Dario Franchitti: Why He Almost Lost His Love For Racing

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You're Dale's Jr.

Should I say it?

It's Dale Jr. podcast. I gotta say it.

Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr.

download. And we got a great guest for you today as we are in the

Arby's studio and want to mention before we get going the Arby's new meat and

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I want to thank them for being able to bring us a great guest, Dario

Franckini. He was supposed to be in the studio, supposed to come in here.

There's a there was a storm up north.

He's in he's in New York City and could not get here, but asked

if he could do it remotely.

So, hey, we've put in the effort to prepare for Dario, excited about

what he's going to do this weekend at St. Pete in the truck series

and can't wait to talk to him about how that deal come together.

He's also a champion, Daytona 500 winner.

He actually had some unfortunate experiences with head injuries

similar to mine that I'm aware of and want to dive into all of that.

We're going to get into it. Let's bring him on.

Dario Franckini on the Dale Jr. download.

All right. So Dario Franckini on the Dale Jr. download.

He is coming remote because of the weather up north.

We're supposed to be in the studio today, which we miss not having you here, Dario,

but thankful that you're able to tune in and talk to us.

How are you doing doing?

Well, doing well. Thank you.

What does it they say?

A long time listener, first-time caller.

Yeah, that's perfect.

So, yeah.

How is the weather up there?

Well, the sun is shining right now,

but we had a couple of interesting days

and that just kept snowing and snowing.

And yeah.

So that was a bit of a shock.

So sorry, I can't be in the studio, but it's good to chat.

It is.

You're going to race in the truck series at St. Pete this weekend.

You know, is the weather going to affect your ability to get in there

and do all the things you need to do?

Yeah.

No, no, we're all good.

I'm going to get down there tomorrow morning, just in case.

Have you had the chance to get in a sim or how's your preparation going?

I got in the sim.

And you and I are similar ages.

I don't know how you get on with the sim.

Not very good.

No, I suck.

Yeah.

You know, static sim, I am okay, but I suck.

I went into the Toyota sim up, I think it's Salisbury.

I had two laps of Sebring,

where we were going to race in the truck series.

So, yeah.

Salisbury, I had a two laps of Sebring,

where we were testing the truck later that week.

I stopped.

I said, okay, let's try St. Pete.

I did one lap of St. Pete and I got out and went to lunch.

Yeah.

It didn't go well.

It was not a good time.

Tell us what St. Pete is like.

I'm not very familiar.

What kind of racetrack is that?

So, half of it's airfield.

You've got the front stretch.

It's big, wide braking zone into turn one.

And then it gets into the city streets of St. Pete.

And it's tight.

It's narrow, particularly turns four or five.

And then on for most of the rest of the lap.

So, I actually just feed the truck down through those walls

and sort of try and get an inch perfect.

It's going to be, I think, really a challenge,

especially my lack of familiarity with it.

How close is that right from fender?

How close is that to the wall?

And the problem is when you get it too close,

you're going to bounce off it and then you're going to try

and avoid the wall on the exit.

So, yeah, I think it'll be a good race.

I think it's particularly up down there in turn one.

I think you're going to see some action.

Yeah.

52 years old four-time winner of the IndyCar Championship,

three-time Indy 500 winner.

What has your, you retired at the end of,

let's see, 2013 or 14?

Yeah, 13, yeah.

And so, what have you driven in the past decade?

So, I guess you and I obviously went through a similar thing,

I think, with the concussions and the head injuries.

And so, I stopped racing everything end of 13.

The doctor said, no, no more.

And so, I would go to places like Goodwood

and I'd demonstrate these old cars

and actually some new ones too up the hill

at the festival of speed.

But I really enjoyed the act of driving something again.

2019 showed up and I decided I said,

I want to go racing again.

And so, I talked to the doctors.

I did a good sales job on the doctors,

managed to convince them that I should do that.

My wife said, yeah, yeah, whatever you want to do.

My mother wasn't quite so happy, shall we say.

But anyway, so I started racing old cars,

the 60s Ferraris, Shelby Cobras, GT40.

Jimmy and I shared a,

my brother Merino shared a GT40 at Spa.

And then I started to get into

sort of slightly more modern stuff again

the last couple of years.

So, it's been kind of a gradual thing.

I was quite happy being retired

those first couple of years.

