IRL: Nashville: AGR, Franchitti race report

LEBANON, Tenn. (July 17, 2004) - ArcaEx driver Dario Franchitti saw his hopes for a strong performance before his hometown fans come to an early end, the result of a broken gearbox, Saturday night at the Indy Racing League (IRL) IndyCar® Series Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville Superspeedway.

Team 7-Eleven teammate Tony Kanaan earned the victory, his third of the season, while Sam Hornish Jr. was second and Helio Castroneves was credited with third place.

Franchitti started the race from seventh place, but dropped back to the 10th position in the early laps as he sought to find the optimum balance in the #27 ArcaEx Dallara/Honda/Firestone.

After the ArcaEx team made some minor adjustments during the first round of pit action on lap 37, Franchitti began to methodically make his way up the scoring chart. He was up to eighth place on lap 50 and held that position until the caution flag came out on lap 62 as a result of a crash involving Ed Carpenter.

On lap 65, Franchitti headed to pit lane along with the rest of the field.  Unfortunately, a gearbox problem resulted in the car losing first gear and the Scotsman was unable to leave his pit box. He was credited with the 20th finishing position.

Franchitti and the rest of the IndyCar Series teams return to action next week at The Milwaukee Mile for the Menards AJ Foyt Indy 225 on July 25. The event will be televised live by ABC Sports, beginning at 3:30 EDT.

Dario Franchitti, #27 ArcaEx Dallara/Honda/Firestone:
"The balance of the ArcaEx car wasn't great, but we probably still had a top-five car. We just had something go wrong during the pit stop that caused us to break a gear. It's very frustrating because this is one race where I wanted to do very well.  It's frustrating for the whole ArcaEx team."

Allen McDonald, Race Engineer, #27 ArcaEx Dallara/Honda/Firestone:
"It was definitely a disappointing race for the ArcaEx team. We had gearbox problem during a pit stop that put us out. We weren't the fastest car, but we were working to improve it as the race went on. I am very, very pleased for Tony (Kanaan), it was a great effort to win and I think the #27 car could have been right up there had we been able to keep going."

-agr-