
Margin of victory: 1.4271 seconds.
Cautions: 6 for 62 laps
Lead changes: 5 among 3 drivers
Lap Leaders: Franchitti 1 – 115, Kanaan 116 – 134, Franchitti 135 – 153, Kanaan 154 – 167, Castroneves 168 – 198, Franchitti 199 – 225
Point Standings: Power 271, Franchitti 271, Servia 198, Dixon 195, Rahal 176, Kanaan 171, Briscoe 165, Tagliani 147, Sato 142, Patrick 141.

Paul Gohde

Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.

Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.

The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.

Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.

He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.

Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”

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