Franchitti on form in Long Beach20/04/2009

Dario Franchitti claimed his first IndyCar win of the season at the IndyCar Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday 19 April, leading 51 laps of the 85 lap race.  

The 2007 IndyCar champion rejoined the series with Target Chip Ganassi Racing this year following an eventful 2008 in Nascar.  Having qualified on the front row at California’s Long Beach on Saturday, Franchitti used intelligent fuel strategy and a fast car to get ahead of pole sitter Will Power, before dominating the second half of the race.  

Franchitti’s victory on Sunday was his ninth in the IndyCar Series, but his first for the Target Chip Ganassi Racing team.

Dario Franchitti, #10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, said;
"It was a lot of fun!  The race came down to the timing of my first pit stop, and Chip Ganassi and the team called it perfectly, as the 'red' tyres were just starting to go off a little bit.  The pace of the reds was fabulous, and they did just what we expected.  They were very, very fast, but they didn't have the longevity that the primary Firestone Firehawk tyres did.  The primaries were consistent, and we ran and we ran with them with no drop-off whatsoever."

Al Speyer, Executive Director, Firestone Racing, said;
"Today we saw another race where tyre strategy played a big role in the outcome.  Dario and his team played the tyre choice and pit timing to their maximum benefit, so congratulations to them for winning the very first 'unified' Long Beach Grand Prix.  From Firestone Racing's perspective, the tyres performed well, with teams gaining as much as a second per lap short-term speed advantage on the alternate tyres.  I'd like to point out that we used the same alternate tyre here that we took to St. Petersburg.  There were a lot of comments about marbles at St. Pete, but they were no issue whatsoever here in Long Beach."