You never want to get beaten by anybody and I was pushing him as hard as I could but it was good to see him up front. It's a tough part of the sport. One of my best friends, a guy named Kevin McGarrity, was as good a guy as I've ever raced against and he's been struggling to get drives. You realize that having the talent to do the job sometimes doesn't mean that much.

From the time with family and friends to Dan Wheldon's mighty after party on Sunday, St. Pete was filled with positive experiences for Dario. Only a win could have made things better. (LAT)

Kevin was our teammate at the Daytona 24 with the CITGO car a few years back when I did the race with him, Marino and Milka. His fastest lap was a tenth quicker than mine, actually, and he was every bit as consistent and did a fantastic job. We'd raced against each other in the Vauxhall Lotus Junior series together -- he was the main competition the whole time, and he's just an excellent driver, but like Justin, the economy has made things tough for him.

I had the opportunity to share the St. Pete weekend with Marino, who’s driving for the factory Mazda LMP2 program with Dyson Racing. With the schedule the way it was at St. Pete we didn't see that much of each other on the track because if he was running I was in meetings with engineers or that kind of thing and vice versa. So we didn't see each other really till after when the track closed for the day and he would come round the bus. Mom and dad were there and we had a bunch of friends there so we’d all hang out in the bus.

He would walk past after his session and say, “Hey, have you looked at this part of the track, have you thought about this?” It’s nice to be able to have the ability to bring your family setting to your place of work, and especially with two brothers competing in top championships.

Since my last column, I’ve obviously done the St. Pete IndyCar weekend, but I also did the 12 Hours of Sebring with Acura and the Patron Highcroft Racing team. Before that, it was the Rolex 24 at Daytona…my racing calendar has been all-Florida so far this year.

Our car in the IndyCar Series is a well refined package; it’s been around for a long time and it’s as reliable and sorted as it can be. With the Acura LMP1 car, it’s brand new and still has the normal growth cycle and teething pains you’d expect.

The Patron team are working as hard as I've ever seen a team work. Because the car is very complicated and so those guys are putting hours in. There were two nights during the week at Sebring where the team simply didn't go home. Their commitment is beyond measure and their attitude is great.

I didn't get many laps in the car before the race, but during the race, and through the corners the car was pretty good. But like everyone else using a petrol engine, we just had nothing for the diesels... It was quite interesting, we went from a 6 mile an hour top speed gap in qualifying to 15 in the race. There must be some pretty big sandbags those guys had on board.

Many like Franchitti's friend Kevin McGarrity, a former factory pilot, have found themselves challenged to find top drives in the current state of the economy. (LAT)

I went over to my mate Allan McNish before the start and said, “Behave yourself.” He just smiled, knowing they were going to walk away.

People have asked if it takes a different mindset to switch from driving alone in an IndyCar versus sharing a car with multiple teammates in the ALMS, and I don't think there is much of a shift at all.

Dixon knows I want to beat him and vice versa, there's absolutely no misunderstanding there. But when you're in the car with Sharp and Brabs, for instance, you still want to be the fastest guy of the three. But I would say the information flow is identical and I don't hold anything back from Dixie. Having been there for a couple of races now, he doesn't hold anything back either. It's an open book. If he does a better job than me or he gets the car or the set up working better than I do, he's going to do a better job and vice versa. It’s really no different. That’s how all good teams work, frankly.

The big difference for me driving a sports car or driving Indy car is I can get the seat and stuff like that exactly as I want it in the IndyCar, but there's a little bit of give and take with the sports car. I damaged my back at Sebring, actually. Something to do with just the way you sit in the Acura, which was tough because I went straight from Sebring; Dixon and I literally, as the race was still going on, jumped in a rental car, drove round to the airport behind turn 16, and flew away.

We met up with Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti and Mario Moraes there too. We jumped on a plane and flew straight to Birmingham for the two-day IndyCar test. So we finished at 10:30 that night and by nine o'clock the next morning, we were all sitting on pit lane at Barber in IndyCars. That made for a busy week!

I must say, I really enjoy it when I get to drive with Scott Sharp and David Brabham. It’s good fun, although none of us had the week or weekend that we hoped but it was fun being together. I’ve also got to thank Duncan Dayton (Patron Highcroft team owner) and the whole team for that because it was a really good chance to get out and do something different.

The end results were lacking, but the quality of the crew and drivers within the Patron Highcroft Acura LMP1 team earned nothing but praise from Dario. (LAT)

On a lighter note, that bastard Dixon, during his pre-race interview, thought he was hilarious when he was telling everybody how he’s looked up to me for years and used to love watching me race when he was a kid… I found out about that when I was going around in the pace truck on the driver’s parade lap before the start – saw his interview on the big screens they have around the track. The other drivers said, “Hey, have you heard what Dixon’s saying?” The man thinks he's a comedian…

Finally, I see my little Brazilian friend is talking trash about me in his SPEEDtv.com column. You sure want to make that bet, TK? You’ve heard it here first, I accept.

Absolutely. It’s on!

The thing is, you guys have all seen me with a shaved head but you've never seen Tony with his full afro. When Tony lets his hair grow he's got the world's biggest 'fro. A giant disco afro, at that. It’s unreal. Looks like an oversized costume wig.

I’m definitely going to go win this one.

~Dario

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, SPEED, FOX, or NewsCorp.

2007 Indianapolis 500 winner and IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti returns to open wheel racing alongside new teammate and reigning Indianapolis 500 winner and IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon this season for Target Chip Ganassi Racing.

Franchitti posted four wins, four pole positions in 2007 en route to his first IndyCar Series championship, and 2009 will be his first IndyCar season with Team Target. Franchitti has over 180 starts under his belt between the CART and IndyCar Series resulting in 18 wins, 17 poles and 95 top-10 finishes (1997-present). He is the winningest driver in U.S open-wheel history from Great Britain.

In 2009, the Target IndyCar team will be the first in major auto racing history to pair drivers who have won both its sanctioning body’s Driver Championship (IndyCar Series) and its marquee event (Indianapolis 500) the previous two seasons.

Visit ChipGanassiRacing.com to learn more about the team, and Franchitti.com to learn more about Dario.





The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED