Photo credit: Shawn Gritzmacher/Indianapolis Motor Speedway
I can’t say I was overly surprised that Dario Franchitti announced his retirement from racing earlier this week. His crash at Houston was frightening, worrisome and far too reminiscent of what transpired at Las Vegas two years ago.
Given Franchitti’s considerable achievements – three Indianapolis 500
victories and four series championships chief among them – and his age (40, comparatively
old for an IndyCar driver), I wondered if he would at least think about hanging
up the driving gloves.
As it turned out, the injuries suffered in the crash, particularly the
concussion, left him no reasonable alternative.
“Medically, he has been told he'll make a 100 percent recovery,” said
his car owner, Chip Ganassi, during a conference call this week. “He's been
told by his doctors to not race again, basically.”
The abrupt nature of Franchitti’s retirement has some similarities to
Rick Mears. In 1992, Mears, the defending Indianapolis 500 champion and going
for a record fifth Indy win, had a malfunction coming out of Turn 1, spun and smacked
the concrete wall (no SAFER barriers back then), his car scattering debris down
the backstretch.
I remember being in the media center watching this transpire. The
reporter from the Reading Eagle newspaper (Penske’s team was based in Reading,
Pa., at the time) immediately picked up his phone and called back to
(presumably) his editor, saying, “Rick just got upside down.”
Mears suffered injuries to his right wrist and left ankle in the
mishap, then was involved in a wreck during the race, further injuring his
tender wrist. This affected him the rest of the season, as he made only four
starts in the last 12 races. Mears stepped out of the car for the last time
when he withdrew during the Michigan 500 and he retired in December of that
year – at age 41.
As with Mears, Franchitti’s retirement leaves open what more he could
have achieved. He’s tied for eighth with Paul Tracy and Sebastien Bourdais on
the all-time wins list with 31 (two behind Scott Dixon and two ahead of Mears)
and sixth in poles with 33 (one more than Michael Andretti and Will Power).
Perhaps the best indication of Franchitti’s consistency is he is tied
for sixth with Bobby Rahal for top five finishes with 119.
The question now turns to who will take over the No. 10 Target car for Ganassi.
The logical conclusion is that new addition Tony Kanaan slides into the seat,
leaving a spot open on the team for someone else. Alex Tagliani’s name has
surfaced, which is reasonable, given that he subbed for Franchitti in the
season finale at California.
Another possibility is J.R. Hildebrand, fired by Panther after his
disastrous Indianapolis 500. Based on absolutely nothing other than a guy
sitting at a keyboard with access to the Internet, let’s throw in the name of
Danica Patrick. Maybe she can duplicate Franchitti’s career arc of going from
IndyCar to NASCAR back to IndyCar.
This year my 10 yr old kid and I suddenly got deep into IndyCar. We were visiting a friend in Philly who had grown up in Indianapolis and wanted to watch the race. It was too nice a day to sit indoors, so he DVR'd the race and we watched it at night. My kid was engrossed, and soon i was too. My friend has a huge flat screen with surround sound, and i was surprised by the fantastics ways in which they cover races now; on-board cameras, etc; quite improved from when i was a kid in the 70s and we watched the race on a little black-and-white!!!
ReplyDeleteI ended up taking him to the Grand Prix of Baltimore (the only race we could manage to see this year). It was spectacular, and great to see our first professional race by starting at the top: INDYCAR! Next year we're going to the Iowa Corn 300. My old best friend in Des Moines, where i grew up, has all-access at the Iowa Speedway, so it should be an unforgettable event. My kid will have a headset and will be able to tune into any driver's frequency, supposedly. We will be on the inside behind the pits. We might make it to the Poconos the week before.
Anyway, i like your blog and hope that you will post more of your memorabilia collection. If you have a scanner which can scan transparencies, i.e. negatives, slides, you could scan the images from the View Master set you have! I've done that exact thing with my inexpensive scanner. Keep up the good work and i will continue to check in. Thanks.