Franchitti steps into the Sun on a rainy day

The 2007 Indianapolis 500 was a wild affair punctuated by rain, aggressive driving and thrilling competition. Dario Franchitti wound up in a make-shift victory lane as rain ended the event after 166laps, but the road there was far from ordinary.

“There were some pretty bold moves by a lot of guys,” said second place finisher, Scott Dixon. “I saw a few just with the guys I was racing with. Obviously the biggest one was probably Sam and Tomas and kind of ruined their day a bit. Michael Andretti was really aggressive out there, but he's a hard man to pass and a good racer.”

Rain came early to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, soaking the facility and setting the tone for the entire day.

“A lot of pressure built up, especially after the delay and how the race was going to go and this morning was going. Just a lot of people want to get this race over, and obviously they wanted to get to the front.”

Despite the rain, a crowd in excess of 250,000 fans turned up, with attendance initially appearing to equal or exceed that of last year's sun-drenched 500 won by Sam Hornish, Jr. Precipitation continued to fall throughout the morning, finally stopping for good around 11:00am.

The looming 1:11pm start time appeared in jeopardy, but the IMS crews got the track dried and the green flag few exactly on schedule. The only thing missing was Jim Nabor's annual appearance to sing, “Back Home Again in Indiana.” Nabors was unable to attend this year's event due to illness.

While the track was clean and dry the local radar showed it wasn't going to stay that way. Everyone in attendance knew the race only had to go one lap past half way to be official, so teams plotted their pre-race strategies around being in first place when the inevitable rain came.

Helio Castroneves led the field down to one of the most ragged starts in recent memory as he got on the throttle early, leaving the neatly arranged rows of three behind him. Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti were forced to slot into line behind Castroneves as the field raced cleanly through turns one and two.

Kanaan would then take the lead for the first of eight different occasions by outrunning Castroneves down the backstretch. The duo would trade the lead five times through just the first 27 laps.

“The car seemed to be handling very, very good up front,” said Castroneves who sat on pit lane as the first pace lap started with a battery problem that was quickly fixed. “We were actually taking it easy and I was having a good time (racing with Kanaan) until the pit stops and we had a little trouble with the (fuel) hose.”

His team was initially unable to fuel the car on the lap 40 pit stop. Thankfully the field was pitting under the caution flag brought out when Roberto Moreno hit the turn one wall.

“The car had a bad wiggle all over the place,” said Moreno competing in his third Indy 500 in as many decades. “It was very tough (to drive), and when I got to turn one, we just went straight. I couldn't do anything.”

Cautions and yellow flag pit stops would become the theme for the rest of the day as the yellow flew 11 times for 55 of the 166 laps.

The first caution actually came on just lap 11 when John Andretti's mirror fell from his car in turn three. His Panther Racing team would later make repairs, though his day would end on lap 99 when the son of Aldo Andretti hit the turn one wall.

“Going down to turn one, I had someone dive underneath me,” said John Andretti, who was credited with a 30th place finish in his first 500 since 1994. “I got up into the second groove and got all that stuff on my tires. When I got to turn two I knew it was going to be bad and the car wouldn't turn at all. This place can pump you up so much and take it all away from you so quickly.”

Jon Herb brought out the third caution of the day when he wrecked in turn two on lap 52, followed by rookie Milka Duno crashing in turn one on lap 66 when she quickly came upon Richie Hearn and another driver that had just passed her. She appeared to have panicked, causing her car to spin very early in the turn.

“There really was no mistake,” said Duno, whose next race will come in two weeks at Texas Motor Speedway. “I was just behind two cars, and they slowed down too much, and my car lost all aerodynamic charge in front and there was no way to control the car.”

The next section of the race would see Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Sam Hornish, Jr., and Franchitti take turns leading the race with Franchitti eventually taking command.

With all the yellows, the leaders were on several different pit sequences with Jeff Simmons actually taking command on lap 101. After racing his way into contention, Simmons made a costly error that nearly won him the race.

“I was busy talking to my engineer and did not hear the call to come in to the pits,” said Simmons. He was technically the leader at lap 101, and rain was just minutes away. Had it arrived a little sooner, he would have been hoping for the complete rain out to come then.

It did not, Simmons pitted for fuel and tires on lap 102 and the field went back to green on lap 108 with Marco Andretti leading Kanaan and Danica Patrick - who had run solidly in the top 10 all day, but was up front due to the fuel strategy.

Kanaan immediately took the lead from the younger Andretti in turn one, with Phil Giebler then crashing behind them when he got to the turn.

“We were out on cold tires and I went into turn one then the cars in front of me checked up,” said Giebler. “I had to brake as well, but the car had a pretty bad push and just snapped on me.”

As Giebler's car was being picked up by the safety team, Kanaan circled the track as the leader until heavy rain hit the track on lap 112. The drivers would make it around to pit lane to complete lap 113 and receive the red flag stopping the race.

It would be nearly three hours, but race officials were confident they could dry the track and get attempt to finish the race.

Tony Kanaan and some parts of the Andretti Green Racing team were hoping they wouldn't.

“I think it would be really dangerous to keep all of these fans out here late into the evening,” said Michael Andretti who was eighth when the red came out and was obviously pleading for a quick end to the race that would give Kanaan the win, with Marco Andretti second and Danica Patrick third.

Dario Franchitti had a different wish, saying later, “The selfish side of me was thinking, ‘I hope we go back racing because I think we can do something.'”

But, before he could do anything, he had an issue to contend with.

“We had a cut in the right rear tire,” said Franchitti - sitting fifth when the red came out. “I guess we ran over some carbon from the last accident. We had to pit. That wasn't our intention, but we had to do it for safety I guess.”

Giving up a lot of track position before the track even went green again, Franchitti's cut tire helped him win the race.

