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Those Were The Days: Former Indy Champs Struggling In NASCAR

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By TONY FABRIZIO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 21, 2008

Updated: 05/21/2008 01:11 am

They are former winners who would be among the favorites in Sunday's 92nd Indianapolis 500.

Instead, Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish Jr., and Juan Montoya will be in Concord, N.C., focused on NASCAR careers that have them well under the radar.

Franchitti, the defending Indy champion, won't race at all. He'll miss a fourth consecutive race with a broken left ankle sustained in a Nationwide Series crash last month at Talladega.

Rather than go to Indy for at least part of Sunday's race, Franchitti will catch the 500 on the television in his motor coach and watch the Coca-Cola 600 from his Chip Ganassi Racing pit stall.

Team owner Ganassi will shuttle between the tracks. He has front-row starters Scott Dixon and St. Petersburg's Dan Wheldon at Indianapolis and Montoya, Reed Sorenson and Sterling Marlin (subbing for Franchitti) at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

"Chip made the offer," Franchitti said by phone Tuesday. "He said, 'Hey, come up to Indy and hang out.' I thanked him but said I think I need to stay focused on the job at hand here."

Montoya won Indy for Ganassi as a 24-year-old rookie in 2000. He led 167 of the 200 laps. He was brash and almost dismissive of Indy's lore, saying, "At the end of the day it's just another racetrack."

Asked after his victory if he'd like to try NASCAR, Montoya said the cars were too big and slow. "Maybe when I'm older," he said.

He instead went to Formula One, where he won Monaco and six other races from 2001 to 2006.

Now 32, Montoya is in his second season in NASCAR, where he is 16th in the Sprint Cup standings with one top-five finish - second at Talladega - and one lap led all season.

Montoya's thoughts are far removed from 2000 and Indianapolis.

"I only ran Indy once," he said last weekend at NASCAR's Sprint All-Star race. "I'd rather be here, to tell you the truth."

Hornish, the 2006 Indy 500 winner and a three-time Indy Racing League champion, isn't even assured of racing in Sunday's 600. He's 36th in the owners points standings, meaning he needs to qualify for one of the seven spots that aren't reserved.

Through 11 races in his rookie season, Hornish's average starting position is 23rd and his average finish is 30th. He had a promising 15th-place finish in the Daytona 500, but he hasn't had a top-20 finish since - well, unless you count last week's non-points all-star race.

Hornish had his best performance in a stock car - in fact, his first truly stout showing in the No. 77 Penske Dodge - at the all-star event. He finished second in a 40-lap qualifying race and probably could have beaten A.J. Allmendinger had he pushed it, and he rallied from two laps down to finish seventh in the main event.

"It's a confidence builder for Sam, undoubtedly," said Hornish's crew chief, Chris Carrier. "Momentum is a huge tool. It's the best or worst tool there is in any competitive sport."

Last month, Penske racing hired David Stremme as a test driver for its stock car program. This fueled speculation that Hornish might attempt an Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 double, a feat John Andretti, Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon pulled off before the starting time for the Indy 500 was pushed back an hour in 2005.

In mid-April, team owner Roger Penske said Hornish would focus exclusively on his NASCAR effort.

Hornish was on board with the decision. He rarely has sounded down during his difficult NASCAR start.

"We keep trying to advance all the time, and we think we're heading in the right direction," he said last weekend.

Franchitti, who turned 35 Monday, has paid close attention to this Indy. He watched pole qualifying and Sunday's Bump Day on TV. He said he believes the drivers to beat Sunday are Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan, his close friend and former Andretti Green Racing teammate.

Franchitti reflects often on his 2007 victory.

"It means a lot," he said. "I'm sitting here in my office, and I see the trophy over on one of the shelves, and it's a good reminder of what happened. It's such a difficult race to win."

Now he has a new definition of difficult. In 11 Sprint Cup starts, he has one finish better than 30th - a 22nd at Martinsville in April. His team is outside the top 35, so he'll probably have to qualify on speed when he returns - possibly next week at Dover.

"I kept saying last year when I made this choice I was looking for a challenge," Franchitti said. "I certainly found one. It's more difficult than I thought it would be.

"I suppose one of the very frustrating things about this injury is we were really getting the hang of it. Phoenix April 12 was by far our best race. We didn't show that because we had some fuel-mileage issues, but speedwise it was our best race. So to have this and miss three or four weeks is difficult."

Indy isn't only in the rearview mirror. It's a long, long way away.

Reporter Tony Fabrizio can be reached at (813) 259-7994 or afabrizio@tampatrib.com.

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