DARIO FRANCHITTI

'Dario Franchitti' (b. 19 May, 1973 in Bathgate, West Lothian) is a Scottish racing driver of Italian descent. He currently competes in the IndyCar Series, formerly drove in the CART series, and won the rain shortened 2007 Indianapolis 500. He also competes in the American Le Mans Series for Andretti Green Racing with his brother Marino and former IndyCar Series teammate Bryan Herta. On September 9, 2007, Chip Ganassi Racing will formally announce that Dario will be replacing David Stremme in the #40 Dodge Avenger stock car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starting in 2008. [1]

Contents

Career history

Early career

CART

IRL

Personal life

Career Results

American Open-Wheel

Champ Car

IndyCar

Indy 500 results

References

External links

Career history

Early career

Franchitti began his racing career in karts, winning the Scottish Junior Championship in 1984, the British Junior Championships in 1985 and 1986 and the Scottish senior title in 1988. He progressed to Formula Vauxhall Junior where he won the championship with four victories in 1991.
He moved up to Formula Vauxhall Lotus in 1992, where he joined Paul Stewart Racing. In his first year, he finished 4th in the overall championship, and was named the McLaren/Autosport Young Driver of the Year. Staying with the team for the next season, he won the championship in 1993.
He graduated to the British Formula Three Championship in 1994, where he finished fourth and won one race in his first year. However, he was not retained for 1995 and this was his final year in single-seaters in Europe.
Instead, Franchitti was contracted by AMG Racing to drive a works Mercedes C-Class in the German Touring Car Championship and the related International Touring Car Championship, where he finishing 5th and 3rd respectively. He continued in the ITC in 1996, finishing fourth overall with one race win.

CART

With the demise of the ITC, Mercedes placed Franchitti in Hogan Racing in 1997, making his US debut in the PPG/CART Champ Car World Series series. His best finish was ninth place. In 1998 he joined Team Green (forerunner to the current Andretti Green Racing), finishing 3rd in the season standings with three wins and five pole-positions.
Franchitti finished as the runner-up in the 1999 CART series behind Juan Pablo Montoya. Both drivers finished the season with a score of 212 points, but Montoya had seven wins to Franchitti's three and was thus crowned champion. Franchitti's close friend Greg Moore died in a crash during the final race of the year at California Speedway in Fontana, California.
A heavy crash in pre-season testing the next year ruined Franchitti's 2000 season, and he only won once in 2001. In 2002 he won the Vancouver Molson Indy. He dedicated his win to Greg Moore, who lived in Vancouver before dying in 1999. He finished 4th in Champ Car in 2002.

IRL

Franchitti moved with the Andretti Green team to the IndyCar Series in 2003 but his season was ended by a back injury sustained in a motorcycle accident while on holiday in Scotland. Franchitti missed most of the year, and his place was taken by Dan Wheldon at Motegi, Robby Gordon at Indianapolis and Bryan Herta for the remainder of the year. Franchitti returned to the cockpit in 2004, and won races at Milwaukee and Pikes Peak.
On January 3, 2007, Andretti Green Racing announced that Dario had re-signed for the IRL team for a tenth consecutive season in American Open Wheel racing. He is also undertaking a limited programme driving an Acura ARX01a in the American Le Mans Series, teaming up with long-time AGR team-mate Bryan Herta and Dario's brother, Marino Franchitti. [2]. On May 27, 2007, Franchitti won a rain-shortened Indianapolis 500, finishing under a yellow flag after an accident involving Dan Wheldon and Marco Andretti following lap 163. The race was halted due to rain three laps later.
During the 2007 season, Dario survived two huge crashes which saw his car flip upside down both times. The first at Michigan saw him tangle with Dan Wheldon resulting in his car flipping before being hit again by Scott Dixon. The contact with Dixon was only inches away from his head and the accident saw seven cars (including Franchitti) retire from the race. The second flip came a week later at Kentucky. As Franchitti crossed the start/finish line to finish the race, the Scotsman who had not realised the chequered flag had been waved continued to race and crashed into the back of Kosuke Matsuura flipping yet again and hitting the outside wall. Franchitti took full responsibility for the incident.
Dario is currently 1st in points for the 2007 season with three wins under his belt so far. He leads Scott Dixon by just 3 points with 1 race to go in the season.

Personal life

Franchitti has been married to American actress Ashley Judd since 2001. The ceremony was held at Skibo Castle near Dornoch, Scotland. They now reside near Franklin, Tennessee, USA.
Though Bathgate-born, his family moved to Whitburn when he was 8 years old. He is a former pupil of Stewart's Melville College and despite his local football clubs being Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian of Edinburgh, he chose to support Celtic Football Club.

