IRL Feature - Iowa Win Extends Franchitti's Lead
25/06/2007
IndyCar Series points leader Dario Franchitti extended his championship lead with a victory at Iowa, and he credited his Firestone Potenza tyres as being a major part of his win.
After a wild race that saw eight of the top 10 in points out of the race before half distance, Franchitti kept his nose clean and held off teammate Marco Andretti to the flag.
At the final round of stops, Franchitti opted for fuel only, while Andretti went for a new set of tyres. “As I was coming in, I said to the guys that my Firestones were as good as they were when we started the stint. I did 140 laps on them, and I’m sure we could have double stinted. There was no drop off whatsoever.”
Franchitti, who has placed in the top 10 in all eight races, increased his lead in the standings to 51 over another teammate, Tony Kanaan, as the IndyCar Series season approaches its halfway point. Scott Sharp finished third, Buddy Rice was fourth and Darren Manning fifth – all season highs.
"I said to Dario, this is just what he needed for points," said Andretti, who advanced 10 positions and was running at the finish for the first time this season on an oval. "He said that this is just what I needed, too. He's completely right. I just needed to finish. I'm happy to be second, of course. But no confidence lost here, for sure. It was a long day, though, very physical."
The overflow crowd was treated to the high-speed excitement on the 0.894-mile oval promoted by the speedway. The off-shoot was multiple crashes involving multiple cars, mainly on restarts. Seven of the 19 starters were retired because of contact with each other or the SAFER Barrier, including five of the top 10 in the standings entering the race (Danica Patrick, Sam Hornish Jr., Jeff Simmons, Tomas Scheckter and Kanaan).
"You can see how many risks people took on restarts because it was one of the few opportunities you're going to get to overtake, and you can see what happens with that extra risk," said Manning, who gave A.J. Foyt Racing its best finish in a year.
The short track that presents itself as a speedway puts a premium on passing so track position is imperative – as Andretti discovered in attempting to overtake Franchitti over the final 18-lap battle. He was never more than a tenth of a second behind, but couldn't get a run.
"At the end it came down to the two of us, and I just had nothing for Dario," Andretti said. "I was driving his setup. The guy is unbelievable at setting up a car. I've got to thank him for that. When you're driving the same car, it's hard to go a longer distance and I had nothing for him so I just wanted to protect him and great day for Andretti Green."
"It was one restart after another, one yellow after another, and then at one point I was four‑wide going across the start/finish straight there and I guess the three people on the inside didn't take any further part," Franchitti said. "So I was pretty lucky. From then on, I saw that most of the contenders that were pushing me in the championship had had their problems. So we knew we couldn't do anything stupid and we played a conservative game.
"We managed to run with Vitor (Meira), and then we passed him in the pits and then the last pit stop we didn't take tires. We left the Firestones on because they were really performing so well; a great call by the crew, as well. We didn't need that last yellow (for debris on Lap 227) but the car was fantastic all day.
"All in all, a great day for the Canadian Club car and the team, Andretti Green as a whole with a 1, 2. It was a fun race but pretty physical."