IndyCar Honda Indy 200 at Mid Ohio, Franchitti wins
Dario Franchitti pitted early and with one of the fastest cars on track, Franchitti managed to win the race. Franchitti had a poor start but with the perfect strategy and car was able to win the Honda Indy 200 at Mid Ohio. Franchitti’s Target Chip Ganassi pit crew managed to get him out ahead of Will Power after the 22nd lap pit stop. Being ahead of Will Power resulted in a lead for Franchitti as the race progressed, for this reason the pit crew celebrated when they saw their driver go out ahead after the pit stop.
Starting the race on pole position, Will dominated the race until the 22nd caution lap where he lost the lead to Franchitti. After the cars pitted, the exit of pit stops witnessed a crash involving Hunter Reay, Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves. However, Hunter Reay was the most affected from this as he broke his left front suspension. This was the reason for Hunter’s tenth place though his car made him one the contenders for the win.
Alex Tagliani was one of the drivers who performed very well by salvaging fourth position. Alex seemed to have the right fuel strategy and led most of the race. But Alex lost the lead with thirty laps remaining and then three drivers Franchitti, Will and Castroneves were seen finishing ahead of him.
The pit stops with just thirty laps left led to an exciting and thrilling finish to the already splendid race. The battle for the lead between Will and Franchitti was worth watching and saw the point’s leader finish behind Franchitti. The Ganassi team not only emerged victorious thanks to Franchitti but earlier secured victory due Montoya’s splendid driving.
Although Franchitti didn’t have the best of starts, but the strategy that the team and Franchitti devised was not only perfect, Franchitti managed to execute it with perfection. Though during the time when the green flag was dropped, Franchitti dropped to third position from second, but he managed to bounce back. The experienced driver managed to pass Takuma Sato at turn four and then later got ahead of Will Power during the round of pit stops.
The victor himself said that it was the perfect first pit stop that laid the foundation for a victorious finish over Will Power. Will was behind the race leader almost all the race looking to grab any opportunity and waiting for Franchitti to make a mistake. Franchitti put on a splendid driving show by driving a perfect race and showing how to execute a perfect plan in order to achieve a perfect result.
Franchitti and Ganassi’s team weren’t able to get pit stops right during practise and couldn’t manage to beat Will Power. But the team made an extra effort and their hard work paid off when it really mattered.
Franchitti’s win helped him to gain 9 points on the current leader, Will Power. Franchitti is forty-one points behind the lead and has a chance to catch up with one road course and four oval races remaining on the schedule. Will being stronger on the road courses has a good chance of winning the race in two week’s time.
Both drivers are content on keeping each other behind as this will ultimately result in deciding the champion this season. Dario Franchitti this weekend registered his twenty-fifth victory resulting in him being the 12th driver in the IZOD IndyCar history managing that many victories.
The race rookie, Simona DeSilvestro, also had her best finish of the season after managing eighth position. Another rookie in this year’s IndyCar race, Belgian Bertrand Baguette had his best finish, finishing outside the top ten in eleventh position. Baguette managed to put on quite a show and would have been able to finish in the tenth spot it hadn’t been for Hunter Reay’s mad charge to snatch the tenth spot.
The next race takes place in two weeks time at the vineyards of Sonoma, California for the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma. Where Will be the favourite but if Mid Ohio’s race is anything to go by, it will be hard to predict the winner.
Tags: