Dario Franchitti brushed tears from his cheeks - of joy for winning the Toyota Indy 400 at California Speedway, of relief for a 17-race season of unrealized promise, and remembrance of a friend.
Franchitti, the pole sitter, beat teammate Tony Kanaan to the checkers by 0.1117 of a second for his second victory of the season - and the first in his IndyCar Series career on a track longer than 1.33 miles. It was the 11th victory for an Andretti Green Racing driver this season.
On his victory lap, Franchitti stopped on the Turn 2 apron of the 2-mile oval to turn a few donuts in honor of Greg Moore, who lost his life in a crash there during a race on Oct.31, 1999. A few minutes later in Victory Lane, a wide smile replaced the tears.
“A bittersweet win here because I lost a good friend here six years ago,” Franchitti said. “You go through the gates. He's never far from my mind any time really, but when we're here especially. It was nice to win here today, but it will never bring him back. And it never will make up for one percent of the loss.
“It was just nice to go out and win that last race at this track and fight it out with Tony, who was another one of Greg's best friends.”
Kanaan, the 2004 series champion, recorded his 12th top-5 finish of the season (including five in a row to wind up the season) and was runner-up to teammate Dan Wheldon in the championship race. Kanaan, who led 29 laps, pressured Franchitti around the D-shaped oval after a Lap 192 restart. On Lap 195, Franchitti’s No. 27 ArcaEx Dallara/Honda/Firestone led by 0.0677 of a second while traveling 217.540 mph.
Kanaan attempted to slip past on the high side on the white flag lap, but the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara/Honda/Firestone couldn’t complete the pass.
“It was a shame,” said Kanaan, who started 11th and moved to fifth by Lap 2. “I don’t know what happened. When I went to upshift, obviously I was upshifting and downshifting, and something hit me. I tried to anticipate. When you have a close finish like this, it’s crazy. Thank God my teammate won. If it was going to be somebody else, I was going to be really mad. I probably missed a shift or something like that. That’s the way it is.
“Good way to finish the season. Another win for Andretti Green, second in the championship, so we’re happy.”
And a satisfying finish to the season for Franchitti, who challenged early and occasionally late on superspeedways this season but had an average finish of 11.9 entering the finale.
“I think on pace, we had the pace all year to do it,” he said. “I made a couple mistakes. The (crew) guys made a couple mistakes. We had some pretty bad luck. If we can iron out those problems, we'll challenge for a championship. If we can't, we'll do the same as we did this year.”
Rahal Letterman Racing’s Vitor Meira finished third, followed by Scott Sharp. The veteran driver of the No. 8 Delphi Panoz/Honda/Firestone supplanted Helio Castroneves for fifth in the standings. Castroneves, who started sixth in the No. 3 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Toyota/Firestone, finished ninth.
Sam Hornish Jr. overcame a pit lane speed violation penalty to finish fifth and clinch third in the standings - 14 points ahead of Franchitti. The two-time series champion won the first two races at California Speedway in 2002 and ‘03.
“We started the race really strong and the Marlboro Team Penske car was running well early in the race,” said Hornish, who started on the inside of Row 2. “We were able to stay up front and even lead a lap before we got called for a pit stop violation. As a result, we ended up two laps down, which really hurt us. Fortunately, we battled back to get on the lead lap and bring the car home in fifth.
“I have to hand it to my crew -- they did a phenomenal job all day in the pits and today's result was truly a collaborative effort. All things considered, I'm happy to have come out of Fontana in the top five.”
The late-race shootout between Franchitti and Kanaan was set up because of a seven-lap caution period. Bombardier Rookie of the Year Danica Patrick, who led two laps when the leaders pitted on separate occasions, was running eighth when the left-rear tire of the No. 16 Rahal Letterman Racing Argent Pioneer Panoz/Honda/Firestone made contact with right-front tire of the No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz/Toyota/Firestone driven by Jaques Lazier.
The cars slide up the track and made contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn 4 on Lap 185. Both drivers were checked at the infield care center and released.
Wheldon completed his championship season with a sixth place in the No. 26 Klein Tools/Jim Beam Dallara/Honda/Firestone. He led seven laps to set an IndyCar Series record of 15 races led, but wasn’t in the mix after the Lap 192 restart.
"It was kind of difficult for me today," said Wheldon, who won a series-record six races. "I had as much understeer as I've ever had in a race car to start the race. I somewhat purposely dropped to the back. Obviously, it's a 400- mile race here and you can make it to the front quickly if your car is good. Fortunately, a yellow fell just at the right time and we did three turns of the front wing in (during the pit stop). It certainly made the car much better. Towards the end, it had understeer and it was also pretty loose.
"The year has been good. It would have been nice to end on a high note, but still I'm happy for Dario to win. He's had some bad luck."
All around, it was a day for the Andretti Green Racing juggernaut to celebrate.
