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IndyCar
FRANCHITTI: An Amazing Year
I’ve been asked how it feels to win the 2009 IndyCar Series championship, and compared to 2007, I must admit that it is certainly different.
Dario Franchitti  |  Posted October 24, 2009   Nashville, TN
A lot of hard work went into securing Dario Franchitti's second IndyCar title in a three year span, including having to convince both of the Target Chip Ganassi Racing team managers he wanted to return to the series. (LAT)
First, thanks to all of you for your kind notes and good wishes.

I’ve been asked how it feels to win the 2009 IndyCar Series championship, and compared to 2007, I must admit that it is certainly different.

It's a different feeling than say, winning my Vauxhall Lotus championship in the early ‘90’s. That was a great feeling in itself but it was also a case of thinking, “Okay, this can get me to the next step now.” There was always that side of it, whereas in the IndyCar championship you’ve already arrived at your chosen destination.

Racing now and earning what we’ve earned is for the pure enjoyment of the sport. This one has been a lot more fun because when I won in 2007 (although I wasn’t allowed to say anything at the time) everybody knew I was leaving for NASCAR. We weren't really able to celebrate maybe as much as we would have liked, from that point of view. This championship has been a lot more fun because we've been able to sit down as a team, including Chip, and really celebrate it. That's been pretty cool.

I’m just now getting a chance to decompress a bit. We had a blast hanging out with all the drivers on Saturday night after the Homestead race and then Sunday afternoon before the banquet (and after) with all the Target team. I also had a couple of friends over from Scotland, Stewart and Bruce, so until now, there wasn't really any chance to sit with Ashley or sit on my own and really let it all sink in yet.

It’s amazing to think how much can change in one year. I've come back to IndyCar, I’m racing in a unified series and I’m racing with the best team in the paddock and this is what I really enjoy doing. If I had become successful in stock cars that would have been great but I still get a lot more thrill from driving an IndyCar than anything else that I've driven. There’s not a lot to be upset about, is there?

I read a few things about my return to IndyCar racing where people said I had to convince Chip to hire me, but that’s actually not true I think that was a misunderstanding (maybe due to the translation from Scottish during the press conference?). It’s a bit of an interesting story. Chip started asking me in the Summer of 2008, “Do you want to do it? Do you want to do it?” I wasn’t sure at first, but after a short time watching the cars at Detroit and a bit of thought I became very sure. The people I had to convince were actually Scott Harner and Barry Wanser, the two team managers. Chip and Mike Hull were pretty gung-ho about it – he wanted to do the deal, but I had to convince Scott and Barry first.

I’d been away for a year; I’d won the championship, and I guess it could have appeared like I had nothing to gain by returning, or maybe they thought my motivation wasn’t the same. It was all legitimate stuff. Those guys all have an incredible will to win that goes through the whole Target team, and they pressed fairly hard, but we came away knowing we had the same goals and desires in mind. I hope our results this year have helped to finalize any questions on that subject!
Franchitti led from pole, but when it was clear he didn't have the pace to hold the point, he shifted to a different strategy that eventually paid huge dividends. (LAT)

The Homestead race itself was an interesting one, to be honest. We went testing there during the Petit Le Mans weekend and we weren't great, I must say. Ryan, Scott and myself were there and we were all keeping a good eye on each other. Ryan looked OK, but Scott looked really good. Scott and I did a practice race run at the end of the test and I wasn't that good…I wasn't that happy.

We played around with different things in first practice and we really had too much understeer to have a good car. So my engineers Chris and Brad and the boys went back and they certainly fixed the understeer! Unfortunately, we had a little bit too much oversteer in second practice for a race car, to the point where actually on my out lap I was going to do a qualifying simulation, left the pits (Kanaan was behind me) and as he put it, even he backed off when he saw how sideways I’d gotten. It was full opposite lock…

After that episode, Chris and Brad really rolled the dice for our qualifying setup. We sat and discussed what we’d done in the first session, what we’d done in the second session. I said, “I feel we need a little of this and a little of that and that will give us the balance we need.” They went to work and the car was almost perfect, I couldn't believe the balance. You get an unbelievable feeling on the 1.5-mile tracks when the RPMs just don't go down that much in the corners and the balance…you could feel the front just working. And as the front would work the rear would just start to slide a little bit, and I’m talking about it being ‘fingertip driving,’ you had to be absolutely on your fingertips to get it round there. It was damn perfect. The last lap coming into Turn 3 and through Turn 4, it slid up the track a little bit and that was the first sort of imbalance we had that whole run and cost me about 4/10ths of a mile an hour.

