2007 IndyCar Series Year in Review
Dario Franchitti finished on the podium in eight of nine races through mid-July.
Philadelphia, PA - After 16 races the series came down to the final event with the championship still up for grabs between Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan. Franchitti made his fuel last one corner further than Dixon and the difference won the No.27 Andretti Green Racing driver the race and the 2007 IndyCar Series title. It was Franchitti’s first IndyCar championship.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that Franchitti and three-time series champion Sam Hornish Jr. have jumped ship and headed to the fame and fortune of NASCAR for next season.
It leaves a gaping hole in the IndyCar Series. No defending champion and four titles are now gone. But four former champions remain in the “depleted” 2008 field: Scott Sharp (1996), Dixon (2003), Kanaan (2004) and Dan Wheldon (2005).
However, that is for 2008 and this is a review of 2007.
It was Wheldon who got the season off with a bang, dominating the season opener. He led 179 of 200 laps and won by a whopping 6.4993 seconds, his third straight season-opening win. The Target Chip Ganassi driver won two of the first four races leading up to Indianapolis, but finished 22nd at Indy and collected only seven top-10s the rest of the way - finishing fourth overall.
The Indianapolis 500 was won by Franchitti, who was on the right fuel sequence when the rains came for the second time. Kanaan had led the most laps (83), but a late race spin left him well down the charts.
Franchitti had been improving every week and with the win at Indy giving him confidence, the AGR driver won twice in the next four weeks. In fact, he finished on the podium in eight of nine races through mid-July.
As solid as Franchitti was running, however, Dixon was doing him one better winning three consecutive times ending at Mid-Ohio. After that race, Franchitti held a 24-point lead over Dixon and 111 over Kanaan.
Kanaan, the 2004 champion, valiantly fought back winning three of the next four events, but it still left him the long shot (-39 points) as the series came to its final stop.
Meanwhile, Franchitti was hitting all the highlight shows after two dramatic crashes on back-to-back weekends at Michigan and Kentucky where he went airborne and landed upside down. Luckily, he walked away from both accidents unharmed, but the incidents may have been part of the impetus for his leaving the series for the relatively safer NASCAR “Car of Tomorrow.”
Franchitti still held a paper-thin three-point lead and sat on the pole for the finale at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL.
Early on Hornish Jr., who qualified second, went to the lead with his Penske teammate Helio Castroneves (yes he does more than dance) just behind. But before lap 20, Kanaan suffered a tire puncture, which put him one lap down and out of the championship picture.
Dixon was challenging Franchitti, who was having understeer problems and got around him for fourth place as the field passed the 25-lap mark. After a Marco Andretti crash, the race went back to green on lap 44 with the two Penske drivers still showing the way. Dixon was third and Franchitti sixth. At the halfway point, it was still all Penske with Castroneves leading Hornish Jr.
A Vitor Meira crash slowed the race, but when they went back to green Dixon was the new leader with Franchitti in second and Danica Patrick third. However, Franchitti had the advantage of a later pit stop and possibly being able to reach the checkered flag without anymore stops.
Twenty laps from the finish and Hornish Jr. had the lead with Dixon in second and Franchitti conserving fuel in fifth. Hornish Jr. was out of fuel on lap 184 and headed down pit lane. Wheldon inherited the lead, but he too couldn’t reach the finish line and with seven laps remaining ran out of fuel.
With six laps to go, Patrick crashed and it took until lap 198 before they went back to green.
Franchitti immediately went to the outside and he and Dixon were side-by- side with the win and the title on the line, but Dixon fought him off as they saw the white flag. Franchitti had one last shot and as they went into turn four he went to the outside again. This time Franchitti flew around Dixon who suddenly slowed, he was out of fuel!
“I was drafting him, trying to get the slingshot and just as I pulled out I saw him slow down,” said Franchitti. “I almost hit the back of him. We shot up the track and that was it.”
It was a great finish to a great season. Too bad Franchitti will not be around for a repeat performance in 2008.
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