The 91st running of the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing" had a rain delay that lasted two hours and 57 minutes, eight crashes that involved 12 cars, 23 lead changes, plenty of wheel-to-wheel action and a final shower that ended the race after 166 laps shortly before 6 p.m. Central time.
Soon enough for the Scotsman better known as being the husband of actress Ashley Judd. "I can hardly believe it," said an emotionally overcome Franchitti. "Who would have thought it?
I have to thank my team. Can you believe it? It's fantastic.
To be a member of this club is fantastic." Franchitti is the first native of Scotland to win the Indy 500 since Jim Clark in 1965. The race was red-flagged because of rain after 113 laps.
After the restart, Franchitti had to immediately pit because of a right-rear tire puncture. The stop eventually brought Franchitti to the head of the field, but out of sequence with the rest of the leaders. "I guess we ran over some carbon from the last accident," Franchitti said.
"We had to pit. That wasn't our intention, but we had to do it for safety, I guess. "That put us on the strategy that won us the race.
Pretty happy right now about that." Scott Dixon was second and pole-sitter Helio Castroneves salvaged third, followed by 2006 champion Sam Hornish Jr. and Ryan Briscoe.
"Probably one of the worst races I've ever been in," Dixon said. "There was no rhythm to it. There were crashes after crashes, and then obviously it rained twice.
"It is not the way the people want to see this race." Especially people such as, say, Tony Kanaan, like Franchitti part of the five-car Andretti Green team. Kanaan, who started second next to Franchitti, was strong literally from the drop of the green flag, as he charged past Castroneves for the lead on the first lap.
The two Brazilians, who have known each other since childhood, fought each other hard but clean in the early going, swapping the lead six times in the first 27 laps. Castroneves' hopes, however, were dashed when he had a refueling problem on Lap 40, causing a pit stop of one minute and dropping him way back in the order. With skies growing dark and threatening, Kanaan took the lead when he passed Andretti Green teammate Marco Andretti down the main straightaway on Lap 107.
Behind the fight for the lead, rookie Phil Giebler spun and hit the wall in Turn 1, bringing out a yellow flag. Before the race could go back to green, the rain started. After a delay of nearly three hours, the race was restarted in single file at 5:59 p.
m. Indianapolis time (4:59 p.m.
Northwest Indiana time). The weather appeared to clear for a while, then it became apparent that rain would return. Throughout, the drivers were charging even harder than usual.
Marty Roth got in trouble on Lap 151 and Jaques Lazier and Kanaan got together on Lap 157 before the big wreck involving Marco Andretti, who flipped over, Dan Wheldon, Buddy Rice and Ed Carpenter on the backstretch on Lap 163. "I was just running on the outside of him," Wheldon said. "Unfortunately, he hit me.
Thank goodness he's all right." Wheldon, the prerace favorite, wound up a disappointing 22nd and never led a lap. "It was just one of those days when we couldn't seem to do anything right," Wheldon said.
Franchitti, on the other hand, had everything go his way at the end. "What can I say? I'm in shock at this point, I must say," Franchitti said.
"We started off the first sting of the race, I was really struggling with the car with understeer. "Progressively we just worked on it, through each pit stop made it better." "We got in front, made a couple of good restarts, then the rain came," Franchitti said.
"This place, it's been a rollercoaster month and definitely a rollercoaster day. I just, as I said, am in shock right now." For Michael Andretti, it was his second victory at Indianapolis as a car owner.
He led one lap and finished 16th. "It's all about winning, isn't it?" Andretti said.
"That's why we have five cars out there. Hopefully one of 'em is going to be in the right position. And that's what happened.
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