Six days after winning his second Indianapolis 500, Bathgate’s Dario Franchitti will be back in the seat of his Target Ganassi race car tomorrow bidding to win at the demanding 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway for the first time.
And the 37-year-old is determined to carry his momentum from Indianapolis through the rest of the season to ensure he wins the IndyCar Championship for a third time. First though, he’d love to win in Texas.
“It’s a tough race, and one that I haven’t managed to win yet,” the Scot said today. “I’ve won a couple of poles here, but I haven’t managed to win one yet. I hope Indianapolis gives us some momentum and we can turn that into a win this weekend.”
“To win at Texas, we’ve got to have a fast car, make no mistakes by the driver or the crew, and we need to have a lot of luck,” defending IndyCar champ Franchitti who, in his six starts in Texas has has earned two poles and has four top-10 finishes, continued.
“Fortunately, my team-mate Scott (Dixon) tested here a couple weeks ago, so hopefully we’ve got some good information to help us finally break my winning duck in Texas.”
And Franchitti, whose Indy500 win last Sunday moved him to second in the championship, just 11 points behind the Penske of Aussie Will Power, has recent history on his side.
“I know for the last two years, the winner of the Indy500 has also won here,” he smiled, “so hopefully I can continue that record because it would certainly boost my title hopes.
“It’s going to be tough winning the championship again this year because there is some extremely tough competition including Scott, who has also won a couple of championships
“But I managed to do the double when I won the Indy500 in 2007, and went on to pip Scott for the championship. I know we’re going to have to push very, very hard to get the job done this year.”
JM