Franchitti still coming to grips with tying Mears
Dario Franchitti's two-year run as the IndyCar champion has put him in some elite historic company.
Franchitti tied open-wheel legend Rick Mears with 29 career wins when he took the checkered flag at Milwaukee last week. It was the third win of the year for the 38-year-old Scot, who acknowledged that he still finds it a bit strange to match one of the drivers he had looked up to for so long - and whose help was invaluable early in Franchitti's career.
''For me to tie Rick's number of wins, I don't know quite what to say about it,'' Franchitti said. ''I'm really proud of it, but it just feels a little odd.''
Franchitti is still 38 wins shy of matching A.J. Foyt's record of 67 wins, a number he acknowledges will be tough to match. But Franchitti is just two wins from matching his friend and former teammate, Paul Tracy.
Franchitti faded late during Saturday's race at Iowa Speedway and finished fifth.
''If I can win some more races, great. It's difficult. None of these ones are ever easy. So, I'd love to go out there and - I'd love to beat P.T., actually,'' Franchitti said. ''We had such a good relationship. We go back such a long way. That would be fun.''
Mears and Franchitti met with the media before Saturday's race in Iowa to discuss Franchitti's milestone. Mears has stayed involved in open-wheel racing with Team Penske, the main rival of Franchitti's Chip Ganassi team, though it's clear the pair share a mutual respect for each other's ability to win on a variety of tracks.
''I've had opportunities to do other things over the years, whether it be Formula One or Cup cars or whatever. But I've always enjoyed our series because of the variety. The short tracks. You get to run on the speedways, you get to run on the one-mile flat tracks, you get to run on the high banks and the street circuits,'' Mears said. ''To me, it was always I felt like you accomplished more if you won the championship. You had to be a more well-rounded driver.''
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23 WORKS FOR DIXON: Scott Dixon started Saturday night's race 23rd after a dreadful qualifying session.
It turns out that 23 just might be Dixon's lucky number.
Dixon roared from the back and finished third behind Marco Andretti and Tony Kanaan, gaining 35 valuable points in the title chase when it seemed as though he might not be able to earn half of that.
''It actually felt like a win (Saturday) It was a tough weekend. You know, we missed obviously big time in qualifying,'' Dixon said. ''At the end was the best it was all night, still not as good to obviously compete with maybe (Kanaan or Marco).''
The only other time Dixon qualified 23rd was in Champ Car in 2001 at Nazareth Speedway. He went on to win that race, the first victory of his illustrious career.
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ANOTHER BUMMER FOR TAKUMA: Takuma Sato earned his first career pole Friday night, but for the second year in a row at Iowa his race ended with a wreck.
Sato, who ran strong last year before a crash, flew open with 68 laps left and slammed into the wall. It was a crushing result for Sato, who'd been running with the leaders for much of the night.
''The tires weren't up to temperature. I'm very disappointed to finish the race this way,'' Sato said. ''It's unfortunate because up until then it was looking good.''
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SPARKPLUGS: Team Penske's Helio Castroneves, who's always a threat at Iowa but is still winless here, recovered for falling a lap back to finish seventh. ... JR Hildebrand recorded his second-best finish of the season, coming in fourth after qualifying in that spot. Hildebrand's best finish was the agonizing second he picked up after his memorable final-lap crash at the Indianapolis 500. ... E.J. Viso was third at Iowa a year ago, but he didn't have nearly as much fun this time. Viso had handling issues and wound up 17th. ''I had such a difficult car that I had to battle so hard,'' Viso said. 'This is the closest thing to a nightmare.''
