Franchitti Leads INDYCAR Practice at Infineon Raceway Sears Point

Dario Franchitti and engineer Chris Simmons consult data prior to practice
Photo: Anne Proffit

Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti led initial practice for Sunday's Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma, to be held on the Infineon Raceway Sears Point 2.303-mile, 12-turn road circuit north of San Francisco.  After testing here last week, Franchitti said the car felt "different today than the test here.  When we left the test, I had a lot of thoughts on what we needed to improve and where it was bad.

"I talked with my engineer (Chris Simmons) a lot heading into this weekend just to make sure he understood what was feeling bad for me," the point leader said.  "He has done a great job getting the changes made and I felt good in the car out there.  There is still room to improve but I'm happy with the performance today  It feels like there is some more grip compared to the test here and I hope that the track just continues to get better as the weekend progresses."

The Scot has raced at Infineon five times and held pole position twice - 2007 and 2009 - while earning a single victory in 2009.  He finished second in 2006 and third in 2007 and 2010.  Franchitti has led 137 competitive laps here.  

Franchitti's lap of 1:19.4269 at 104.383 mph edged his championship rival Will Power of Team Penske, who closed in at 1:19.5633 (104.204 mph) on his third of 13 laps.  Power said he is "very close to getting the car where we need it; it just comes down to sorting out the fine details.  The team will try to think about the changes we can make tonight and see where we can go tomorrow," Power said.  "It's all about getting the different sectors to come together and it can be tough to get the balance just right."

On a picture perfect day that had the entire IZOD IndyCar Series community enjoying cloudless skies and temperatures edging 80 degrees - with little humidity - 28 drivers practiced in preparation for Sunday's 80-lap contest.  Only Helio Castroneves in third joined Franchitti and Power in the "19's" by practicing at 1:19.56638 at 104.072 mph.  By contrast, the slowest driver is Ed Carpenter, an acknowledged oval expert, at 1:23.3049/99.524.

Franchitti's teammate Scott Dixon is fourth with Dreyer & Reinbold's substitute for injured Justin Wilson, Italian rookie Giorgie Pantano in fifth.  Sebastien Bourdais, Ana Beatriz, EJ Viso, Oriol Servia and James Jakes complete the top 10.  It's interesting to note that there are three rookies within that group; there are eight rookies in the field.

Among the newcomers are Ho-Pin Tung, who attempted to qualify for this year's Indianapolis 500 but crashed out in the effort and Martin Plowman making his second appearance for AFS/Sam Schmidt Motorsports.  Although he's not classified as a rookie (but really could be because he's only run a couple of races this year, Simon Pagenaud struggled to learn the circuit even as he attempted to put down a good lap and move the HVM up the grid.  He was 25th in practice today.

There is a single morning practice before knockout and Firestone Fast Six qualifying Saturday afternoon.  The race is scheduled to take the green flag on Sunday at 1:45PM PDT.

© 2011 Anne Proffit