Teams also battle during Indy 500

INDIANAPOLIS – Dario Franchitti not only is among the top drivers in the Izod IndyCar Series, he’s an avid student of motor racing’s history and heritage.

So Franchitti is keenly aware that rival Helio Castroneves of Team Penske would make history Sunday by becoming only the fourth driver to win a fourth Indianapolis 500, and Franchitti is just as focused on trying to make sure it doesn’t happen.

“As far as I’m concerned, Helio can wait until I’m retired” to win another race, Franchitti, 37, said with a smile after topping the speed charts in final practice Friday.

Franchitti instead wants to win his second Indy 500 and thus enable his team owner, Chip Ganassi, to become the first owner to win the Indy 500 and NASCAR’s Daytona 500 in the same year. Jamie McMurray of Ganassi’s NASCAR team won in Daytona in February.

Ganassi has a strong chance. Franchitti and his teammate, former Indy 500 winner and IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, are perennial favorites to win the Indy 500 and they’ve been fast this May as usual.

But so is the team owned by Roger Penske, who has an unprecedented 15 Indy 500 victories, and his drivers are Castroneves, Will Power and Ryan Briscoe.

“We don’t just want to beat one car or team, we want to beat everybody, but I think in order to win this thing you’re going to have to go through … you’re going to have to pass the Penske team at some point,” Franchitti said. “As long as I’ve been watching this sport, the Penske team has been the one to beat.”

That seems true again this year. Castroneves won the pole position for Sunday’s race and Power was second-fastest in qualifying. Franchitti qualified third and starts on the outside of the front row.

Franchitti’s car was fast again Friday in the final one-hour practice known as “Carb Day,” a throwback term to the days when engines still had carburetors and underwent their final prerace tuning.

With his wife, actress Ashley Judd, looking on, Franchitti turned the fastest lap in practice at 225.574 mph on the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway, followed by Dixon at 225.159 mph.

Before practice, Penske and Ganassi talked about their rivalry and Ganassi’s bid to make history with wins at Indy and Daytona in the same year.

“I don’t look at it in terms of winning the two races in one year,” Ganassi said. “It would be a huge thing, but right now my focus is … to beat this guy next to me,” he said in reference to Penske.

Penske returned the compliment, saying “the guy sitting next to me is the one that we have to beat every weekend, whether it’s here at Indianapolis or certainly at Daytona or Charlotte,” with Charlotte being the site of the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Sprint Cup race that also will be held Sunday.