Dario Franchitti Finally Speaks, Doesn't Rule Out NASCAR Return

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- In one of the first full-length interviews Dario Franchitti has given since leaving NASCAR in the middle of the 2008 season, the former Indy 500 winner said he's still open to racing stock cars.

Just not anytime soon.

"It's not something I've closed the door on,'' Franchitti said. "I just think about getting back in IndyCar right now and I have a smile on my face.''

Franchitti is at Daytona International Speedway this weekend trying to help the Chip Ganassi Racing, Lexus-powered team collect a historic fourth consecutive victory in one of the most prestigious sports car races in world, the Rolex 24.

The last time the 2007 Indy champ was turning laps at Daytona -- last February -- he was competing in the Daytona 500 as NASCAR's prized convert.

With his Ganassi teammate, 2000 Indy winner Juan Pablo Montoya along with fellow stock car rookie and 2006 Indy champ Sam Hornish Jr., NASCAR boasted more former Indy winners in its season opener than Indy's esteemed 500 would feature that May. It was the start of a great story for NASCAR.

Not so much for Franchitti.

After the very high-profile beginning, his NASCAR career ended that summer, culminating a series of hard luck events including a broken ankle and the loss of his car's corporate sponsorship.

"I think I went from the highest point of my career to probably the lowest point of my career in a span of eight months,'' Franchitti said. "But you learn things about yourself.

"It was a horrible time, for sure, and Chip will tell you too.''

It was especially difficult considering the 12 months of unparalleled success Franchitti enjoyed immediately preceding his stock car foray.


Franchitti is the only driver in racing history to win the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Indy 500, the IndyCar championship and the Rolex 24 in succession -- in the span of one year (2007-08).

"It wasn't (a real chance),'' Franchitti reluctantly conceded of his NASCAR stint. " I was starting out with a steep learning curve at the start of the year and combined with the performance of the team made it very, very difficult. I was starting to figure it out and the team was starting to figure it out and then my ankle (broken in a crash at Talladega, Ala.) and then the sponsorship thing. .. ''

His voice trailed off.

"I'd dealt with coming back from injuries, but this was kind of an unusual situation, not being able to show what I thought I could do.''

But this has the kind of happy ending Franchitti's movie star wife, actress Ashley Judd, could appreciate.

Tough luck turned good fortune and Franchitti will team on Ganassi's IndyCar operation with reigning series champ, and defending Indy winner Scott Dixon to give the series its most formidable team, bar none.

So Franchitti would rather talk about huge potential than dwell on lingering regrets. He laughed out loud when asked when he and Ganassi first considered a return to open-wheel.

"I just wasn't sure about it,'' Franchitti said.

"I went to the Detroit (IndyCar) race and then. ...,'' he grinned.

"But at that point I thought it might have been too late. And then Chip called me and said, 'Come in tomorrow and let's talk about next year.' ''

It wasn't a hard sell.

"Timing is everything,'' Franchitti said. "There was a certain part of me that thought, I arrived here a year after the (open-wheel) series split up and then I move to NASCAR and they get back together. Having been in the paddock for 12 years, I really would have liked to driven in unified series. But at that point, I was so focused on NASCAR.

"The irony wasn't lost, let's put it that way."

And what would it take for NASCAR to tempt Franchitti again?

"I don't know yet,'' Franchitti said after a long pause. "I would know more myself going in, that's for sure. But I don't know if I'll ever do it. The door's certainly not closed, but right now I'm counting my blessings.''