Bathgate’s Dario Franchitti continued his bid to win the Rookie Driver of the Year when he qualified on the front row of the grid for the latest round of the Nascar Nationwide Series, the Food City 250 at the Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee.
The 35-year-old Scot delivered his best oval performance on the tight 0.5-mile track to lead for 87 laps in his Ganassi Dodge, but he was forced to settle for an 11th-place finish after his last set of tyres caused handling problems.
“The last set of tyres caused us to struggle with tightness and it was making it difficult,” Franchitti said. “And then goodness knows what the 22 car of Canadian Andrew Ranger thought he was doing? He was racing me like it was for the win, and he was a lap down.
“He gave me no room whatsoever and that really hurt us. I got freight trained after that. I pushed the front fender in trying to get past the 22 and that got us tighter.”
The race was won by Brad Keselowski who beat points leader Clint Bowyer to claim his second Nationwide career win, taking the lead with 23 laps remaining.
JM