IRL Championship Decider *spoiler*

DARIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. What an EPIC last lap.


A battle through a 17-race season for the IndyCar Series championship came down to the final two laps. Just the way the sanctioning Indy Racing League, spectators at Chicagoland Speedway, fans worldwide and contenders would want it set up.

Scott Dixon led Dario Franchitti by half a car-length as they crossed the start/finish line for the white flag. But as they ran side-by-side along the backstretch, Dixon's car gasped for fuel.

Game, set and match.

Franchitti overtook Dixon in Turn 3 and went on to the victory and his first career championship. Franchitti, who led Dixon by three points entering the 200-lap race, won by 13 points. Had Dixon prevailed, he would have won by two points.

"I was drafting (Dixon) and going for the slingshot, and just as I pulled out I saw him slow down," said Franchitti, who also was low on fuel as he and Dixon both pitted last on Lap 148. "I almost hit the back of him. We shot up the track and that was it."

Sam Hornish Jr. finished thrid and Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves was fourth. Scott Sharp closed fast for fifth place.

Franchitti is the third consecutive Indianapolis 500 winner who also wound up as series champion. He delivered the third series title for Andretti Green Racing, a series record. It is the seventh time that the title points margin has been 20 points or less.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/2007 12:49AM by DaveEllis.

Nice one, this makes up for losing the '99 Champ Cars by 0 points. Well done Dario!

That was as tense as it gets! A great end to what was a pretty decent season by IRL standards.

Well done Dario. A worthy champ, looking at the season as a whole.

Well done to Dario fully deserved the championship after all the things that went wrong this year that were out of his control

congrats to Dario, fully deserving of it!

Sim

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All Hail The New York Giants - Winners of Superbowl XXI, XXV and XLII!

"I'd love to know what goes on in that crazy head of yours sometimes, Sim..." - Locke Cole

I was so glad he won it, Dixon has a championship already and Dario in my mind should of had one already.

For a few mins though I thought Danica had blown it for Dario when she spun in the pit lane.

I was distracted by other things, but had live timing up, and was rather astonished at the end result!

Good on him!

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

i avioded the result and just watched a download incredible race and fantastic result for dario fully deserved

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Dario and his wife, Ashley Judd


Dario, his brother Marino and there father George


Victory lane


Taking the finish



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Thank you for those awesome pictures, i've been a Franchitti fan since 1998, yesterday after he crossed the finish line i was screaming like crazy!! a great driver a great champion! well done!

ps: his mother is name Marina, like mine, and his father George, like mine!

well done franchitti he deserve it, since he was in champcar sad that he can't
get to f1 he tested with jaguar as i remember but the team didn't support him as
i heard,

i was wondering why his wife ashly is always show up barefoot in the track lol


speed freak

i was wondering why his wife ashly is always show up barefoot in the track lol

She was wearing high heels When Dario crossed the line she left them behind when she ran down the pit lane

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well that was here in last round so what about indy 500


speed freak

Well done Dario, but jeez those cars are ****ing ugly!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/2007 09:37AM by gareth.

count.bazley Wrote:
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> Nice one, this makes up for losing the '99 Champ
> Cars by 0 points. Well done Dario!


your almost trying to make it sound unfair he lost in 99. it doesnt matter the points were tied, the second stage of counting (race wins), he lost. the sensible way to look at it he lost by 1 point, because he needed that one more point in the last race to break tie as montoya had more wins.

lol...the sensible way to look at it is he lost on race wins. He didn't lose by 1 point.

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I'm not saying it was unfair, of course Montoya deserved it as he did have the most wins. What I meant was that it makes up for coming as close as you can possibly get to winning without actually managing it in the past.