“That put us on the strategy that won us the race. Pretty happy right now about that,” quipped Franchitti. “First of all I had to fight my way back through the pack. That was exciting. Managed to get through the traffic pretty quickly, get back up to contention. Then the strategy, our roll of the dice proved to be a lucky one.”

While Franchitti was working his way back to the front, his teammates were putting on quite a show up front. Kanaan was leading Marco Andretti and Danica with the three of them moving out to a slight lead over fourth place.

Danica would bring the fans to their feet when she passed Marco on lap 120, then remained just two tenths of a second back for the next 10 laps.

This long green flag run would come to an end on lap 151 when Marty Roth ended what was a surprisingly competent run by hitting the turn one wall.

Thanks to their pitting when the red became a yellow, Franchitti, Dixon, Ryan Briscoe and Scott Sharp were able to stay on the track while the other leaders hit pit road.

The ensuing restart would go poorly as people stacked up, sending Jaques Lazier in to the wall, and Tony Kanaan spinning through turn four.

“We had a good car, we even led a few laps,” said the younger Lazier. “It's not the way we wanted it to end. I was just turning in to turn four, and we were back up against the wall. It's frustrating to end it that way.”

Kanaan had to pit for new tires, dropping him to the back and crippling his chances to win despite the fact he led 84 laps. The most in the race.

The race restarted on lap 162 with rain just blocks away from the track. Franchitti was able to hold off Dixon in what was looking to be a sprint of undetermined length.

How long they would run was quickly answered when Marco Andretti and Dan Wheldon got together on the back straightaway approach to turn three.

“Unfortunately, he hit me,” said Wheldon who got off the easiest. “Thank goodness he's all right. It didn't seem anything we did today worked very well for us. We were definitely trying hard, but everybody has tried very hard. It's just an unfortunate day for us. I'm very disappointed - that's the way this place works sometimes. I wanted to win the Indianapolis 500, but now we'll focus on the championship.”

Marco Andretti's car actually flipped over, leading to an accident that looked a little worse than it really was - he was uninjured.

The cleanup was already looking to take a while when rain hit the track in the fourth turn. Just minutes early, Dario was told this was to happen, but could barely believe it.

“The one comment that sticks in my mind was John Anderson (his engineer) saying on the radio, ‘The rain is eight blocks away.' I'm like, ‘C'mon.'”

Whether he believed it or not, the rain covered those eight blocks and Franchitti took the checkered flag in the pouring rain with Marco Andretti's wrecked car trailing behind him on the back of a wrecker.

“When you get in that position... There are a lot of strong cars; my teammates, the Penske guys, the Ganassi guys. So whatever happened it came down to that dogfight, it was going to be hard - so I was hoping for the rain,” said Franchitti who was greeted in victory lane by his drenched wife, Ashley Judd.

Franchitti took his victory lap in the rain with thousands of fans still standing and cheering in spite of the elements. A guesture Franchitti very much appreciated.

“First of all I didn't want to crash the car on the in lap,” said Franchitti whose Dallara was aquaplaning around the track, even at the very slow speed he was traveling. “The crowd stayed throughout the rain delay and got absolutely soaked. I just wanted to enjoy that moment, just have a little time to think.”

With that, Franchitti became the first Scotsman since Jimmy Clark in 1965 to win the Indy 500.

INDIANAPOLIS - Results Sunday of the 91st Indianapolis 500 IndyCar Series event May 27 at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (3) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 166
2. (4) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 166, Running
3. (1) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 166, Running
4. (5) Sam Hornish Jr., Dallara-Honda, 166, Running
5. (7) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 166, Running
6. (12) Scott Sharp, Dallara-Honda, 166, Running
7. (10) Tomas Scheckter, Dallara-Honda, 166, Running
8. (8) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 166, Running
9. (20) Davey Hamilton, Dallara-Honda, 166, Running
10. (19) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 166, Running
11. (13) Jeff Simmons, Dallara-Honda, 166, Running
12. (2) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 166, Running
13. (11) Michael Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 166, Running
14. (18) A.J. Foyt IV, Dallara-Honda, 165, Running
15. (26) Alex Barron, Dallara-Honda, 165, Running
16. (17) Kosuke Matsuura, Dallara-Honda, 165, Running
17. (14) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 164, Contact
18. (21) Sarah Fisher, Dallara-Honda, 164, Running
19. (22) Buddy Lazier, Dallara-Honda, 164, Running
20. (15) Darren Manning, Dallara-Honda, 164, Running
21. (23) Roger Yasukawa, Dallara-Honda, 164, Running
22. (6) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 163, Contact
23. (32) Richie Hearn, Dallara-Honda, 163, Running
24. (9) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 162, Contact
25. (16) Buddy Rice, Dallara-Honda, 162, Contact
26. (25) Al Unser Jr., Dallara-Honda, 161, Running
27. (28) Jaques Lazier, Panoz-Honda, 155, Contact
28. (30) Marty Roth, Dallara-Honda, 148, Contact
29. (33) Phil Giebler, Panoz-Honda, 106, Contact
30. (24) John Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 95, Contact
31. (29) Milka Duno, Dallara-Honda, 65, Contact
32. (27) Jon Herb, Dallara-Honda, 51, Contact
33. (31) Roberto Moreno, Panoz-Honda, 36, Contact

Race Statistics
Winner's average speed: 151.774 mph
Time of race: 2:44:03.5608
Margin of victory: Under caution
Cautions: 11 for 55 laps
Lead changes: 23 among 9 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

Point standings
Dixon 184
Wheldon 183
Franchitti 181
Castroneves 171
Kanaan 151
Hornish 151
Scheckter 130
Sharp 110
Patrick 109
Meira 103

ORS / CAPSIS International