New Format, Familiar Winners at the Firestone Twin 275s

Dario Franchitti and Will Power celebrate their wins together.

FORT WORTH, TX - The IZOD IndyCar Series’ two strongest teams returned to form in the Firestone Twin 275s event at Texas Motor Speedway. Both Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske had sub-par (for them) performances at the Indianapolis 500, but their drivers, Dario Franchitti and Will Power, found Victory Lane in Fort Worth. It was Franchitti’s first win at Texas, and Will Power’s first win on an oval.

In the first race, pole sitter Alex Tagliani led only briefly, then Franchitti took the lead and never looked back. Team mate Scott Dixon soon found his way to second and the two battled through the end of the race. Power finished third, Tagliani forth and KV Racing Technology’s Takuma Sato had a strong race with a fifth place finish.

Notable movers in the field were KV’s E.J. Viso, who finished 7th after a nineteenth place start, Graham Rahal, who went from 20th to 9th and Jay Howard, who moved from 28th to 15th. There was one incident on track, when rookie Charlie Kimball collected fellow rookie Wade Cunningham and ended both their races. Both had back-up cars for the second race.

After an abbreviated victory celebration for Franchitti, the introduction stage was rolled out on the front stretch and Versus hosts Bob Jenkins and Kevin Lee presented the draw for the second race. They introduced each driver in reverse order of finish and invited them to turn a Firestone tire mounted on a big game board to reveal their starting position. (Think Vanna White turning letters back in the early days of Wheel of Fortune.) Some drivers just picked a tire and turned it; others played to the crowd and sought their advice for which tire to pick. Tony Kanaan’s pick of the pole position drew a huge response from the crowd. Championship contenders Will Power drew 3rd and Dario Franchitti 28th, which sharply illustrated the complaints drivers were making about the draw approach: namely, that something completely unrelated to on-track performance and done for entertainment could have a real and negative impact on a championship battle.

In an interview at the end of the night, Tony Kanaan said that he knew he wouldn’t keep the lead the whole of the second race. His car just didn’t have the speed to hold off the likes of Power. But he did lead 39 laps before Will Power got by him and he ended up finishing 5th. Meantime, Franchitti slowly worked through the field, hoping for a caution but getting no help – the race ran green start to finish. He ended up 7th – just far enough behind Power to make a difference in IndyCar’s notoriously-close points races.

The big movers in this race included Marco Andretti, up to 6th from 27th; Danica Patrick, up to 8th from 20th and E.J. Viso again, up to 10th from 29th.

In post-race interview sessions, Franchitti called the draw for starting positions a “joke” and suggested inverting the finish order from the first race would be a more equitable and entertaining approach. Will Power, seated next to him in the interview, agreed that it would be a much more fair way to handle twin races. When asked if he would agree that the pass for the win was made on the stage when he drew the much more advantageous starting spot, Power said that he would. Runner-up Scott Dixon also suggested inverting the field or giving bonus points for passes to help take some of the unfairness out of the draw for championship contenders.

The IZOD IndyCar Series continues next weekend with a race at the Milwaukee Mile on Sunday.