And then, you know,

I don't know if you experienced the same thing,

but when I was competing,

it was so much about the result

and trying to get the result

and everything that went into that

and the pressure to whether that was from me

or from outside trying to make it happen

that actually the driving, the car wasn't the,

it wasn't the fun bit.

And with all this stuff I did since retirement,

I realized I love driving cars.

I love driving racing cars.

I love the act of trying to make a vehicle

go quickly around the circuit.

So, hence the fact we find ourselves here.

Yeah, I was very comfortable

and happy with my decision to quit.

And obviously probably similar to you,

the injuries and everything that I experienced

to get better and all that was fresh, right?

And you're like, all right,

yep, I'm good to put this behind me.

And as I got further away from that decision,

I started feeling more homesick to it, you know,

I missed it more and more, it didn't get easier,

it got harder.

And I was starting to look at my age

and going, man, I still got a little I could do.

Surely I could go play here, I could go play there,

but you have to be selective when you say.

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, the chances of me getting in anything

on an oval or non-existent,

it's just not, it's never going to happen.

You know, I'd love to try an Indy car again,

but the physical demands of that probably,

you know, even just to go somewhat quickly,

you've got to be so fit.

And I wouldn't want to get in that

and do a half-assed job.

But, you know, for us, it's interesting.

I've been thinking a lot about this

because people are asking why are you doing this?

But for racing drivers,

we don't have a, whatever your discipline,

we don't have a seniors tour, you know, tennis, golf.

That's exactly right.

Right?

And I think those guys can go out and have some fun

and less pressure and you see them all joking around.

And we don't have that.

So we have to kind of create our own opportunities

to go and have fun.

You know, again, going back to the historic side

of things you're good with is so much fun

to do that, so much fun to race there.

And you've got guys like,

you've got guys my age, guys younger than me,

but then you've got guys like Steve Soper,

who's one of the great touring car drivers of the world.

Steve's in his mid-70s now.

He still goes out there and he's still as hard to beat.

So, as I say, you've got to make your own opportunities

to go out and drive race cars.

Yeah.

So how did you find your interest in racing?

I know your family was involved in it.

Your dad, George, was an amateur racer.

What is your first memories?

My first memories were sitting in front of the TV

watching the 1978 Formula One World Championship

that Mario Andretti won.

Sitting with my dad watching that.

Those are still my favorite Formula One cars

to this day, that era.

And then going to the track with him.

And I was actually talking to him about it yesterday.

Just going to the track and watching him do it

and getting in the car and just sitting and pretending to drive it.

And it all sort of stemmed from there.

And I had this little go-kart that actually he found again.

And him and my mum had it restored.

He restored it.

Yeah, for my 40th birthday.

So it all started there.

And I started racing when I was 10.

Actually, I raced motorbikes for a minute before that

but I really sucked at that.

That was terrible.

When I got in a go-kart, I won my first race

and it felt like home from the first moment.

What was your experience like once you got in a go-karts?

Where are you living?

Where are you competing?

We were living in Scotland.

My first races were in Scotland but pretty quickly.

I guess my dad had some sort of pretty big ambitions there

because straight away we headed south

and the more competition you had to go to England.

Every weekend we'd head off straight after school on a Friday,

sometimes before school finished.

That caused some issues.

And then we'd go down there.

Him and some of his buddies would mechanic on the cart

and I'd race over the weekend, see how the result went.

And then we'd turn around and we'd go home

and we'd park our cup whatever time in the Monday morning, early hours

and then he'd go to work and I'd go to school that next day

despite trying to find every excuse I could to get out of it.

And that was it until I was 16

and then I was going to go race cars the following season

so my dad said, right, you're going to go learn a bit about this

so I went with the team.

It was a team called David Leslie Racing

and two of the guys that were on the same journey as me,

David Colfard and Alan McNich,

they drove for the same team in earlier years.

Anyway, I went there and I would clean the car.

I'd put the wheels on it a couple of times.

I left the wheels slack.

I was not the best mechanic

but that was my way of learning

and then I went racing cars the following season which was 1991.

How did that go?

That was good.

I won the championship which thank God I did

because my parents had remortgaged the house

and it basically spent everything they had on that first season.

Won the championship at the end of the season.

My dad was like, you know, that's it.

I can't do anymore

and fortunately for me, Jackie Stewart had a team

with his son, Paul, called Paul Stewart Racing

and they were racing in other formulas

over the same weekends in the bigger classes.

