MST: First reactions to Franchitti’s legacy and retirement

By Nov 15, 2013, 7:14 AM EST
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Some quick thoughts are below from my MotorSportsTalk colleague Chris Estrada and I this morning – written late yesterday – on Dario Franchitti’s forced retirement:

Tony DiZinno:

I guess immediacy is the nature of the game these days, so rather than give the Dario Franchitti retirement news a little time to stew (and my suggestion to not speculate on a replacement met mixed reactions on Twitter), I’ll just offer some raw, unpolished thoughts.

The first thing is that I was very concerned when his accident happened at Houston. I couldn’t really lose myself in the moment there, but having been in the pit lane on Dan Wheldon’s headset when his accident at Las Vegas happened in 2011, I felt a gut punch.

Not Dario. Not after Dan and Greg. Not the guy who is, realistically, IndyCar’s biggest name and one of racing’s foremost historians and ambassadors. Not the guy who has made so much time available for a young scribe over my own career.

So, naturally, rather than speculating on how his condition was, it was a case of waiting while news trickled and though Dario was awake and alert, I certainly knew he was injured and going to be out for a while.

And this is where his years of experience and mind counter my relatively youthful – if just as experienced in terms of fandom – mindset.

Judging by today’s statement, Franchitti was injured worse than we all realized at the time. Certainly more than I thought.

So I didn’t think his injuries would be bad enough to prevent a shot at a fourth Indianapolis 500. At a chance to race the 24 Hours of Le Mans, for now. At a chance to get back to winning in IndyCar – which generates a buzz either way, whether you love or hate him.

As a reporter, and as a fan, I selfishly wanted those things.

But, in a safety-conscious era, and with Franchitti one of the smartest drivers in the paddock, it’s the only responsible decision he could make.

You never want to see a superstar athlete’s career end due to injury, but you’ll take them going out before they take another body blow 100 times out of 100.

Franchitti gets that. And better still, he gets racing.

You may have seen the last of him in a car, but certainly not the last of him at a race track.

For now, I thank Dario for everything he’s given to IndyCar racing over the last 17 years. And I can’t wait to see what next trick he has up his sleeve for his post-driving career.

Chris Estrada:

My little brother is set to turn three years old in January. Naturally, he’s into cars, of both the Matchbox and the Disney/Pixar variety.

He’s even sat down to watch a few races with me this year…For about five or 10 laps, anyway. Then he usually walks back to the living room to launch those Matchbox cars off a Hot Wheels ramp while Henry Hugglemonster plays on the TV.

Obviously, I’ll have to wait for a bit longer before I can really give my little brother a proper introduction to racing and tell him about all the great drivers I’ve had the privilege to watch in my relatively young life.

But it’ll be worth the wait. And when that time comes, I look forward to telling him about Dario Franchitti.

I look forward to telling him about how Franchitti used his calm, cool style behind the wheel to etch his name into the record books multiple times as a four-time IndyCar Series champion and a three-time champion of the world’s biggest race, the Indianapolis 500.

I look forward to telling him about how Franchitti let his hard work and talent speak for itself, remaining a down-to-earth gentleman even as his success brought him fame that stretched beyond the racing world.

I look forward to telling him about how Franchitti had to persevere time and again, from battling through a variety of tough injuries during his career to having to say goodbye far too soon to fellow competitors and close friends.

I look forward to telling him about how Franchitti didn’t give up in his final Indy 500 win in 2012, when he fell to 29th place after getting spun on pit road during the first caution and charged all the way back to drink the milk and kiss the bricks yet again.

And I look forward to telling him about how Franchitti was intelligent enough to realize when the time had come to hang up his helmet and move on to enjoy the next part of his life.

Going back to the present, it’s a bittersweet moment. We’ll no longer get to see the legend at work, but he sure created a lot of thrilling memories for fans to hang on to.

The truly great sportsmen earn the honor of having their stories passed down from one generation of fans to the next. For his success both as a driver and as an ambassador for racing, Dario Franchitti has earned that honor.

And as my little brother grows up, I look forward to telling him some “Dario stories.”

Thank you, Dario. It’s been an amazing ride.

After New York whirlwind, Josef Newgarden makes special trip to simulator before Detroit

By Jun 2, 2023, 10:00 AM EDT
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DETROIT – There’s no rest for the weary as an Indy 500 winner, but Josef Newgarden discovered there are plenty of extra laps.

