Monday,
May 28,
Dario Franchitti
Wins Indy 500 for Andretti Racing Team
The
ANNOTICO Report
There
was Ecstasy and Heartbreak for the Andretti Green
Racing Team at the Indy 500.
The
Andretti Racing Team was running 1-2-3-5, when the rains first came
and caused a stoppage at 113 laps, then a restart after a 3 hour delay.
Tony Kanaan
was in first, Marco Andretti was in second, Dana Patrick was in third, Franchitti was fifth
, with Michael Andretti within striking distance.
On
the restart, it was as much a race with the weather as
it was the other drivers. Which would come first, the
rain or the end of the Indy 500.
Dario Franchitti gambled on the rain and won Sunday, another
bittersweet day for the Andretti family at
Franchitti, one of five Andretti Green Racing drivers in the field, inherited the
lead by staying on the track when the leaders pitted for fuel for a final dash
to the finish, a gamble that paid off as he
drove on fumes when the race was stopped just 10 laps later, when the downpour
came, to the chagrin of the other drivers.
Teammate Marco Andretti
was involved in a spectacular crash just three laps from the premature
finish. Andretti, who lost this race last year as a
19-year-old rookie when Sam Hornish
Jr.passed
him on the final straightaway, had slipped into the pack and was trying hard to
move back into contention when he tried to make a pass in traffic and came
together with 2005 Indy winner Dan Wheldon on the back straightaway. Marco had lost his
Right mirror, and didn
Any chance Tony Kanaan
had to win evaporated on Lap 157 when Jaques Lazier
crashed in front of him and Kanaan spun,
barely avoiding the inside barrier near the pit entrance. He rolled into the
pits with a flat tire and was later penalized when his crew changed all four
tires in a closed pit, instead of just the one that was flat.
Once Franchitti got out of his car, he was mobbed, hugged and
kissed by teammates Tony Kanaan,
his best friend (who finished 12th), and his other two teammates, Danica Patrick (who finished 8th) and Michael Andretti (who
finished 13th).Marco was still being looked at by Medics.
Franchitti
Ashley
Tyler Judd Ciminella is the daughter
of country singer Naomi Judd (a.k.a. Diana Judd; former member of the Judds) and marketing specialist Michael Ciminella.
Divorced when Ashley was 4.
Ashley and Dario
were married on December 12, 2001, at
While there
seemed to be such an emphasis on desrcibing Franchetti being Scottish, Certainly we wouldn
It was Andretti Green
Better
known as Ashley Judd
By
Ed Hinton, Special to The Times
May 28, 2007
She
She
For a while it didn
But then his brilliant young protege crashed
horrifically and went upside down and caused a terrible melee, debris flying
everywhere.
Awful as it was, the crash guaranteed that Dario could cruise comfortably under
caution, conserving fuel. (Don
No sooner had Ashley lifted her face to the sky with gratitude than she felt
the rain on it. As it began to pour, she made no effort to take cover; she
removed her hat and shoes and began that barefoot sprint.
What
Wait a minute. Nobody said Ashley Judd portrays a race driver
And the scene was fact, not fiction Sunday.
And finally, Dario Franchitti will be known as the
winner of the 91st Indy 500, and not just as Ashley Judd
The protege who crashed was Marco Andretti.
(The subplot being that the saga of Andretti
family heartbreak at Indy just kept on rolling, the longest-running tragedy in
the history of the Brickyard.)
So, anyway, Ashley gets to
She barely gets to plant one good smooch on his mouth before here comes his whole adoring team of drivers to hug and kiss him,
even though they
Everybody except Marco, who, outside the track hospital, is being asked about
his crash and showing it hardly means a thing to him, considering.
"It was a big one, all right," Marco said. "All I can say is, I
That
Largely his was supposed to be a supporting role at Andretti
Green Racing: the savvy, hard-luck veteran, mentoring the two bright young
stars of IndyCar racing, Marco and Danica.
Franchitti is 34 now, pretty old for a race driver
nowadays. He has been in
When he arrived in the
Turned out his grandfather, a restaurateur, had
migrated from
Took a while to get the pronunciation of his surname too.
Some at first said, "Fran-Chitty" until they learned it
Anyway, back to the 500, whose end was at first rain-delayed by three hours,
and then hastened by another shower at 166 laps of the scheduled 200.
The long delay had begun just past the halfway point, after 113 laps. When the
drivers finally took to the track again, Franchitti
got a punctured tire just before the restart.
He had to pit, and his stellar teammates left him behind. Off they went,
running 1-2-3 : Kanaan,
Patrick, Marco Andretti, with Michael Andretti running within striking distance.
