Dario Franchitti scored his 29th IZOD IndyCar Series career victory Sunday at Milwaukee. The win ties him with IndyCar legend Rick Mears for ninth on the all-time major open wheel racing victory list. The victory also led Franchitti to a tie with Will Power, who finished fourth, on top of the driver points standings. They will entire Iowa Speedway next week with 271 points each.
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“Then Tony (Kanaan) came marching along and he looked really, really strong, and he gave me a hard time as usual. Great day. To win here at Milwaukee is always special. It’s such hard work and a such a hard race. It’s a delight for the Target Team and we got the Downy colors in Victory Lane.”
Graham Rahal finished second.
“It felt great out there,” Rahal said. “The Service Central boys just did a great job. [We’re] knocking on the door [referring to getting his first win]. We’re getting closer … it’s going to come one of these days.”
Oriol Servia, Power and Danica Patrick rounded out the top five finishers in the race. James Hinchcliffe, Scott Dixon, Takuma Soto, Helio Castroneves and Justin Wilson rounded out the top-ten.
“A couple double file restarts were good for me, a couple were bad,” Power said. “I’m pretty happy to get the Verizon car up there. I guess we are equal on points now. Good job by Dario. He came back after Texas to teach us a lesson, so I guess we will have to be quick at Iowa.
“We just have to keep fighting away, keep having good days like this and make no mistakes and we’ll be good.”
Castroneves was leading late in the race, but had to pit under the final caution with about 20 laps to go after tire pressure in his left rear tire fell to just over three pounds-per-square-inch.
The Iowa IndyCorn 250 is the next race on the schedule, and is scheduled for Saturday, June 25 with the race beginning at 8 p.m. ET.
Franchitti captured the pole for the race, which also put him into a tie for ninth place with Paul Tracy for all-time IndyCar Series poles. It was his 25th career pole.
IZOD IndyCar Series
Milwaukee 225
WEST ALLIS, Wis. – Results Sunday of the Milwaukee 225 IZOD IndyCar Series event on the 1.015 mile Milwaukee Mile, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):
1. (1) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
2. (12) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
3. (10) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
4. (17) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
5. (15) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
6. (16) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
7. (3) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
8. (5) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
9. (2) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
10. (13) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
11. (8) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
12. (20) Mike Conway, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
13. (9) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 225, Running
14. (21) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 224, Running
15. (23) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 223, Running
16. (25) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 223, Running
17. (11) Ana Beatriz, Dallara-Honda, 222, Running
18. (19) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 196, Running
19. (4) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 194, Contact
20. (6) EJ Viso, Dallara-Honda, 163, Contact
21. (18) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Honda, 120, Contact
22. (14) Alex Lloyd, Dallara-Honda, 79, Contact
23. (24) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Honda, 78, Contact
24. (22) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 69, Mechanical
25. (26) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Honda, 11, Handling
26. (7) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 0, Contact
Race Statistics
Winners average speed: 117.390
Time of Race: 01:56:43.5877
Margin of victory: 1.4271 seconds.
Cautions: 6 for 62 laps
Lead changes: 5 among 3 drivers
Lap Leaders: Franchitti 1 – 115, Kanaan 116 – 134, Franchitti 135 – 153, Kanaan 154 – 167, Castroneves 168 – 198, Franchitti 199 – 225
Point Standings: Power 271, Franchitti 271, Servia 198, Dixon 195, Rahal 176, Kanaan 171, Briscoe 165, Tagliani 147, Sato 142, Patrick 141.