Jackie had seen me race

and said, well, we should probably test that kid.

And they said, where is he from?

He said, he's from Scotland.

I said, how can he be from Scotland

when his name is Dario Franckitti?

At one point, Jackie was going to change my name.

He really was.

So Jackie shows up.

Jackie said, I'll find the money.

You drive the car and I'll teach you.

And that was three years with Paul Stewart Racing

where every day was a school day with Jackie.

Every day is still a school day with Jackie.

He's just incredible and he taught me so much

and I say it a lot.

But without him, my parents absolutely.

Without Jackie as well.

I'm not sitting here today.

Definitely not.

I would say that obviously your goals and ambitions

are F1 at this point.

And I think take us through the process

of understanding how you would eventually

get steered toward the US.

Yeah, definitely.

My goal was Formula One.

I'd watched the Indy 500

and I would read the magazine in the UK

called Autosport.

And it was our internet back then.

That's how you found out what was going on in the sport.

And I would read about F1, about Indy car.

But F1 was really it.

And when I did Formula Three,

Formula Three is sort of the two steps below F1.

And I was, I did have one season

and it didn't go well.

I think I finished fourth in the championship.

But I won the first race

and then my teammate proceeded to win 14 races

or something.

I think, I mean, Oyan Magnuson.

Yes.

Yeah, absolutely blew my doors off.

So at the end of that season,

I was looking at doing another year of Formula Three

and I really didn't want to do it.

Didn't enjoy the cars.

It just wasn't great.

So I went to Mercedes,

asked me to come to test the DTM car,

which at the time,

they were F1 cars with bodies on them.

So I tested this thing

and it blew my mind.

The car blew my mind.

I just loved everything about it.

And I thought Mercedes at the time

they were supplying engines to McLaren.

I thought this might be a good way to make this happen.

So I signed the deal to go to Mercedes

and I did DTM for a couple of years.

Absolutely loved it.

Loved driving the cars.

Met some great people,

got to test the McLaren F1 car.

That would eventually lead to

an offer to become the test driver at McLaren.

But I'd already committed to do IndyCar.

So basically at the end of the two years of DTM,

the championship shut down

because they were spending so much money on it.

It was ridiculous.

And I was at the Mercedes end of year party

and I sat next to a man called Paul Morgan.

Paul was one of the partners in Ilmore

and they built the Formula One engines,

the IndyCar engines.

They built the NASCAR truck engines

and the Chevy IndyCar engines.

Anyway, Paul said, what are you going to do next year?

I said, I'd love to go to America.

The F1 thing is not looking like it's going to open up.

Jan Magnussen came over and raced a couple of races in an IndyCar.

He said, and he came back and said, you've got to do this.

It's amazing.

So I said to Paul, I'd love to do that.

He said, well, let me work on it.

And January of 97, he phoned.

He said, right, Carl Hogan is going to call you.

He's going to invite you to test the car.

If you test the car and it goes well, you're in for the season.

And it was as simple as that's how I got to the US.

Just a great man just wanted to help me out

and he put all the pieces in place for me to come to America.

Yeah, apparently Jackie Stewart was still influential

sending a letter of recommendation to Carl, supporting the idea.

What did you know about what?

Well, I guess, you know, this is one of the things I always enjoy.

When I go even today, when I, when I get a chance to get,

get into the IndyCar ecosystem, the diversity of personalities,

you know, you have drivers from all over the world

with different ideals on racing and how racing is supposed to happen.

And it's so much fun trying.

So in NASCAR, we do come from different disciplines

in terms of dirt or sprint cars and short track stock cars.

But the code of conduct on the track is relatively known

and everyone considers to follow a similar code.

In IndyCar, guys come from all over the world

and codes are different.

You know, what a block is, what defending your position is.

All those things are differently interpreted by each driver.

And I see that play out in IndyCar all the time.

What was your, you know, expectation coming over to the United States

about racing, about what life would be like, right?

I mean, because it's a massive shift to make that change.

You're basically going to the other side of the world

and completely uprooting everything that you're familiar with

and everything you know.

Absolutely right.

And I came from that cutthroat European sort of school.

I mean, it really was, it was a school.

I mean, I had a great education from Jackie,

but my teammate DTM was a man called Bern Schneider

and he was the, he was the god of DTM.

You know, he won all this stuff.

