Klein Tools/Canadian Club 2006 Indianapolis 500 Fact Sheet
May 25, 2006 Indianapolis, Ind. Klein Tools/Canadian Club Driver Dario Franchitti 2006 Indianapolis 500® Fact Sheet Who: #27 Klein Tools/Canadian Club Dallara/Honda/Firestone driver Dario Franchitti What: 90th running of the Indianapolis 500, Round 4 of the Indy Racing League® IndyCar® Series Where: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Speedway, Indiana When: Sunday, May 28, 2006 Television: ABC Sports (Live), 12 p.m. (EDT) Dario Franchitti on the Indianapolis 500: "Personally it means a hell of a lot to come to Indianapolis for the whole month, battle against the track and 32 good other drivers. To be part of the race is one thing. To try and win it and to accomplish that, I think, would be an entirely different thing." Dario Franchitti Facts This will be Franchitti's fourth Indianapolis 500. His best start came in 2004 when he started third. Franchitti finished sixth in the 2005 Indianapolis 500, his best career finish at the famed track. His race strategist, John Anderson, was the winning race strategist of the 2005 Indianapolis 500. He is currently in ninth place in the IndyCar Series driver championship. Franchitti sat on the pole and led the first 14 laps at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg before a right-front suspension failure ended his day. He scored a fourth-place finish at the season-opening event at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Franchitti collected IndyCar Series wins at Nashville and California in 2005. He finished fourth in the 2005 driver point standings with 498 points, his highest IndyCar Series finish. Franchitti had eight top-five and 13 top-10 finishes in 2005. He led 448 laps in 2005 to rank second among lap leaders. The Scotsman has recorded three career IndyCar Series pole positions, those coming at Texas (June 10, 2004), California (Oct. 16, 2005) and St. Petersburg (April 2, 2006). Three of Franchitti's four IndyCar Series victories have come on tracks of 1.33 miles or smaller, including the 1-mile ovals at Milwaukee (2004) and Pikes Peak (2004) and the 1.33-mile Nashville track (2005). His fourth victory came on the two-mile D-shaped oval at California Speedway (2005). Franchitti has 14 major open-wheel racing victories and 14 career pole positions. Since 1998, Franchitti has won more American major open-wheel races than all but three drivers. Dario Franchitti IndyCar Series Statistics Top Top Laps Starts Wins 5 10 Poles Led Pts (Rk) Earnings 2006 3 0 1 1 1 14 63 (9th) $170,000 Career 40 4 15 24 3 811 $2,861,110 John Anderson, Team Manager, #27 Klein Tools/Canadian Club Dallara/Honda/Firestone on the Indianapolis 500: "At Indianapolis, it's nice to start in the first two or three rows to stay out of everyone else's accidents. As you get near the middle of the pack, the percentages increase against you. You need a very reliable car, speed isn't all important for the race and, because of the number of them, you need solid pit stops. From there, the strategy will unfold during the race. You have to be prepared to make decisions you are going to stick by."