Franchitti to Ganassi?

IRL points leader Dario Franchitti may become the next high profile open wheel driver to join the NASCAR ranks in recent years. Franchitti had talks with Richard Childress Racing earlier this year but nothing materialised. But now rumours in the NASCAR paddock suggest that Franchitti is in talks with Chip Ganassi Racing about taking the #40 seat after the regular driver, David Stremme, has been told his services are no longer required for 2008.

Franchitti would run Busch races in the #41 Ganassi Racing Dodge Charger and take part in the ARCA event at Talladega to be eligible to run in NASCARs top series.

If the Scotsman does make the switch, he would join Juan Montoya, AJ Allmendinger, Sam Hornish, Jacques Villeneuve and several others in making the jump to NASCAR.

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wow. that would be awesome.

now all we need is PT over in nascar.. lol

NASCAR is getting all the best drivers lately

Sim

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FOX Sports says an announcement is this week.

I'll be honest, I'd rather him go to ALMS/Le Mans like was the origional plan first. Ganassi isn't exactly the strongest team in NASCAR either. Can't expect him to do better than Montoya has either.

Funnily enough, Montoya and Dario finished equal on points in the 1999 CART season (Montoya won the title on race wins) and now they'll be team mates.

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I suspect Franchitti may still be hot about Marco Andretti's escapades possibly costing him the Championship. It had to be obvious to him after the last incident that he would never get #1 driver treatment at Andretti/Green, nor will anyone else as long as Marco is on the team.

Don't know why he wants to go to NASCAR though. I would prefer watching him in ALMS or Champ Car for that matter...



"There are some pikeys there at Turn 10 putting tarmac down - what do you think of that?" - Martin Brundle

I don't think its the Marco thing. I heard he made the decision that if he wins the Indy 500 and the Championship this year he would leave, so maybe he will say something after Sunday's race. Plus with the ALMS/Le Mans maybe it had to do with money plus the Acura isn't as strong as the Penske's and Ganassi is getting better since Montoya came but I think its more Dodge than Ganassi thats the problem.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2007 09:16AM by Renault#1Fan.

He decided early in the year he was leaving IRL at the end of the season, long before the Marco accident. That much we all knew. We just didn't know where he would be going.

I would prefer watching him in ALMS or Champ Car for that matter...

lmao, Champ Car? Why the *hell* would any top driver go to that? It's a horrible train wreck of a series at the moment. And this is coming from a guy who this time last year was a big Champ Car fan. It's such a horrible mess every race that I can't possibly suggest going there.

It should also be noted that CCWS has caused more driver injuries due to the Panoz DP01 this season than IRL has ever had in the Dallara chassis in the last 3 or 4 years. So despite it being street/road courses only, it's still more unsafe than IRL doing 220mph round ovals.

If you are going to do American open wheel racing, CCWS is not the place to be doing it, and he's already doing the other option.

ALMS/LMS/Le Mans/FIA GT are all going through a major revamp in regulations in the next 2-4 years with new classes all round. It's going to be a shaky time in sportscars for awhile and he'll want to see if it shakes out well. There's no point in going to Acura and then them pulling out when they don't like the new regulations.

It isn't all confirmed yet, there is a press conference this week about it. So unless anything unusual happens tonight in the IRL final race, I'd expect the announcement to be what's posted here.

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During the Richmond race they said expect an announcement this comming week.

During IRL qualifying Dario said his future is secure but he wouldn't say where. I think it's a done deal.

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some rumours link franchitti to penske (indy team) for 2008 and tony kanaan in 2009...
i dont think so, but...
probably franchitti will try to join the nascar series, if it doesnt work, he will join penske-indy... he will not stay on andretti-green for 2008 (perhaps, with a lot of money... hehehe :P)
if he won the championship...
let´s see what happens...


- Nelson Piquet - F1 WORLD CHAMPION 81/83/87 -

He nearly left the team last year I think he has always felt like the outsider in the team.

If he joins jpm it will be too drivers that have had the same accidents on a bike lol

Sky Sports News say that it's now official he'll move to Nascar, but god knows how reliable a source they are...

I think it's most likely they're correct, given everyone else is talking about it.

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Yeah, I assume they are, but no-one else seems to have confirmed it - looks like they're getting the words 'almost certain' and 'official' mixed up.

Nobody has confirmed it, but there is a press conference this week, expected to announce it. Also expect Canadian Club to be the sponsor (same as this year), and #40. Not carrying #27 over because Jacques is getting that since it was Gilles number.

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even if schumacher, alonso, kimi, massa, lewis, went to NASCAR i will never
watch it, only on my died body


speed freak

I dont like nascar either, i think like we call it in holland its lomp, huge trucks they are, but if the drivers think its fun then let them, the cars i like, fia gt are lompe cars to, but they look soo much better





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/2007 10:27AM by Iceman-Kimi.

assadof1 Wrote:
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> even if schumacher, alonso, kimi, massa, lewis,
> went to NASCAR i will never
> watch it, only on my died body

I think you mean "over my dead body"

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yeah, the important thing that u got it.


speed freak

assadof1 Wrote:
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> even if schumacher, alonso, kimi, massa, lewis,
> went to NASCAR i will never
> watch it, only on my died body


first of all, they wouldnt be welcome as they would be arrogant @#$%& and the americans would shun them. 2nd of all, they wouldnt go there thankfully.

3rd you obviously only enjoy watching billboards that parade around a track for 90 mins, rather than billboards that actualy race for 3 and a half hours