Franchitti Earns Eighth-Place Finish at Michigan
If the following text-only file is not easily readable, particularly any tables of numbers, try enlarging this window since every line has a forced end and there is no word-wrap. Otherwise, this report will look and print better from the following PDF file: http://www.sportssystems.com/applib/PDFload.cfm?file=/email/filehost/RE299.pdf&id=BC299RE9EC574 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For Immediate Release www.andrettigreen.com FRANCHITTI EARNS EIGHTH-PLACE FINISH AT MICHIGAN BROOKLYN, Mich. (July 31, 2005) - A pit strategy gamble didn't play out as planned, resulting in ArcaEx driver Dario Franchitti earning an eighth-place finish in Sunday's running of the Indy Racing League® IndyCar® Series Firestone Indy 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Running with the leaders throughout the first 140 laps of the 200-lap event, Franchitti kept the #27 ArcaEx machine in the draft and was looking to make the end of the race on just one additional fuel stop. That opportunity came when the caution flag waved on lap 165. The team elected to forego a change of tires and just take on fuel during the ensuing stop. However, the majority of the field took fresh rubber in addition to fuel, resulting in Franchitti not having the necessary grip to move forward in the race's climactic laps. Bryan Herta took the win while Dan Wheldon was second, followed by Tomas Scheckter, Tony Kanaan and Sam Hornish Jr. Franchitti is now fourth in the driver points standings with 333 through 11 events, 84 points shy of leader Wheldon but just six points out of second place. Next up for Franchitti and the rest of the IndyCar Series teams is the AMBER Alert Portal Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway on Sunday, August 14. The event will be televised live by ABC, beginning at 3:30 p.m. (EDT). It can also be heard live by XM Satellite Radio subscribers by tuning into Extreme XM, channel 152. Dario Franchitti, #27 ArcaEx Dallara/Honda/Firestone: "I think the ArcaEx team made a small error today. Kyle Moyer was trying to make things happen with some strategy and we elected to not take tires and we were grip-limited and it just turned out not to be the right way to go. But we were trying to gain an advantage and it backfired. We'll just come back next race at Kentucky and try to get a better result. I'm just elated for Bryan and the whole XM Satellite Radio team. They've come close so many times and things finally came together for them." Kyle Moyer, General Manager, Andretti Green Racing: "We had an OK car and chose not to take tires toward the end because I thought track position was the smarter thing, and that turned out to be the wrong thing to do. We were on 60-lap-old tires at the end and everybody else had fresh tires and that pretty much sealed our day. I'm just so happy for Bryan and everybody on the XM Satellite Radio team. A 53-point weekend is huge for them and the whole team." Firestone Indy 400 Results Pos. Name Laps Pos. Name Laps 1 Bryan Herta 200 13 Jimmy Kite 197 2 Dan Wheldon 200 14 Vitor Meira 185 3 Tomas Scheckter 200 15 Townsend Bell 180 4 Tony Kanaan 200 16 Kosuke Matsuura 180 5 Sam Hornish Jr. 200 17 Jaques Lazier 179 6 Buddy Lazier 200 18 Roger Yasukawa 179 7 Scott Sharp 200 19 Scott Dixon 166 8 Dario Franchitti 200 20 Danica Patrick 163 9 Patrick Carpentier 199 21 Helio Castroneves 138 10 Ryan Briscoe 199 22 Buddy Rice 126 11 Alex Barron 199 23 Ed Carpenter 118 12 A.J. Foyt IV 198 Contact: Kent Johnson, (317) 872-2700 ext 241, kent.johnson@andrettigreenracing.com Al Larsen, (317) 872-2700 ext. 239, alan.larsen@andrettigreenracing.com