When Dario Franchitti decided last year to sign with Chip Ganassi Racing, NASCAR wasn't the only thing on his mind.
“I love the options the Ganassi organization gives me,” Franchitti said at the time. “You can do almost any form of racing you want.”
At the time, Franchitti was speaking of sports cars and the chance to run in events such as the 24 Hours of Daytona for Ganassi's sports car team, as well as drive on NASCAR's Sprint Cup circuit.
But the depth of Ganassi's organization paid dividends in another way this week as Franchitti and Ganassi announced the driver would be giving up his NASCAR aspirations and returning to the IndyCar Series as Scott Dixon's teammate.
The Franchitti announcement was paired with two others:
Target signed a multiyear extension to sponsor Ganassi programs in IndyCar, NASCAR and sports cars. Target has sponsored Ganassi Racing for 20 years.
Dan Wheldon, who won the Indy 500 and Indy Racing League title in 2005 while driving for Andretti Green Racing, will leave the Ganassi team to drive for Panther Racing's IndyCar Series team.
Wheldon, 30, who launched his IndyCar career with Panther Racing in 2002, signed a multiyear contract to return to Panther. Vitor Meira is currently the driver for the one-car team.
Franchitti, 35, won the Indy 500 and the IRL title in 2007 while driving for Andretti Green Racing. Dixon, who won the Indy 500 this year, needs only to finish ninth at Chicagoland Speedway this week to give Ganassi a second straight IndyCar championship.
Ganassi signed Franchitti to a NASCAR contract toward the end of the 2007 racing season and Franchitti opened the '08 season as a rookie on the premier Sprint Cup tour and a part-time racer in the Nationwide Series.
But Ganassi folded Franchitti's NASCAR team in July and laid off 70 employees after being unable to find a sponsor for the car.
Franchitti raced in just 10 Sprint Cup events. After missing five races because of a broken foot, Franchitti fell out of the top 35 in points and struggled to qualify for races. His highest Sprint Cup finish was a 22nd on the half-mile oval at Martinsville, Va., in March.
He finished fifth in a Nationwide Series race on the road course at Watkins Glen, N.Y.
Franchitti said he became excited about IndyCar racing after the merger of the IRL and Champ Car World Series this year. But he also said earlier this year that he would not consider a return to open-wheel racing.
But Ganassi approached Franchitti after contract talks with Wheldon reached an impasse. Ganassi had a top IndyCar driver under contract with few opportunities to use him in NASCAR.
“When there was a possibility of an opening on our IndyCar team, the only person I thought about was Dario,” said Ganassi.
Said Franchitti: “With the unification and the new schedule featuring more road and street courses, it made me think about returning to the IndyCar racing. I couldn't pass this up, although I am not closing the door on returning to stock cars.”
Franchitti was one of the more popular drivers in IndyCar racing before the merger – and it didn't hurt that he was married to actress Ashley Judd.
Although the Franchitti and Target announcements solidified some of Ganassi's plans for 2009, the team is not completely on solid ground. Texaco has announced it will end its sponsorship of Juan Pablo Montoya's NASCAR Sprint Cup team at the end of the season, marking the second major sponsor Ganassi has lost in less than a year. And driver Reed Sorenson is leaving Ganassi's other struggling Sprint Cup team.
Ganassi's sports car tandem of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas already has clinched the featured Daytona Prototype in the Grand-Am sports car series.
As for this season's IndyCar title, only Helio Castroneves has a chance of taking the championship from Dixon going into the last points event of the season, at Chicagoland. The IndyCar season ends Oct. 26 with a nonpoints race in Australia.
Bill Center: (619) 293-1851; bill.center@uniontrib.com
