Six days after dominating the Indianapolis 500, Bathgate’s Dario Franchitti was left frustrated after failing to win the latest round of the IndyCar Championship, the Firestone 550K at the 1.5-mile Texas Speedway.
The 37-year-old Scot, who eventually brought his Target Ganassi car home in fifth and has moved into a three-point lead in the title race, had started from second on the grid and looked on course to win his second race in six days.
But after leading much of the race, Franchitti dropped back to 13th after the penultimate round of pitstops as the performance of his car dropped away.
“I’m not sure, exactly, what caused the drop in performance,” Franchitti, bidding to win the IndyCar Championship for a third time, admitted. “Certainly the tyres we ran after that stint weren’t ideal.”
Franchitti eventually scrapped his way back to finish fifth, 7.5882secs behind race winner, Aussie Ryan Briscoe. The Penske driver finished 1.4629s ahead of Andretti Racing pair Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti, with Franchitti’s Ganassi team-mate Scott Dixon fourth.
JM