And when I went to the team, his team, he put his arm around me

and said, right, if you want to, if you want to learn,

I'll teach you.

And I was his wingman for two years and he taught me everything

and taught me how to be a good teammate,

taught me just the next stage of my education.

But the biggest thing for me was I'd never been on an oval.

So I show up at Homestead for my first spring training,

the first sort of IndyCar group test.

And I walk out to the wall and I stand at the wall

and Gilles de Ferrand's going past

and he was in the Valvaline car at the time,

Derek Walker's Valvaline car.

And I knew Gilles very well from my Paul Stewart racing days.

So this thing goes past and it was the old Homestead,

the old four corner Homestead.

It goes past, I thought, oh, okay, no big deal.

He goes past again.

I was like, ah, I've got this.

No big deal.

The next lap he goes past and he's a full pellet.

He was bedding in his brakes before that.

I didn't realize it.

When he went past, I went quiet and I thought, holy smokes.

What have I, what have I got myself into?

And that was the biggest difficulty

I think was learning ovals.

But then one of the things,

I don't know if it's the same in NASCAR,

but when kids come up, guys like Rick Mears

would say, I got an invitation to come and sit with Rick Mears

and talk about oval driving.

And he's like, anytime you need to help, you come and see me.

I mean, that didn't happen in Europe

unless you were with a team with Jackie, for instance.

So that people like him doing that for me,

that was a big, big help.

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You come over to the test,

you land the ride

running full season in

1997.

Your best finish of the year

was 9th at Servers Paradise.

It wasn't like

an automatic success story

out of the gate.

I crashed a lot.

I crashed a lot. The team

were a little disorganized shall we say.

It was just

the good thing was we were

quick. Second half of the year

we were quick. I was on Poland, Toronto

and

by mid-season

there was offers

from Rehal.

There was offers to stay at Hogan.

I guess there was a potential Penske seat

which I never got to the bottom

of if it was actually true or not.

There was actually a Penske seat but then

there was the team green seat

and I sort of met all the different

owners but at the time

the

Chip and Assy team and the target team were

smoking everybody. It was an Ardy and Vassar.

They had Honda, Reinhardt, Firestone.

That was their combination

and Barry Green had Honda, Reinhardt, Firestone.

I was shocked first of all after a pretty average

first season that these guys

wanted me to drive the car

but I got a really good feeling from Barry

the people who worked for him

and so I

signed

a deal at Laguna Seca

and

I never looked back. That was one of the best

deals I think I ever did.

It was a little awkward because as I left

his hotel room from signing the deal

I get in the elevator, it goes to the ground floor, the door is open

and Parker Johnstone

who was the guy driving the car that year

was standing there.

Hey buddy.

Oh crap.

You would get in that car

and immediately start to show success

getting a

runner up finish at the

Long Beach Race in 98

and then picking up the first series win

at Road America.

The first Scottish

champ car winner since

Jim Clark

which is pretty awesome. Jim Clark was a badass.

Yes he was.

You got wins at Vancouver, Houston, third in the season points.

You signed

an extension.

Well I imagine after

that first year you had even more interest.

Yeah, there was

definitely interest but it was

one of those situations

I liked where it was.

It was very clear.

But you had interest outside of

IndyCar. Oh yeah.

Well that was sort of, there was some F1

interest, yeah.

That came more sort of towards the

2000 season. Yeah. But a lot

between then and then they a lot went on

99 season.

I thought, was it already going off to F1

I thought, here we go.

We got this, we got a good chance

at this championship and then this guy called

on Pablo Montoya showed up.

And he really

ruined my plans.

So

99 was a great season

and you know, Monty and I

were wheel to wheel all season

and then we had a

a cracking race to the title.

But then, you know, unfortunately

the last race

Greg Moore, my great friend dies.

And you know, honestly

at that point I sort of thought

I really want to do this anymore.

My love of racing really, yeah man

it really went down.

And then the next time I got in the car

I had a huge accident at Homestead

and I broke the pelvis

my head hit actually the helmet

hit the wall

and the damage I did there

I still

have

some issues today from that

from that accident in 2000.

What type of issues?

You know, just all the sort of the

stuff that goes with the big brain injury

the stuff that maybe you.

So that was one of your first head injuries.

Oh my God.

