MOTEGI, Japan (April 21, 2007) - Canadian Club driver Dario Franchitti ran amid the leaders throughout the Indy Japan 300 and piloted the #27 machine to his first podium finish of the year.  After three races, he stands tied for fifth in the IndyCar Series driver championship, only 27 points behind the leader.

 

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Franchitti wasted little time moving through the field once he took the green flag.  After just 76 laps, he was into the top three after starting seventh.  Franchitti slipped back to seventh position after the first yellow flag pit stop, but took advantage of the speed of the Canadian Club car and moved back into third midway through the race.  During an extended yellow on lap 136, the Canadian Club team took a risk in his fuel strategy to put him in a place to fight Tony Kanaan and Dan Wheldon for the race win.  In attempts to save fuel, Franchiiti was forced to slow his pace during the final laps and captured his second career top-three at Twin Rin Motegi.

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Dario Franchitti, #27 Canadian Club Dallara/Honda/Firestone:

I was really happy with the way the Canadian Club car was working today.  At the end, the crew took a gamble on fuel.  We thought our only real chance of winning was to take that gamble on fuel strategy.  It was almost an impossible miles per gallon number to make.  At the end of the day, the result was still the same with a third place finish."

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