Franchitti leads team Target at Mid-Ohio with podium finish

(PR NewsChannel) / August 7, 2013 / LEXINGTON, Ohio 

220765_racingResults (with starting pos.) for the Honda Indy 200

1. (5) Charlie Kimball (No. 83 Honda)
2. (8) Simon Pagenaud (No. 77 Honda)
3. (6) Dario Franchitti (No. 10 GE Honda)
7. (3) Scott Dixon (No. 9 Target Honda)
 
Target Chip Ganassi Racing (TCGR) drivers Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon finished third and seventh, respectively, at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Round 14 of the IZOD IndyCar Series.
 
Dixon qualified the No. 9 Target Honda third as he looked to extend his record tally of four victories at Mid-Ohio.  The team maintained third position all the way through the first stint before pitting from that position on lap 30 of the 90-lap event.  By lap 43 Dixon was running in fifth position and on lap 49 the team made their second stop of the day.  With 26 laps to go Dixon was running seventh and three laps later pit for the third and final time.  The race ended up running caution-free – marking the first time a race had gone without a yellow flag since Mid-Ohio 2012 – and the No. 9 team would come home with a seventh-place finish.
 
Franchitti qualified the No. 10 GE Honda sixth and by lap four had overtaken the No. 25 car for fifth.  By lap 19 he had moved up to fourth and the team pit for the first time on lap 30 from that position.  On lap 43 Franchitti ran sixth in the order and then pit for the second time on lap 46.  With 21 laps remaining the team pit for the final time from third, where they would ultimately finish.
 
Notes:
– Franchitti’s third-place result marked his sixth career podium finish at Mid-Ohio and his fourth-consecutive top-four finish of the season.
– Chip Ganassi Racing Teams won their fourth consecutive race in the series (Pocono-Dixon, Toronto Doubleheader-Dixon and Mid-Ohio-Charlie Kimball).
– It marked the first time that Team Target has been out of victory lane at Mid-Ohio since 2008.
 
With the results, Dixon remains second in the IZOD IndyCar Series point standings with 422 markers, -31 points behind leader Helio Castroneves.  Franchitti is seventh with 342 markers, -111 points back.
 
With Honda teams posting a one-two-three finish at Mid-Ohio, they are now tied with Chevrolet in the manufacturer point standings (105 points).
 
Up next, Target Chip Ganassi Racing will compete in Round 15 of the IZOD IndyCar Series with the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma in Sonoma, California, on Sunday, August 25 (4:00pm ET on NBC Sports Network).
 
TCGR Quoteboard
 
Scott Dixon:  “We kind of stuck with the two-stop strategy for too long.  Typically, it’s okay, but with Will Power it was just so inconsistent.  One lap was a half-second slower, and then he sped up.  It was like a yo-yo.  Charlie made the exact right move, because that pace was too slow.  I think if we were running up front in the clean air we would have been able to hit the times we needed to keep the distance, but they just couldn’t keep that pace.  That put us on a hold and we were in the second or third stint as well and we just dug a deeper hole.  So, from that point on we were just trying to get ourselves out of it, but at that part of the race it was just too late.”
 
Dario Franchitti:  “Charlie had just a beautiful race. Congratulations to him – that was pretty sweet.  We just went a little too late swapping to that three-stop strategy.  It was a good call and a brave call to switch when we did.  The GE car was fast.  It could’ve been worse, it could’ve been better.  It was a tough day with no yellows and very physical out there.  Not a bad day, we’ll just keep pushing and try to get that first win.”
 
About Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
Chip Ganassi has been a fixture in the auto racing industry for over 25 years and is considered one of the most successful as well as innovative owners the sport has anywhere in the world.  Today his teams include three cars in the IZOD IndyCar Series, two cars in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and one Daytona Prototype in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series.  Overall his teams have 15 championships and over 150 victories, including four Indianapolis 500s, a Daytona 500, a Brickyard 400 and five Rolex 24 At Daytonas.  Ganassi boasts state-of-the-art race shop facilities in Indianapolis and Brownsburg, Ind. and Concord, N.C., with a corporate office in Pittsburgh, Penn.

For more information log onto: www.chipganassiracing.com

 

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SOURCE:  Target Corporation


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