IRL: St. Pete: Dario Franchitti race report

Franchitti Suffers Suspension Failure at Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (April 2, 2006) - Dario Franchitti, driver of the #27 Klein Tools/Jim Beam car, started on the pole position and led the opening 14 laps of Sunday's running of the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg before a right-front suspension failure ended his day. Franchitti finished 19th. After two races, Franchitti is tied for 10th in the driver championship standings, only 10 points out of fifth place and 49 behind the leader.

Helio Castroneves won the race that ended under caution. Scott Dixon crossed the finish line in second. Franchitti's teammates Tony Kanaan and Bryan Herta finished third and fourth, respectively. Vitor Meira rounded out the top five.

Dario Franchitti, #27 Klein Tools/Jim Beam Dallara/Honda/Firestone:

"After about five or six laps, the steering started to get very heavy and I thought something was broken on the car. On the last lap, sure enough, as we went into turn one, something definitely did break. It was a piece that was replaced after the warmup, as a precaution, after the incident with Kosuke (Matsuura). It was a brand new piece that failed. I don't know what more we could have done. The Klein Tools/Jim Beam car has been the car to beat and was easily the fastest car all weekend. This luck has got to end sometime."

Allen McDonald, Race Engineer, #27 Klein Tools/Jim Beam Dallara/Honda/Firestone:

"The entire Klein Tools/Jim Beam team is really disappointed. It's such a shame because everyone has worked very, very hard to make this a great car and Dario was driving a fantastic race. I'm sure we would have had great pit stops like we did in Homestead and would have had a terrific result today."

-agr