Career Results

American Open-Wheel

Champ Car

Yr	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	Rank	Points
1997	Hogan	MIA Ret	SUR 9	LBH 12	NAZ 13	RIO Ret	GAT Ret	MIL 16	DET 13	POR Ret	CLE 11	TOR Ret	MIC Ret	MDO 11	ROA Ret	VAN Ret	LAG 13	FON DNP					'20th'	'10'
1998	Team Green	MIA 9	MOT 8	LBH 2	NAZ Ret	RIO Ret	GAT Ret	MIL 4	DET 4	POR Ret	CLE 3	TOR Ret	MIC Ret	MDO Ret	ROA 1	VAN 1	LAG 4	HOU 1	SUR 2	FON Ret			'3rd'	'160'
1999	Team Green	MIA 3	MOT Ret	LBH 2	NAZ 8	RIO 2	GAT 3	MIL 7	POR 3	CLE Ret	ROA Ret	TOR 1	MIC 5	DET 1	MDO 3	CHI 2	VAN 10	LAG Ret	HOU 2	SUR 1	FON 10		'2nd' ★	'212' ★
2000	Team Green	MIA 11	LBH Ret	RIO 11	MOT 2	NAZ Ret	MIL 6	DET 4	POR 9	CLE Ret	TOR Ret	MIC 3	CHI Ret	MDO Ret	ROA Ret	VAN 2	LAG 3	GAT Ret	HOU Ret	SUR Ret	FON Ret		'13th'	'92'
2001	Team Green	MTY 9	LBH 6	FTW NH	NAZ 8	MOT Ret	MIL 9	DET 2	POR 6	CLE 1	TOR Ret	MIC 2	CHI 15	MID 16	ROA Ret	VAN 9	LAU Ret	ROC 9	HOU 2	LAG Ret	SUR Ret	FON Ret	'7th'	'105'
2002	Andretti Green	MOY 2	LBH 9	MOT 3	MIL Ret	LAG Ret	POR 3	CHI 3	TOR Ret	CLE Ret	VAN 1	MDO Ret	ROA Ret	MON 1	DEN Ret	ROC 1	MIA 10	SUR 7	FON Ret	MEX 5			'4th'	'148'

★ Franchitti and Juan Pablo Montoya tied on points in the championship, but Montoya was crowned champion because he won 7 races to Franchitti's 3.

IndyCar

(Races in 'Bold' indicate pole position)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Rank	Points
'2002'	Andretti Green	HMS	PHX	CAL	NZR	IND 19	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	KTY	STL	CHI	TX2			'44th'	'11'
'2003'	Andretti Green	HMS 7	PHX Ret	JPN	IND	TXS	PPIR 4	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	STL	KTY	NZR	CHI	CAL	TX2		'25th'	'72'
'2004'	Andretti Green	HMS Ret	PHX Ret	JPN 7	IND 14	'TXS' 2	RIR 12	KAN 4	NSH Ret	MIL 1	MIS Ret	KTY 6	PPIR 1	NZR 3	CHI Ret	CAL 6	TX2 Ret		'6th'	'409'
'2005'	Andretti Green	HMS Ret	PHX 4	STP 3	JPN Ret	IND 6	TXS 8	RIR 2	KAN 4	NSH 1	MIL 2	MIS 8	KTY Ret	PPIR 7	SNM 8	CHI 12	WGL 3	'CAL' 1	'4th'	'498'
'2006'	Andretti Green	HMS 4	'STP' Ret	JPN 11	IND 7	WGL 14	TXS 13	RIR 3	KAN 12	NSH 6	MIL 6	MIS 12	KTY 9	SNM 2	CHI Inj				'8th'	'311'
'2007'	Andretti Green	HMS 7	STP 5	JPN 3	KAN 2	IND 1	MIL 2	TXS 4	IOW 1	'RIR' 1	WGL 3	NSH 2	MDO 2	'MIS' Ret	KTY 8	'SNM' 3	DET 6	CHI	'2nd ★ '	'556 ★ '

:
★ 2007 season currently underway

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (Non-win) ★ ★	Top 10s (Non-podium) ★ ★ ★	Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships
6	1	64	4	7	15	22	1 (2007)	0

:
★
★ Podium (Non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.
:
★
★
★ Top 10s (Non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

Indy 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish
2002	Dallara	Chevrolet	28th	19th
2004	Dallara	Honda	3rd	14th
2005	Dallara	Honda	6th	6th
2006	Dallara	Honda	17th	7th
2007	Dallara	Honda	3rd	'1st'

References

External links

★ Driver web site

★ Driver details at www.indycar.com