Franchitti looking for a ride, still shocked at shutdown

While Sprint Cup Series practice took place literally all around him, Dario Franchitti stood in front of a hauler in the Nationwide Series garage Thursday at Chicagoland Speedway and fretted over his future.

Franchitti had the time. He wasn't participating in the Cup practice because owner Chip Ganassi recently shut down operation of the No. 40 Dodge that Franchitti had been driving on the Cup side (read more).

Franchitti is at Chicagoland only because he was offered a ride in the No. 40 Nationwide Series car being fielded by Ganassi for Friday's Dollar General 300, a prelude to Saturday's LifeLock.com 400 Sprint Cup race at the track.

The driver said he hopes to know more about his future in NASCAR after meeting with Ganassi on Saturday. He also said he has begun looking at other possible opportunities outside of Chip Ganassi Racing, which brought the 2007 Indianapolis 500 winner on board with great fanfare last offseason.

“
I said to a friend of mine the other day, if it could go wrong this year, it has gone wrong this year. I had so much luck last year in IndyCar that I really felt at times I couldn't do anything wrong. I guess luck has a way of balancing out.
”
DARIO FRANCHITTI"We're starting to look around, starting to talk," Franchitti said. "But really nothing is going to happen until I speak to Chip and see what his position is, see what his plan is for the future, and see if it's something I'm interested in. Then I can make a decision. I certainly owe Chip that much, and then we'll go from there."

Ganassi shut down the No. 40 operation because he was unable to find a primary sponsor for it, and said that he couldn't justify continuing to fund it without one. Ganassi said he had become concerned that to do so would have possibly jeopardized operation of the other two Cup cars he fields -- the No. 42 driven by Juan Montoya and the No. 41 driven by Reed Sorenson.

Franchitti, speaking at length with the media for the first time since the hammer fell, admitted that he was shocked and dismayed when it happened. He also was blunt when asked if he's feeling any better now that some time has passed.

"It was a big shock that it happened," he said. "Myself and 70 people lost their jobs down in Concord [N.C.], so a lot of people are upset right now. I understand if there is no money, there is no money. The timing of these things are never good.

"So you can never pick the right time for something like this to happen, but it's particularly frustrating because we really felt that we were getting a hold of it."

The No. 40 car was 40th in owner points, 298 out of 35th, when Ganassi pulled the plug. Franchitti was 41st in driver points, having missed a total of seven races because of failing to qualify and a broken ankle that forced him to miss time.

Franchitti said he felt he was beginning to show some progress prior to suffering the ankle injury during a Nationwide race at Talladega in April. He added that he thought he was getting back on the right track after coming back from the injury, only to have Ganassi shut him down.

"The team as a whole struggled with it at the start of the year and I struggled with learning the ropes," said Franchitti, in his first year as a stock-car driver after starring on the open-wheel side in IndyCars. "But since I came back from my broken ankle, I really felt, in comparison to my teammates, we were running as well if not better at certainly Pocono, Michigan and Loudon.

"Obviously we didn't qualify [for the road-course race] at Sonoma, but at those other three races I felt like we made a lot of progress."

Someone asked Franchitti if this was the most difficult season he ever has experienced in his career. Forcing a smile, he replied: "Well, right now it's half a season, isn't it?"

He obviously hopes for it to become more than that, but did not sound optimistic.

"I said to a friend of mine the other day, if it could go wrong this year, it has gone wrong this year," Franchitti said. "There were times when we've been running well in the Nationwide car and then we've had problems; same with the Cup car. Then I break my ankle; we can't find a sponsor.

"I had so much luck last year in IndyCar that I really felt at times I couldn't do anything wrong. I guess luck has a way of balancing out."

Franchitti also was asked if he is considering a return to the IndyCar Series, where he won the championship last season. He didn't rule it out.

"I'll have to have a long, hard thought process about getting back in an Indy car because, like I've said, I loved my time there," Franchitti said. "I really enjoyed it, but I was ready at the end of last year to do something else. But never say never. I might decide I want to do it again, but I really don't know right now.

"It would be a shame to waste everything that I've learned in six months and the progress that I've made. It'd be a shame to waste that."