IndyCar Champ to NASCAR Chump?

Dario Franchitti won a pretty thrilling race Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway to wrap up not only the season points title, but potentially his IndyCar career.

Passing Scott Dixon in the final corner after Dixon ran out of gas to take title is a pretty nice way to end up a season for all involved -- including the sanctioning body.

Except for the fact that yet another face from the series is taking off for bigger and better things. Someone turn the lights out over there.

Franchitti, a native of Scotland, has been under the microscope though since Friday when rumors blew up about his potential migration to the ranks of NASCAR. He apparently is headed to the seat soon to be vacated by David Stremme at Chip Ganassi Racing -- making two international NASCAR drivers (Juan Pablo Montoya being the other) from open-wheel ranks racing from the same stable.

Ganassi never has been one to go with the flow in anything he's done, so seeing his desire to convert another open-wheel standout into a stock car driver isn't that surprising.

What is surprising, though, is his choice of driver. (Even though he does bring a sponsor.)

Sure, Franchitti won this year's Indianapolis 500 and the points title. But the fact is, the IRL IndyCar Series is on no such level that the competition and talent is in Montoya's Formula One.

Does Dario have some talent behind the wheel? I wouldn't argue against it -- his wifey Ashley Judd might not either -- but why him for NASCAR?

Does Ganassi think he's got some great marketing potential? Or does the owner feel that Franchitti can lift his middle-of-the-road NASCAR operation to a new level moreso than a seasoned stock car driver could?

Montoya has a had a very respectable season in his first full campaign, but is the second time always a charm?

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-11-2007 @ 2:29PM

Don Emerson said...

Here's hoping that Franchitti has a long and prosperous career in Nascar. To compare him to Montoya is to do him a great injustice, for he is just the opposite of the driver we've come to know and dislike. A talented driver....yes, a spoiled cocky brat.....no. We can always use more nice guys like him in the sport of racing. Works for me..

9-11-2007 @ 3:21PM

cliff said...

i hope he will not turn into another jackass like montoyer racing the leaders when he is 2 laps down wreaking cars in the first 3 laps and just being the cockey jackass he is.

9-11-2007 @ 6:19PM

Auto Racing said...

I like Franchitti, but Nascar is not where he should go. I think he should try ALMS-Lemans or Grand-AM.

9-12-2007 @ 7:34PM

Kim said...

I can't say I blame him for wanting to leave IRL. Have any of you watched it lately? Talk about boring! Ugh. I can't stand it and I used to enjoy it. Since I don't follow it too much, I don't know anything about this guy except that he's married to Ms. Judd & apparently has been pretty successful on the IRL circuit, so I say, good for him and welcome aboard! Some helpful advice to him though...try to make friends first instead of immediate enemies like Montoya has done.

9-13-2007 @ 12:56AM

Samantha said...

I never thought I'd see "Sure he's won the Indy 500" thrown out there like it wasn't very important. Yet Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon want to win it more than anything, and even though they've had great cars, they haven't won it yet.

You can argue 'Why him?' with virtually any driver that's currently in NASCAR right now. Most drivers do come from a series lesser in popularity...it's kind of how it goes.

Oh and Michael Schumacher has called participating in any IRL race borderline suicidal because of how fast the cars are and how hard they are to control, so if these drivers can handle the cars, I think they have pretty damn good talent.

Can't we all just like racing? Am I the only one who loves F1,Nascar AND the IRL?