Franchitti Wins Race 1 at Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas (June 11, 2011) – Dario Franchitti was dominant throughout, but had to stave off Target Chip Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon after a late restart to win the opening race of the IndyCar Series Firestone Twin 275s at Texas Motor Speedway.

Franchitti, who led 110 of the 114 laps, seemed well on his way to victory as he owned more than a four-second lead before an incident between Charlie Kimball and Wade Cunningham in Turn 4 with 20 to go brought out a caution and a double-file restart.

Franchitti’s 6.7-second stop got him out of the pits over Dixon with the lead before the 10-lap shootout began after the restart. He was able to maintain an advantage, but Dixon and Team Penske driver Will Power continued to close the gap and with four to go only .1 of a second separated the trio.

Dixon had a couple of looks in the final four laps, but was unable to find the key passing opportunity as Franchitti held him off by .0527 of a second. It was the fourth-closest IndyCar Series finish in the history of Texas Motor Speedway.

The race was completed 54 minutes, 47.2787 seconds at an average speed of 181.649 miles per hour.

Franchitti started on the outside pole but quickly passed polesitter Alex Tagliani on the opening lap and led 49 of the first 50 laps of the 114-lap opening event.

Power moved into second and started to cut into Franchitti’s lead, closing to .2 after 45 laps, before the teams cycled through green-flag pit stops. Franchitti quickly regained the lead as it swelled to more than three seconds over Power after the pit stops.

Dixon was able overtake Power for second with about 50 to go, but could not

close on Franchitti until the late caution led to the double-file restart.

The opening race was followed by a one-hour “halftime” intermission, where teams can work on their cars and the drivers will randomly select their starting position on the grid for the second race. Tony Kanaan selected the No. 1 position for Race 2.

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