Dario Franchitti
Advance Notes for Las Vegas
Race: Sam’s Town 300 on Saturday, March 1 (NNS)
Track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway (1.5 miles)
Location: Las Vegas, Nev.
Dario Franchitti No. 40 Fastenal Dodge Team (NNS)
NOTES
Record Miles for Franchitti: Last weekend’s rain-delayed weekend resulted in two qualifying washouts and a partial double header for Franchitti, which included the finish of the NSCS event and a full NNS race [totaling 624 miles] – the most laps he’s ever driven in one day.
In a Class of His Own: In the past 11 months, Franchitti became the first driver to ever capture the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Indianapolis 500, an open wheel title and the Rolex 24 At Daytona consecutively. Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt are the only others to win the four titles, but neither did so in succession.
CHASSIS INFO
No. 40 Fastenal Dodge (NNS): The No. 40 Fastenal team and Dario Franchitti are entering chassis #653 in NNS competition for the second week in a row. It is the same car the Fastenal team ran at Auto Club Speedway this past Monday, when Franchitti raced up inside the top five and maintained a top-15 run the majority of the day until a bad vibration seemed to derail his effort during the last quarter of the race (started 22nd, finished 24th). The car was entered at Texas Motor Speedway toward the end of last season when Bryan Clauson earned a 2007 season best 10th-place start and then worked to overcome two setbacks that sent him and team into an unrecoverable lap deficit to finish 28th. It is also the same chassis Juan Pablo Montoya raced in early 2007, when he collected an impressive top-10 start and finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the NNS March race (started 10th, finished eighth).
