Dario Franchitti dominates Indy 500

Scotsman Dario Franchitti has won his second Indianapolis 500 in a dominating performance by the Target Chip Ganassi driver.

The win means that team boss Chip Ganassi becomes the first owner in history to hold both the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 titles at the same time.

Franchitti smashed the opposition at the Brickyard today, but he had to survive a hectic final phase of the race to collect the win, as drivers and teams were forced to switch to aggressive fuel conservation strategies to make it to the finish.

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In the second half of the race it was Tony Kanaan that was the biggest threat to Franchitti’s dominance, an amazing feat for the Brazilian, who started from 33^rd position.

But with the likes of Kanaan, polesitter Helio Castroneves and Justin Wilson all forced to make splash-and-go pit stops in the final stages, Franchitti was left to hold off the rapidly advancing Dan Wheldon in the final laps.

Running painfully slow with even backmarkers passing his #10 Target car, Franchitti looked to have Wheldon covered, but his win was assured when the yellow flags flew for a horrendous crash on the last lap of the race.

Mike Conway rode over the back of Ryan Hunter-Reay’s car at Turn 2, sending Conway’s Dreyer & Reinbold Racing car up into the air and into a sickening sequence of flips along the catch fencing.

Conway’s car broke into several pieces, with the young British driver conscious but suffering from suspecting leg injuries.

Franchitti, who will race at the Armor All Gold Coast 600 in Queensland later this year, led a massive 155 of the 200 laps in today’s race. Incidentally, four of the top 10 drivers at this year’s Indy 500 will all race in V8 Supercars in Surfers Paradise this October.

Third place was Marco Andretti, making it a great day for Andretti Autosport after a wretch month of May at the Speedway. Andretti had to sweat it out in the hours after the race after crossing the line in sixth place, but quickly claiming that several cars passed him under yellow – a claim backed up by officials post-race investigations.

RESULTS: 2010 Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Race 6 of 17 in the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series

Pos	Driver	Team	Laps
1.	Dario Franchitti	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	200 laps
2.	Dan Wheldon	Panther Racing	+0.1536s
3.	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	+23.5251s
4.	Alex Lloyd	Dale Coyne Racing	+20.9876s
5.	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	+21.4922s
6.	Danica Patrick	Andretti Autosport	+21.7560s
7.	Justin Wilson	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	+25.9761s
8.	Will Power	Penske Racing	+30.2474s
9.	Helio Castroneves	Penske Racing	+33.0137s
10.	Alex Tagliani	FAAZT Race Team	+34.2482s
11.	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Autosport	+59.5957s
12.	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Racing	+59.9739s
14.	Mario Romancini	Conquest Racing	+1m05.0219s
13.	Simona de Silvestro	HVM Racing	+1m01.6745s
15.	Tomas Scheckter	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	+ 1 lap
16.	Townsend Bell	Sam Schmidt Motorsport	+ 1 lap
17.	Ed Carpenter	Panther Racing	+ 1 lap
18.	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	+ 2 laps
19.	Mike Conway	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	+ 2 laps
20.	Takuma Sato	KV Racing Technology	+ 2 laps
21.	Ana Beatriz	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	+ 4 laps
22.	Bertrand Baguette	Conquest Racing	+ 17 laps
DNF	Sebastian Saavedra	Bryan Herta Autosport	159 laps
DNF	Ryan Briscoe	Penske Racing	147 laps
DNF	EJ Viso	KV Racing Technology	139 laps
DNF	Sarah Fisher	Sarah Fisher Racing	125 laps
DNF	Vitor Meira	AJ Foyt Enterprises	105 laps
DNF	Hideki Mutoh	Newman/Haas Racing	76 laps
DNF	Raphael Matos	De Ferran Dragon Racing	72 laps
DNF	John Andretti	Andretti Autosport	62 laps
DNF	Mario Moraes	KV Racing Technology	17 laps
DNF	Bruno Junqueira	FAZZT Race Team	7 laps
DNF	Davey Hamilton	De Ferran Dragon Racing	0 laps