Gearbox Problems Spell Early End For Franchitti At Nashville

LEBANON, Tenn. (July 17, 2004) - ArcaEx driver Dario Franchitti saw his hopes for a
strong performance before his hometown fans come to an early end, the result of a broken
gearbox, Saturday night at the Indy Racing League (IRL) IndyCar® Series Firestone Indy 200
at Nashville Superspeedway.
Team 7-Eleven teammate Tony Kanaan earned the victory, his third of the season,
while Sam Hornish Jr. was second and Helio Castroneves was credited with third place.
Franchitti started the race from seventh place, but dropped back to the 10th position in
the early laps as he sought to find the optimum balance in the #27 ArcaEx
Dallara/Honda/Firestone.
After the ArcaEx team made some minor adjustments during the first round of pit
action on lap 37, Franchitti began to methodically make his way up the scoring chart. He was
up to eighth place on lap 50 and held that position until the caution flag came out on lap 62
as a result of a crash involving Ed Carpenter.
On lap 65, Franchitti headed to pit lane along with the rest of the field. Unfortunately,
a gearbox problem resulted in the car losing first gear and the Scotsman was unable to leave
his pit box. He was credited with the 20th finishing position.
Franchitti and the rest of the IndyCar Series teams return to action next week at The
Milwaukee Mile for the Menards AJ Foyt Indy 225 on July 25. The event will be televised live
by ABC Sports, beginning at 3:30 EDT.

Dario Franchitti, #27 ArcaEx Dallara/Honda/Firestone:
"The balance of the ArcaEx car wasn't great, but we probably still had a top-five car.
We just had something go wrong during the pit stop that caused us to break a gear. It's very
frustrating because this is one race where I wanted to do very well. It's frustrating for the
whole ArcaEx team."

Allen McDonald, Race Engineer, #27 ArcaEx Dallara/Honda/Firestone:
"It was definitely a disappointing race for the ArcaEx team. We had gearbox problem
during a pit stop that put us out. We weren't the fastest car, but we were working to improve
it as the race went on. I am very, very pleased for Tony (Kanaan), it was a great effort to win
and I think the #27 car could have been right up there had we been able to keep going."