A foreign experience: Dario Franchitti leaves open-wheel stardom behind
By Mike Hembree - Associate Editor
Thursday, January 10, 2008
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Dario Franchitti could be in the ice cream business, although it’s difficult to imagine him slinging a scoop and wearing one of those goofy hats.
Fortunately for him – and for racing in general – Franchitti’s father, George, was a racer in addition to an ice cream maker. Franchitti’s, the family’s ice cream business, enabled George and Marina, Dario’s mother, to live a middle-class existence in Scotland. Racing was a hobby for George, who dabbled in Formula Ford and Formula Atlantic racing.
When Dario started racing in Formula Ford-type competition in the early 1990s, he showed promise. To move along, he needed money.
“My dad remortgaged the house to pay for my first season in racing,” Franchitti says. “Without that, it wouldn’t have happened. We won that first championship [in the Formula Vauxhall Junior series in 1991]. At the end of the year, Jackie Stewart came up and said, ‘I’ll find the money. You drive the car.’ That was the big break.”
Partnering with the legendary Stewart, who won three Formula One world championships, sent Franchitti on his way. If the ice cream business was ever a consideration, it was no longer. He won the British Formula Three championship in 1994 and, by 1997, had crossed the ocean to race in the Champ Car Series.
Now, after becoming a star in open-wheel racing, the 34-year-old Franchitti has targeted NASCAR. For the first time, he’ll be trying a form of motorsports that is almost totally foreign to him.
“Racing in Indy cars was a natural progression for me,” he says. “When I came over here from Europe and raced Champ Car, it was the logical next progression – a car with more horsepower and more downforce, but still something that I’d done before. Now I’m driving [cars] with twice the weight, no downforce and different tires. It’s learning a whole different way of doing stuff.”
And that’s a major reason the 2007 Indianapolis 500 winner is trying to break through the ceiling that typically separates open-wheel standouts from NASCAR stardom. Married to high-profile actress Ashley Judd and owner of homes on both sides of the Atlantic – not to mention a neat classic car collection – Franchitti isn’t in it for the money.
“You want to get paid for what you do, but I got paid very well for racing Indy cars,” he says. “If you do well in NASCAR, you can make another level of money. But, nah, that’s not it. It’s the competition and the learning of this new thing. I kind of feel like I’m 21 again because I’m starting to learn something new, and it’s been a long time since I’ve done that. There’s incredible competition in Indy car, but it was time to do something completely different, something I’ve been interested in doing for a long time.”
Franchitti got a taste of NASCAR competition late last season but jumps full bore into Sprint Cup activity this season as a driver for Chip Ganassi Racing.
“I enjoyed the time I had in the IRL,” he says. “But it was time to move on, time to look at doing something different. The success we had made it easier. That something else could have been just going to the beach or going back to Scotland and learning how to play golf, but the two things [leaving the IndyCar Series and the spot at Chip Ganassi Racing becoming available] just coincided so well. I was really lucky.”
So NASCAR once again this season will be home to an odd happenstance – a world-class driver wearing rookie clothing. Juan Pablo Montoya, who will be Franchitti’s teammate, played that role last year.
Montoya, himself a former Indy 500 winner who also won in Formula One, enjoyed a level of success, and much is expected of Franchitti, if not in Year One then after he moves through a period of adjustment.
“I don’t know enough about it yet to know what to expect,” he says. “There’s a reason the experienced guys do well. I think experience counts for a hell of a lot in this type of racing. I’m not really surprised by how difficult it’s been because I’m not one of those guys who didn’t think these guys [Cup racers] were world-class drivers. I’ve always thought they were that good.”
Franchitti is not unacquainted with NASCAR. He lives in Franklin, Tenn. (“Halfway between Sterling Marlin and Darrell Waltrip,” as he puts it) and has been a television fan of Cup racing for years. Franchitti moved to Tennessee because members of his wife’s family live there.
“The fans are passionate,” he says of NASCAR. “It’s like soccer back home. That’s good. It’s what you want from a sport.
“Obviously, I’ll be going to a lot of tracks I haven’t seen before. I flew over Bristol [Motor Speedway] the other day [in a helicopter] and got a look at it. It looked like a football stadium.”
Franchitti has had adventures in Indy car racing, including a couple of memorable flips in accidents. A bigger threat to his racing career, however, occurred in 2003 when he seriously injured his back in a motorcycle accident in Scotland. Surgery followed, and he missed most of that season. He still carries metal in his back from the operation and admits that bending his body to climb in a stock car is somewhat awkward.
“I’ve always been focused, but I know how lucky I am to do this,” Franchitti says. “I never appreciated how lucky I was. I do now.”
Franchitti did extensive testing with Ganassi’s test team late last season, and more is planned this year. Team members say he’s cooperative and inquisitive and that he tends to absorb information quickly.
“He’ll come up and ask me anything,” says Busch Series driver Kevin Hamlin, who has been coaching Franchitti. “That’s the way you get better.”
Franchitti says he has no concerns about Ganassi’s team being a step behind the leaders in the Cup garage.
“I know what Chip is like,” he says. “I’ve raced against his [Indy car] team for 11 years. He wants to be successful. I know I’ll be pushing hard to get everything I can. Juan is, too. I think it’s a good bunch of people. We just need to keep going in the right direction.
“Trying to catch the leading teams is going to be difficult, but we can do it. I say that with optimism, not really knowing how difficult it’s going to be.”
Franchitti and other international drivers invading NASCAR also will be under intense fan scrutiny.
“I hope people are eventually going to judge me on what I do on the track and my personality off the track,” he says. “I would hope that people will say, ‘Let’s wait a minute,’ and judge me on their experience rather than prejudge me.
“A funny thing about that is, a lot of people who’ll be out there, certainly from the South, their ancestors are Scottish.”
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Dario Franchitti
Comments
2 responses to "A foreign experience: Dario Franchitti leaves open-wheel stardom behind "
Scott Baker said:
Feb 15, 2008 at 5:33 PMShould have to "Race" his way in. Ridiculous he's given a spot. hasn't earned it.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportScott Baker said:
Mar 17, 2008 at 4:59 PMShould have to "Race" his way in. Ridiculous he's given a spot. hasn't earned it.
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