The reigning Indy 500 champion added an extra trip Wednesday night back to Concord, N.C., for one last session on the GM Racing simulator before Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

After a 30-year run on the Belle Isle course, the race has been moved to a nine-turn, 1.7-mile layout downtown, so two extra hours on the simulator were worth it for Newgarden.

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“I really wanted to do it,” he told NBC Sports at a Thursday media luncheon. “If there’s any time that the sim is most useful, it’s in this situation when no one has ever been on a track, and we’re able to simulate it as best as we can. We want to get some seat time.

“It’s extra important coming off the Indy 500 because you’ve been out of rhythm for a road or street course-type environment, so I really wanted some laps. I was really appreciative to Chevy. There was a few guys that just came in and stayed late for me so I could get those laps before coming up here. I don’t know if it’s going to make a difference, but I feel like it’s going to help for me.”

After a whirlwind tour of New York for two days, Newgarden arrived at the simulator (which is at the GM Racing Technical Center adjacent to Hendrick Motorsports) in time for a two hour session that started at 6 p.m. Wednesday. He stayed overnight in Charlotte and then was up for an early commercial flight to Detroit, where he had more media obligations.

Newgarden joked that if he had a jet, he would have made a quick stop in Nashville, Tennessee, but a few more days away from home (where he has yet to return in weeks) is a worthy tradeoff for winning the Greatest Spectacle in Racing – though the nonstop interviews can take a toll.

“It’s the hardest part of the gig for me is all this fanfare and celebration,” Newgarden said. “I love doing it because I’m so passionate about the Indy 500 and that racetrack and what that race represents. I feel honored to be able to speak about it. It’s been really natural and easy for me to enjoy it because I’ve been there for so many years.

“Speaking about this win has been almost the easiest job I’ve ever had for postrace celebrations. But it’s still for me a lot of work. I get worn out pretty easily. I’m very introverted. So to do this for three days straight, it’s been a lot.”

Though he is terrified of heights, touring the top of the Empire State Building for the first time was a major highlight (and produced the tour’s most viral moment).

“I was scared to get to the very top level,” Newgarden said. “That thing was swaying. No one else thought it was swaying. I’m pretty sure it was. I really impressed by the facility. I’d never seen it before. It’s one of those bucket list things. If you go to New York, it’s really special to do that. So to be there with the wreath and the whole setup, it just felt like an honor to be in that moment.”

Now the attention shifts to Detroit and an inaugural circuit that’s expected to be challenging. Along with a Jefferson Avenue straightaway that’s 0.9 miles long, the track has several low-speed corners and a “split” pit lane (teams will stop on both sides of a rectangular area) with a narrow exit that blends just before a 90-degree lefthand turn into Turn 1.

Newgarden thinks the track is most similar to the Music City Grand Prix in Nashville.

“It’s really hard to predict with this stuff until we actually run,” he said. “Maybe we go super smooth and have no issues. Typically when you have a new event, you’re going to have some teething issues. That’s understandable. We’ve always got to massage the event to get it where we want it, but this team has worked pretty hard. They’ve tried to get feedback constantly on what are we doing right, what do we need to look out for. They’ve done a ton of grinding to make sure this surface is in as good of shape as possible.

“There’s been no expense spared, but you can’t foresee everything. I have no idea how it’s going to race. I think typically when you look at a circuit that seems simple on paper, people tend to think it’s not going to be an exciting race, or challenging. I find the opposite always happens when we think that way. Watch it be the most exciting, chaotic, entertaining race.

Newgarden won the last two pole positions at Belle Isle’s 2.35-mile layout and hopes to continue the momentum while avoiding any post-Brickyard letdown.

“I love this is an opportunity for us to get something right quicker than anyone else,” he said. “A new track is always exciting from that standpoint. I feel I’m in a different spot. I’m pretty run down. I’m really trying to refocus and gain some energy back for tomorrow. Which I’ll have time to today, which is great.

“I don’t want that Indy 500 hangover. People always talk about it. They’ve always observed it. That doesn’t mean we have to win this weekend, but I’d like to leave here feeling like we had a really complete event, did a good job and had a solid finish leading into the summer. I want to win everywhere I go, but if we come out of here with a solid result and no mistakes, then probably everyone will be happy with it.”