IndyCar - Franchitti Victorious, Dixon Seventh At Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE, June 19, 2011: Target Chip Ganassi Racing (TCGR) driver Dario Franchitti came home with his second victory at The Milwaukee Mile in the Milwaukee 225 Sunday in Round 7 of the IZOD IndyCar Series, while Target teammate Scott Dixon finished seventh.

The win marked the 29th of Franchitti’s Indy car career, putting him in a tie with 4-time Indianapolis 500 Winner Rick Mears for ninth on the all-time wins list, while vaulting the No.10 Target team back to the top of the point standings (tied at 271 with Will Power).

Franchitti lined-up from the pole and put the No. 10 Downy Honda Dallara into the lead on the first lap in turn one. He went on to lead the first 115 laps before settling in inside the top-three. Then on a restart with 20 laps to go, Franchitti re-gained the lead and began to pull away from the field. After leading 161 of the 225-lap event, Franchitti took the checkered ahead Chip Ganassi Racing driver Graham Rahal by 1.4271 seconds.

Dixon started the race in third and ran inside the top-five for much of the early going in the 225-lap race. After another car missed its stall and had contact with Dixon during the first round of pit stops, the No. 9 Target team battled back to re-gain the lost positions and quickly re-entered the top-10. Despite having minor wing damage, Dixon drove his way up to seventh and maintained his top-10 spot for the remainder of the race to finish seventh,