Scott Dixon needs to only look at the second half of the 2007 IndyCar Series season to make him alternately smile and shudder as it relates to this year's championship race. He was 65 points arrears of leader Dario Franchitti exiting the Richmond race, but rattled off four victories in the final eight to outscore Franchitti 370-331 and set up a season-ending duel for the series title.
The momentum hasn't slowed. The driver of the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing entry has eight top-five finishes in nine races, including three victories, and holds a 43-point advantage over Team Penske's Helio Castroneves at the halfway point of the season. Dixon's teammate, Dan Wheldon, is 52 points behind.
Dixon isn't comfortable with the cushion, especially with six of the final nine races on road/street courses. First up is the Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen (July 6) on the 3.4-mile Watkins Glen International circuit.
Dixon's steady results netted the 2003 title when he was a freshman in the series, and similar results have bred confidence throughout the No. 9 car crew. Castroneves hasn't forfeited many points though he's looking for his first victory since April 2007 and his first IndyCar Series title. The No. 3 entry has finished in the top five in eight of the nine events, including runner-up four times.
Tony Kanaan is fourth in the title search (82 points back) and teammate Danica Patrick is fifth (131 behind). AGR driver Hideki Mutoh leads the Bombardier Learjet Rookie of the Year standings and is sixth overall. Marco Andretti, Ryan Briscoe, Oriol Servia and Ed Carpenter also are in the top 10.
Dario Franchitti became the third driver in IndyCar Series history to capture the Indianapolis 500 and the IndyCar Series championship in the same season as he drove the Canadian Club car to victory at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday. The victory was Franchitti's fourth of the 2007 season and the first career championship for the winningest British driver in American open-wheel racing history.
In Turn 3 on the final lap of the 200-lap event, Scott Dixon, who was still leading, began to run out of fuel. Franchitti went around the 2003 IndyCar Series champion and crossed the finish line in first place, clinching Andretti Green Racing's third IndyCar Series championship in four seasons.
"We came down that backstretch and I was drafting him trying to get a slingshot. Just as I pulled out I saw him slow down and I almost hit the back of him as I was just going out," Franchitti said.
"I am really looking forward to going back to Belle Isle. I have driven on the course they are going to use for the race. It is a difficult course and it is going to be very important to stay out of trouble. Since this is an event that Roger Penske has been involved with, you know it is going to be a good event because of his attention to detail."
· This is the inaugural event at The Raceway at Belle Isle for the IndyCar Series and the first open wheel race since 2001. · Franchitti has four top-five finishes in five starts at Belle Isle including a win in 1999. · Franchitti led 62 laps on his way to his 12th top-five finish of the season at Infineon Raceway where he also captured his third pole of the season. · He is one of two IndyCar Series drivers to finish 14 of 15 races in the top 10 this season and has led more laps than any other driver.
SONOMA, Calif. (Aug. 26, 2007) - Canadian Club driver Dario Franchitti finished third in Sunday's Motorola Indy 300 at Infineon Raceway. Franchitti now trails Scott Dixon by four points in the IndyCar Series championship. Team 7-Eleven driver Tony Kanaan is in third, trailing Franchitti by 58 points.
Dario Franchitti, #27 Canadian Club Dallara/Honda/Firestone “The day was going really well for the Canadian Club team until Marco (Andretti) and I got together in Turn 1. Tony (Kanaan) and I had a similar situation on the stop before that and Tony opened up the door and gave me the room. I really want to look at it and talk to Marco. We're teammates. We look after each other and that shouldn't happen. I'm going to talk with him, look at the video and we'll see from there.”
For more of the officially cleansed recap of Dario's race on Sundaywritten by andrettigreen.com see...
Dario Franchitti, #27 Canadian Club Dallara/Honda/Firestone
“The Canadian Club car was pretty good today. There is so little difference here between the top-five drivers. If we can get the car right and do our job a little better it can make all the difference for us this weekend.”
From PaddockTalk.com:
Practice for the Motorola Indy 300 at Infineon Raceway Sears Point got underway today on the 2.26-mile, 12-turn undulating circuit. From the start, top position on the speed charts traded back and forth between Helio Castroneves and Dario Franchitti, with the Brazilian pipping the Scot in both morning and afternoon sessions to earn the choice of going first or last in tomorrow’s qualifying line.
Castroneves, who had to sit out the first 25 minutes of the two-hour morning test session following a meeting with Brian Barnhart over his antics in Kentucky two weeks ago, quickly rose through the ranks and was quickest, both in the morning session (108.193 mph) and this afternoon (108.158 mph).
“I was driving my butt off out there,” said the ebullient Castroneves. “This place is very challenging; it’s like a roller coaster. We hit the right spot on the setup but tomorrow, the times will improve,” he noted. Although Castroneves thought the track would be “way better this afternoon, it was different. The grip was changing from one end of the car to the other.” His best tour came on the ninth of 12 total laps in the second, quicker group of cars.
Franchitti ended up second in both the morning (107.861 mph) and afternoon (107.971 mph). Hoping his spate of poor luck at Michigan and Kentucky is over for now, the championship leader since he won the Indianapolis 500 in May – only eight points ahead of Scott Dixon – would “prefer the 65-point lead I had” before things stopped going his way.
Although Franchitti hasn’t got a championship yet – and all four of his closest pursuers have made that jump – he is firm on the conviction that he just needs to “have fun and do the best we can as we have all season long. Good luck stops eventually and this has, no question, been the luckiest year of my career.”
Tony Kanaan finished third for the day and improved his position from morning practice, when he experienced a few incidents that included a mid-session spin at the very popular second turn. Kanaan ended up with third this afternoon and for the day, with his 10th of 13 laps at 107.764 mph, nearly half a mile per hour better than his earlier best (107.222 mph). Kanaan is third in points, 52 behind Franchitti.
Last year’s winner here, Marco Andretti came fourth for the afternoon with his afternoon lap of 107.737 mph, using his 12th or 13 laps to make that speed. 2003 IRL champion Scott Dixon came fifth for the day, based on his morning lap of 107.727 mph).
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