Dario Franchitti Wins Inaugural Iowa Corn Indy 250
by: Kevin Carver - AHN Sports Writer

NEWTON, IA (June 24) - There were three huge accidents in the Sunday's Indy Car race, but Dario Franchitti kept his nose clean and stiffed a late Marco Andretti charge to win the Inaugural Iowa Corn Indy 250 at the Iowa Speedway.

Franchitti decided to just take fuel in his final stop of the afternoon, while teammate Marco Andretti splurged for gas and tires with under 40 laps remaining. Franchitti's moved paid off in the end, barely beating Andretti at the stripe for a 1-2 Andretti/Green finish.

Meanwhile, cold tires and interesting restarts sent Sunday's attrition rate to an all-time high on the season. Dan Wheldon started things off in the opening lap when he got loose and spun up the track in turn two of the 0.894-mile oval. Wheldon and his Target Chip Ganassi machine smacked the wall, collecting Thomas Scheckter in the process.

The polesitter and leader at the moment, Scott Dixon, came to pit road after his car became too tight to steer after the first ten laps.

The carnage resumed on lap 86, when Tony Kanann lost grip on cold tires and finished off his and Jeff Simmons machines in the turn one wall. Thankfully, both would emerge from their vehicles okay.

"I was having a good run and ran into some turbulence, just got loose and hit the wall," Kanaan said.

The biggest incident on the day came soon after. On lap 100, Ed Carpernter and A.J. Foyt IV squeezed Danica Patrick's Motorola machine in the middle of a sandwich for Andretti/Green Racing on the restart. Carpenter delivered the initial touch to Patrick's car, flinging her to the right and into Foyt's machine. Helio Castroneves, Kosuke Matsuura and Sam Hornish Jr. were also bitten in the six car pile-up.

The incident left just seven cars on the lead lap. Victor Meira became the new leader, but Franchiti went back to the lead after a pit stop just past halfway. Meira broke the left front suspension on his car with less than 40 laps to go, leaving Andretti/Green's Franchitti and Marco Andretti to battle it out at the end.

Andretti seemed to have the car to get around Franchitti's No.27 Canadian Club Honda, which held the low line around the track.

Andretti tried the outside during the final five laps, but couldn't pull off the pass, allowing Franchitti to win his second Indy Car race this year by a 0.0681 margin of victory.

Scott Sharp came home third, with Buddy Rice and Darren Manning completing the top five. Ed Carpenter found sixth and Sarah Fisher finished with a seventh place result.

With the win, Franchitti extended his points lead from 27 markers to 51 over Tony Kanaan.