Dario Franchitti

George Dario Marino Franchitti, MBE (born 19 May 1973) is a retired British racing driver. He won the IndyCar Series four times; in 2007, and three more times in 2009, 2010 and 2011 and a three time Indianapolis 500 champion in 2007, 2010 and 2012. Franchitti started his career in his native Great Britain in the early 1990s, competing in Formula Vauxhall and Formula Three, and was also the winner of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award in 1992. After Franchitti did not secure a single-seater drive in 1995, he was contracted by the AMG team to compete in touring cars, in the DTM and its successor, the International Touring Car Championship. Despite two seasons with relative success, the series folded at the end of the 1996 season, again leaving Franchitti without a drive. Mercedes placed Franchitti in CART in 1997 with the Hogan Racing team.

Franchitti spent six seasons in CART, where he won ten races with the Team Green squad that he joined in 1998; he failed to win a championship title, with a best final position of second place in 1999, behind Juan Pablo Montoya on a tie-breaker. Team Green moved to the IndyCar Series for the 2003 campaign, with Franchitti remaining in the team. His first season was disrupted by injury, but won his first races the following season. Franchitti's breakout year came in 2007, when he won the rain-shortened Indianapolis 500 as one of four victories en route to a first career championship title in a final-race title decider with Scott Dixon. At the end of the year, Franchitti was named as BBC Scotland's Sports Personality of the Year. After an ill-fated move to NASCAR in 2008, which ended after half a season, Franchitti returned to IndyCar in 2009, with Chip Ganassi Racing.

Franchitti won on his second start back in the series, and eventually took five victories as he won a second championship, again in a final race championship decider against Dixon and Team Penske's Ryan Briscoe. He retained the title in 2010, again with a final race championship win over Penske's Will Power; Franchitti's strong form on ovals – including a second Indianapolis 500 victory – allowed him to overhaul Power by five points at the final race. His third consecutive title in 2011 saw him battle Power for the championship once again, but the title was ultimately decided in favour of Franchitti, after the final race was cancelled due to a serious accident which resulted in the death of his close friend and former team-mate Dan Wheldon. A new car was introduced for the 2012 season, in which Franchitti only won one race – at the Indianapolis 500 – to become the tenth driver to win at least three Indianapolis 500 races during a career.

On 6 October 2013, he was involved in a serious crash at the Grand Prix of Houston, when his car flew into catch-fencing after contact with the car of Takuma Sato. Franchitti suffered two fractured vertebrae, a broken ankle and a concussion in the accident. A month later, on 14 November 2013, Franchitti announced his immediate retirement from motor racing on medical advice. He retired with 31 victories from 265 starts in American open-wheel racing, a tally which put him in a tie for ninth place on the all-time wins list, with Paul Tracy.

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