FORT
WORTH, Texas —
Dario Franchitti has won his share of races in the IndyCar Series — 21, in
fact.
But Franchitti can't recall a victory including two major near misses like
Sunday's Indianapolis 500.
En route to winning his third Indy 500, Franchitti had to recover from a
pit-road incident with E.J. Viso, and then had to survive a last-lap pass
attempt by Takuma Sato that led to contact between the cars and sent Sato
spinning into the wall.
To say Franchitti's payday of nearly $2.5 million was well earned is an
understatement.
"I've had races with one near miss," said Franchitti, who was in Fort
Worth on Sunday to promote the June 9 Firestone 550 at Texas Motor Speedway.
"Some races you have like five-plus near misses that no one sees. Each
race when you're so close to the limit I think everybody has moments when
they're like, 'Wow, that was close.'"
Franchitti survived those minutes Sunday to become just the 10th driver to win
the Indy 500 at least three times. Franchitti, who has won four IndyCar Series
titles, moved up to sixth in points with the victory.
He's been busy since winning, as he's only had about nine hours sleep and was
following his trip to Texas with another to New York City. But the lack of
sleep is well worth it when you have the title of three-time Indy 500 champ.
Winning the race for a third time didn't feel a lot different to Franchitti,
who was running 28th after having to change the nose of his Target Honda after
the collision with Viso in the pits.
"It's not really any different," he said. "You know what to
expect but I knew that with the second one. Each one of the three has been very
different. From that point of view, it hasn't been that different. I don't
expect to win it so when it does happen it's a surprise. The difference was
Sunday was all the remembering Dan (Wheldon). It made it a more emotional race,
a more emotional month from start to finish."
Sunday's race was the first for the series on an oval since Wheldon was killed
at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the final race of 2011. The next oval stop for
the series is TMS, a track on which Franchitti has reservations about racing because
of the track's high banking.
"I'm not very comfortable with it but I will do my absolute best to win
the race," said Franchitti. "I'm not (comfortable) right now and
that's the way it is."
He said he and TMS track president Eddie Gossage disagree on some of the safety
issues with the track. Franchitti isn't sure he has all the answers
either. He thinks the biggest innovation in the sport needs to come in the way
of new fencing. As far as how to make TMS safer, he's not sure.
Franchitti isn't pointing the finger at TMS. He believes safety needs to be
priority No. 1 overall.
"We're all coming here to race and I'm here to win," he said.
"That's my position. I hope going forward, the series, all sanctioning
bodies actually, the promoters, teams and drivers everybody work towards coming
up with a better solution for stuff like fencing and just continue to make the
sport safer."
