Nobody at Andretti Green Racing could have planned it any better. Franchitti had to pit for a new tire, a stop that put him out of sequence and allowed him to win his first Indianapolis 500 victory in a race shortened to 166 laps of a possible 200. "That wasn't our intention, but we had to do it for safety," said Franchitti, who is married to actress Ashley Judd.
"That's what won us the race." As a second set of dark clouds ascended on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway grounds, Franchitti pitted on Lap 114 with a cut tire. He assumed the lead on Lap 155 when the front-runners - a group that included AGR teammate Tony Kanaan and Team Penske's Sam Hornish Jr.
- went into the pits after Marty Roth's single-car crash. They may have had new tires and more fuel, but a second downpour made it irrelevant. The race was called - this time, to stay - during the 11th caution period of the day after teammate Marco Andretti spun out of control and overturned on the backstretch, an accident that also took out Vision Racing's Ed Carpenter.
Neither driver was hurt. "I'm one lucky guy," Andretti said. "It was definitely a big one.
" Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon was second and Team Penske's Helio Castroneves, the pole-sitter, was third. Franchitti became the second Scot to win the Indy 500. The first was 1965 winner Jim Clark, who Franchitti has a room dedicated to at his house in Scotland.
"I think he's the hero of any Scottish driver and one of the best drivers in the world, ever," Franchitti said. Kanaan, who overtook Andretti moments before the first rain delay, would have also given AGR its second Indy 500 victory in three years had the race not resumed. A year after Andretti was nipped Hornish in the second-closest finish in Indy 500 history, it looked as the rain steadily fell that he was in store for another runner-up showing.
During the break, Mario Andretti opined about what would have happened had his grandson been able to hold onto the lead and rain would have forced the end of the race - which had already met the 101-lap minimum to be considered official. "You hate to win that way, but you can take it any way you can," said Mario Andretti, whose 1969 victory was the lone win by an Andretti in 48 starts after Sunday. "We lost every other way, we might as well win (that way).
It'd be a gift." Kanaan, Andretti and Danica Patrick - all AGR drivers - had led the race when it was red flagged at 112 laps, the first rain delay here since 2004. Kanaan's hopes for his first Indy 500 victory essentially ended when he ran into the back of Jaques Lazier on a Lap 156 restart, a collision that left Kanaan with a flat tire; he finished 12th.
"I don't know what happened," Kanaan said. "I spun, managed to keep on track, after that I knew the day was over. This is Indianapolis, this is the way it is.
" Michael Andretti, 44, finished 13th in what he said was his last Indy 500 start. Five drivers failed to negotiate the first turn before the delay and wrecked, including Milka Duno. The 35-year-old Venezuelan rookie hit the SAFER barrier between turns one and two nose-first on Lap 66.
She walked away from the accident and was cleared minutes later by track medical personnel. "This is so sad," said Duno, the first female Hispanic driver to make the race. "I'm angry because my team was so fantastic.
" Duno was penalized 12 laps earlier for a pit speed violation, which knocked her from 22nd to 26th. "I was like, 'Penalty? What penalty?
' " Duno said. "I didn't want to go back (to the end of the line). That's the rule.
I had to go back and everybody passed me." Roberto Moreno, who was subbing for the injured Stephan Gregoire with Chastain Motorsports, was transported to nearby Methodist Hospital with back pain. An IRL spokesman said an MRI performed on him was negative.
Few could have predicted the twists and turns. Decisions on fuel. Decisions on tires.
On pitting. On guessing when the rain would come. Or when it wouldn't.
It was a strategist's delight - or nightmare, depending on the moment. "That's the Indy 500; you bet it all and try everything," Castroneves said. "That's what happens when you have a competitive field.
We had at least 10 drivers who could win the race, and you have to use your head." Franchitti fell to 14th with the cut tire, then started plucking his way through the field, unsure if he had enough time to get back to the front. Slowly, he did, helped by the fact that others made fuel stops that turned out to be ill-timed.
"Any one of the cars could have won the race and in the end luck played into it, which is not to diminish what we did today," said Franchitti, who remembered being amused when a team member told him the second rain was eight blocks away. "It was going to come down a dogfight, and there were a lot of strong cars. So we were hoping for rain.
" Each team had drivers playing a different strategy. Andretti Green Racing had drivers on both sides of it. "It's all about winning, isn't it," team co-owner Michael Andretti said.
"That's why we had five cars out there." Andretti said he was disappointed to finish 13th with a car that couldn't challenge for the lead, but he said he could accept never winning the most important race of his life. "Obviously it wasn't mean to be, to win it as a driver," said Andretti, who has now won two of the past three 500s as an owner, with Dan Wheldon winning in 2005.
"Maybe I'm just meant to win 15 of these as an owner." Danica Patrick, third during the first stoppage for rain, finished eighth. Sarah Fisher, the third woman in the historic event, fared cleaner than Duno but not much better.
She clipped Lazier leaving her pit box on the first stop. She finished 18th.
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