Last year, Dario Franchitti was on top of the racing world. He won the Indianapolis 500, only the second Scot to do so, and followed that up with a IRL series championship as well. He did all that as a member of Andretti Green Racing.
He saw that as an opportunity to follow the money to NASCAR. He signed with Chip Ganassi's team to drive the #40 car, becoming the first European to drive on the good ol' boy circuit. Things have not gone well for Dario since.
As of now, he is 41st in the point standings. That has him just above the Kyle Petty line (the NASCAR equivalent of baseball's Mendoza line). He has only started 10 races out of 17 and has finished in the top 30 only twice. His best finish was 22nd at Martinsville at the end of March. He missed the entire month of May with an ankle injury suffered in a NASCAR minor league race at the end of April. Two weeks ago, he failed to qualify at Sonoma, and had another DNQ earlier at Texas.
In racing though, all of that is forgivable as long as the sponsors are happy. But, in Franchitti's case, he didn't have a sponsor. He was running on Ganassi's dime and yesterday, Ganassi decided it was time to cut his losses. He announced that he was shutting down the #40 car for the year.
All this just 13 months after taking a sip of milk at Indianapolis.
Don't feel too bad for Franchitti though. At least he's still married to Ashley Judd.
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