One year after his return to the IndyCar
Series following a brief stint in NASCAR, Dario Franchitti captured the 2009
series title by winning Saturday's season-ending Firestone Indy 300 at
Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Franchitti, the pole sitter, capitalized on a late-race pit strategy and then
held off Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe from Team
Penske in the final laps to score his fifth victory of the season.
The 300-mile race was the first caution-free and second fastest in series
history.
With the victory, Franchitti clinched his second IndyCar championship,
finishing the year 11 points ahead of Dixon and 12 in front of Briscoe. He
became the third driver with multiple titles, joining Dixon and Sam Hornish
Jr.
"I cannot believe it," Franchitti said. "It's been so much fun. Scott and I
raced each other the whole season, and it just came down to this. I'm bloody
delighted right now."
Franchitti's first championship came in 2007. He led Dixon by just three
points heading into the season-finale at Chicagoland. Dixon held the lead on
the last lap, but gave it up to Franchitti when he ran out of fuel on the
backstretch. Dixon coasted across the finish line in second and lost the title
by 13 points.
"Like 2007, I just had to try to save some fuel and stay on strategy," said
Franchitti, who last pitted with 50 laps remaining. "The car was a bit
unbalanced on the first stint, and that allowed Scott and Ryan to get away a
little bit. We made it a lot better the second stint, and the car was really
good, but by then, we were fuel conservation mode."
Briscoe and Dixon pitted at the same time on lap 143, with Briscoe beating
Dixon out of the pits and reclaiming the lead. However, both drivers had to
pit again with less than 10 laps to go, allowing Franchitti to take command
for good.
"It's pretty frustrating," said Briscoe, who finished second. "It was one of
the best races I've ever run. I just hate that it came down to fuel strategy.
I thought it was going to be between Scott and me. I guess [Dario] had the
advantage."
Briscoe finished in the runner-up spot for the eighth time this year, tying a
series record.
Dixon, who entered the race with a four-point lead over Franchitti and an
eight-point advantage on Briscoe, finished third.
All three drivers ran among the top-three throughout the race.
Tony Kanaan finished fourth, while Helio Castroneves came in fifth.
Hideki Mutoh, Mario Moraes, Alex Lloyd, Tomas Scheckter and Justin Wilson
completed the top-10.
Danica Patrick and Dan Wheldon collided on pit road with 46 laps to go,
causing significant damage to their cars. Patrick ended up 19th and Wheldon
21st.
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