FORT WORTH, Texas — Dario Franchitti knew immediately when he hopped back into the cockpit of an open-wheel car what he had missed — and had taken for granted.
Before his disappointing and abbreviated attempt in NASCAR last year, Franchitti had an IndyCar Series championship season in which he also won the Indianapolis 500.
“I kind of took it for granted at the end of ‘07, lost my motivation,” Franchitti said. “I haven’t regretted it for a second to come back. To be in that championship hunt, it definitely gives you some motivation.”
Driving open-wheel instead of stock cars for Chip Ganassi, Franchitti already has a victory and three other top-10 finishes through the first five races in his return to the IndyCar Series. He’s second in points, three behind teammate Scott Dixon.
Franchitti has his first pole of the season, for Saturday night’s race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Franchitti earned the pole with an average speed of 214.513 mph on his four-lap qualifying run Friday. Team Penske driver Ryan Briscoe will start on the front row for the third straight week at 214.413 mph, ahead of defending race champion Dixon and Indianapolis winner Helio Castroneves, another Penske driver.
“We had a pretty good run. Dario just had a little more speed,” Briscoe said. “Definitely starting on the front here is great. But if you have a fast car in the race, it doesn’t matter where you start.”
Franchitti’s best finish in 10 starts in NASCAR’s top-level Sprint Cup series last season was 22nd, though he had a fifth-place finish in his 14 Nationwide Series races. About his only victory last year was a $200 bet with Ganassi and Felix Sabates when Danica Patrick won her first IndyCar Series race.
Only two races into the IndyCar season, Franchitti had a fourth-place finish in the opener at St. Petersburg and a victory at Long Beach. He was third last week at Milwaukee after finishing seventh at Indianapolis, where he led 50 of the 200 laps.
“Although it did take probably a half day to get used to the sheer speed of the thing again, once I just kind of let me instincts to take over, it was all second nature,” Franchitti said. “(NASCAR) was a completely alien environment, but coming back to IndyCar, it was really going back to stuff that I’ve been programed to do.”
This will be the 20th IndyCar race at the 1½-mile, high-banked Texas track known for high speeds and close finishes. Of the 15 races finished under green, 13 were decided by less than a second.
No IndyCar driver has won consecutive races at Texas.
Between victories at Kansas and Milwaukee that boosted him to series point lead, Dixon led 73 laps at Indianapolis before finishing sixth. He has finished in the top 10 in five of his eight Texas starts.
While Franchitti admits that three-wide racing at 200 mph or more isn’t his preferred type of driving, he knows it’s exciting to watch. That’s what he did last year when he was still on the NASCAR circuit.
“Texas is definitely one of the best shows that the IndyCar Series puts on,” he said. “Last year, I turned in. I was watching the race from a standpoint of a fan. It was great.”
Graham Rahal, the 20-year-old son of former Indianapolis 500 champion Bobby Rahal, certainly has a different outlook on ovals in his second IndyCar season.
Rahal became the youngest IndyCar Series winner when he won in his debut last year on the St. Petersburg street course.
But that wasn’t supposed to be his first race. He missed the 2008 opener at the 1½-mile Homestead-Miami oval, where he crashed during his first test and didn’t race because the Newman/Haas/Lanigan team couldn’t rebuild the car in time. He was last at Indianapolis, and had 25th-place finishes on the ovals at Milwaukee and Kentucky.
At the Milwaukee Mile last week, Rahal started on the outside of the first row and finished fourth, his best showing on an oval. He was seventh at the 1½-mile Kansas track and starting on the pole there.
“I really enjoy it. It takes time to get used to, but it is fun when you figure it out,” said Rahal, who starts 12th at Texas. “We’re looking forward to this. We should be right up front again.”
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