Now the plot was thicker than the humid air that threatened rain again on
Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
As it would turn out, the unscheduled stop "put us on the strategy that
won us the race," Franchitti would say later.
The pivotal moment was the next caution, when the leaders all pitted. Franchitti stayed out and inherited the lead.
On that restart, Kanaan was caught in the crash of Jaques Lazier. Patrick narrowly dodged the wreck. Then she
and both Andrettis were stuck in traffic after their
stops.
Then Marco went upside down on Lap 162, and Franchitti
cruised under caution until the rain started so that on the 166th lap the
checkered flag joined the yellow flying.
"Who would have thought it? Can you believe it?" he said in his
Scottish lilt and burr. "I
From a guy who
His wife attended the winner
--
Ed Hinton covers auto racing for Tribune newspapers.
*
Results from Sunday
RESULTS |
||||
PL |
PP |
DRIVER |
CAR |
LAPS COMPLETED |
1 |
(3) |
Dario Franchitti |
Dallara |
166 laps, 151.774 mph |
2 |
(4) |
Scott Dixon |
Dallara |
166 laps, running |
3 |
(1) |
Helio Castroneves |
Dallara |
166 laps, running |
4 |
(5) |
Sam Hornish Jr. |
Dallara |
166 laps, running |
5 |
(7) |
Ryan Briscoe |
Dallara |
166 laps, running |
6 |
(12) |
Scott Sharp |
Dallara |
166 laps, running |
7 |
(10) |
Tomas Scheckter |
Dallara |
166 laps, running |
8 |
(8) |
Danica Patrick |
Dallara |
166 laps, running |
9 |
(20) |
Davey Hamilton |
Dallara |
166 laps, running |
10 |
(19) |
Vitor Meira |
Dallara |
166 laps, running |
11 |
(13) |
Jeff Simmons |
Dallara |
166 laps, running |
12 |
(2) |
Tony Kanaan |
Dallara |
166 laps, running |
13 |
(11) |
Michael Andretti |
Dallara |
166 laps, running |
14 |
(18) |
A.J. Foyt IV |
Dallara |
165 laps, running |
15 |
(26) |
Alex Barron |
Dallara |
165 laps, running |
16 |
(17) |
Kosuke Matsuura |
Dallara |
165 laps, running |
17 |
(14) |
Ed Carpenter |
Dallara |
164 laps, crash |
18 |
(21) |
Sarah Fisher |
Dallara |
164 laps, running |
19 |
(22) |
Buddy Lazier |
Dallara |
164 laps, running |
20 |
(15) |
Darren Manning |
Dallara |
164 laps, running |
21 |
(23) |
Roger Yasukawa |
Dallara |
164 laps, running |
22 |
(6) |
Dan Wheldon |
Dallara |
163 laps, crash |
23 |
(32) |
Richie Hearn |
Dallara |
163 laps, running |
24 |
(9) |
Marco Andretti |
Dallara |
162 laps, crash |
25 |
(16) |
Buddy Rice |
Dallara |
162 laps, crash |
26 |
(25) |
Al Unser Jr. |
Dallara |
161 laps, running |
27 |
(28) |
Jaques Lazier |
Panoz |
155 laps, crash |
28 |
(30) |
Marty Roth |
Dallara |
148 laps, crash |
29 |
(33) |
Phil Giebler |
Panoz |
106 laps, crash |
30 |
(24) |
John Andretti |
Dallara |
95 laps, crash |
31 |
(29) |
Milka Duno |
Dallara |
65 laps, crash |
32 |
(27) |
Jon Herb |
Dallara |
51, laps, crash |
33 |
(31) |
Roberto Moreno |
Panoz |
36 laps, crash |
--
RACE STATISTICS
- Time of race: 2 hours 44
minutes 3.5608 seconds.
- Margin of victory:
0.361 seconds under caution.
- Caution flags:
11 for 55 laps.
- Lead changes:
23 among nine drivers.
- Lap leaders:
Kanaan 1-2, Castroneves 3, Kanaan 4-13, Castroneves 14-17, Kanaan 18-26, Castroneves 27-40,
Marco Andretti 41-46, Dixon 47-53, Kanaan 54-68, Dixon 69-71, Hornish
72-73, Franchitti 74-88, Dixon 89, Michael Andretti 90, Kanaan 91-100,
Simmons 101, Marco Andretti 102-107, Kanaan 108-116, Marco Andretti
117, Kanaan 118-136, Franchitti
137-143, J.Lazier 144-145, Kanaan
146-154, Franchitti 155-166.
- Points standings (After
five of 17 races): 1.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-indy28may28,1,456492,
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