Nobody really got close to our time. It was one of the deals where you go back to your boys and you just say, “Thank you.”

If you saw the race, you’ll know I didn’t get a bad start, but Dixie and I went side-by-side for about 10 laps. Right away I knew the balance wasn't great. Again, we kind of rolled the dice on the race setup because we hadn’t been happy with it at any point in practice or testing. It understeered a little bit and I had to lift when Scott was on my outside. That allowed Scott and Ryan to come through so I sat behind those two guys and immediately I was starting to turn the fuel mixture down.

I was starting to save fuel and they were getting away a little bit. The imbalance of the car made it very difficult in traffic but the real big gap came when the #23 car (surprise, surprise) chopped me going through Turns 3 and 4. I went down low and she came chopping across the nose and took all the air off my wings. I moved up the track and came across the track and when I’d lost a little momentum, so that allowed Scott and Ryan to get a massive gap. At that point I said, “Okay, unless we get a yellow here we’re going to have to start doing some serious fuel saving.” I managed to go one or two laps longer than Scotty and quite a few longer than Ryan.

So the game is always to use as little fuel as possible and I wasn't too concerned with Ryan and Dixie getting four or five seconds ahead because I felt if there was going to be a yellow, it would bring us back together. I needed that first pit stop to adjust the car, and when we went out on that second stint, the car was already better balanced from then on. But with the fuel mixture turned all the way down, which can cost you one or two miles-an-hour easily, maybe more, it presented an interesting scenario. By that point I felt we now had a car that could win the race but I couldn’t close the gap to the guys in front, as it would have taken too much fuel and maybe too much time.
Team owner Chip Ganassi was elated for Dario and the entire Target team. (LAT)

I continued to lose ground to Scott and Ryan who were going at it hammer and tongs. I would've loved to be up there battling with those guys -- but I wasn’t addressing getting the two points for leading the most laps, I was addressing getting the 50 points for winning the race.

I can’t give away my secrets for saving fuel, but there is stuff that you can do with your driving to improve your consumption. The funny thing is, some people think we’re driving around cruising at that point like you're on the highway saving fuel but you're not. You're actually having to make more up in the corners if you can, and take more risks because you don't have that advantage of having an extra 20 or 30 hp. I was using every trick I knew to make any kind of fuel improvement. It really became key coming up to that last stop, just to make every inch I could on the track to get one more lap out of it.

Although we were saving fuel on the ins and outs on the pit lane entry and exit, I almost crashed on my way into the pits once! It's very, very slippery there at Homestead and I was coming in and I got to the middle point of the apron and the car just started to do a four-wheel slide towards the grass…I managed to drag it out of that but it was pretty close. That's where you make some time up…sometimes. Again, when you're racing against Scott and Ryan, TK, etc., you've got to take everything you can, and that's one of the reasons we were able to lap the field as well because none of us were giving anything up.

We got to the last pit stop and we knew we could make it to the end. We knew we could make it while Ryan and Dixie needed at least one more stop. I did use the overtake button once on the final stint and got yelled at for it! My engineers gave me a bit of a hard time about that. I heard “Don't touch the overtake again!” on the radio and I said, “Okay. 10-4. Sorry…”

So I was trying to save fuel and was asking for updates. At that point I was really trying to save and they were telling me the gap. Then I could start seeing them in the mirror about five or six seconds behind trying to lap me, and that was just as they were going to have to come in to pit with about 10 laps to go. I knew at that point that they were going to lose almost a lap once they ducked in.
Franchitti and Dixon formed what must be considered one of the strongest IndyCar driver pairings in series history. (LAT)

I was still having to go to save fuel and then they said, “Right, you can go now.” And the guys were about six seconds behind I was able to go flat out but still in the minimum fuel mixture. With about five to go I knew that if we didn't run out of fuel, or if a yellow flag came out, it was going to take longer to clean up than we had laps left to race, so we’d be OK. I was just hoping she wasn't going to run out of fuel and it didn't – we crossed the finish line and even had enough to do burnouts!

After the race, Scott and Ryan and I were at the podium marveling that there weren’t any yellows, because our cars were obviously handling better than the majority and I know that I caught about four or five massive moments during the day...the thing was just snapping on me. So I can't speak for anybody else, but every car I came near all day was dancing and sliding around the track so it was a great job by everybody not to stick it in the fence!

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