So yeah, you know, not similar

you know when I lost my dad I was

you know trying to figure out

what I wanted to do

but my

I wanted to

I needed to be at the racetrack

because that's where all the people I knew were

and I didn't want to be alone

you know and so

I didn't experience what you did

losing a friend

and so tell me I guess about

the

tell me about the processing of emotion

you know you've fallen out of love

with racing and now you've got to figure out

whether you want to continue and how do you

get that love back that passion back

first of all I think by the way the way you

handled that

with losing your dad I was

in the US by that point and I was in awe

was absolutely in awe

of what you did

and how you did it and the pressures you were under

and it was

it was something to watch from a distance

something so impressive so

hats off to you man

so with Greg it was

the first time that had really happened

to death in the sport

and it was my

best friend and I just thought

I don't

not sure I want to do it I don't think I've got the love

for it anymore I think a telling sign

is I have one Indy car in my garage

at home and it's the car from

the race before he died

that was the last that was honestly

the last time it was just properly fun

it was absolutely just

for the love of driving right it was

it was life

was different after after he died

then

the next so Barry Green

this conversation with Barry Green went something

like Barry I don't know if I can do this

I need to go

and I need to go think about this

if I want to do it and at the time those

cars were really dangerous I mean they were

they were

you were getting hurt a lot all that sort of

stuff and so

I went away

and I went away for a few months

and Barry said just when you're ready

just come back and then we had a conversation

that looks spring training is coming here you need

to get in the car if you're going to do it

so I got in the car I had the suspension

failure

I hit the wall

broke my pelvis

smashed my head in

and

from that point

I did the race but three weeks later

with a broken pelvis which I don't recommend

my gosh

oh man when they dropped the thing off the jacks

and it hit the floor

not good yeah

yeah that hurt so

and honestly still for a long time

I lost the love of the sport

and I did it because I didn't know

anything else to do

I wonder with that injury

and everything you could have

how comfortable

would have you been to have said

let me take a step back here

let me give me

I need some time to heal

and that gives your time

maybe you're

personally taking some time off the heal but you're also giving

yourself some time to get your mental

emotions

get it figured out

really what you want to do

if you leave that seat

do you have it when you come back

that's a difficult question

and that's why drivers get in

with all bits hanging off

I drove for the broken back

in 2003 because I didn't want

I was out of the car for a few races

I didn't want somebody else taking my ride

so in hindsight

and what we know now

I drove through with

some of the head injury stuff

and how it's treated now

it's a lot different than it was 25 years ago

so I probably should have done that

but I didn't I just kept charging on

and it took

I took a long time

it probably took five or six years

to sort of feel somewhat like my old self

and then the success

started coming again

and the fun

of driving came a bit back

especially just the joy in life

was coming back too

it just took time

yeah I imagine

you didn't know it at the time

but I bet the

I bet the head injury

it's hard to explain

to people that have never went through this

but you mentioned it

you didn't feel like yourself

maybe that was

that's also playing

with your anxieties, emotions

unknowingly right you don't even realize

it's affecting you

I've talked to drivers

you know I've went through

we both went through head injuries

but I've also talked to other drivers that drove through

those type of injuries

and they'll be like yeah I was six months I wasn't

who I

know I am

and

having such a severe injury

in 2000 I imagine that that might have been

playing a role I guess

in your physical

or your mental state

oh massively

I said to my brother

years later

at the time you don't want to admit all this stuff

I said I

changed my personality

I became a lot more serious

and

yeah

it's just part

of the stuff you've got to deal with

but because you've not got a broken arm

a broken leg

you look normal

I know I would

I look completely fine

but I would

stand up and turn

to walk out a door

and I would have to grab the table

I felt it

any kind of a pivot or movement of the axis

of the head

I knew

that something was wrong

I would say to my friend man did you see

anything I felt this

I felt that you see me kind of lose my balance

and they're like yeah no you look normal

didn't see anything and I'm like it's so

frustrating because everybody's looking at you

and they're like you should be in the car

you look perfectly fine you should

why aren't you in the car why are you not in the car

why are you out a month

two months whatever you know come on come on man

toughen up let's go yeah

so you you know

success starts coming back

and then you want to race stock cars

how did that happen who talked you into that

what did you experience or see that made you go

I got to get into that I need to try that

that was Gnassie's fault

that was Chip's fault

so I actually at the end of

06 we nearly

did a deal for me to go there in 07

I'm glad we didn't because I won

my first 500 championship

for the Andretti Green team

as it was at the time but

Chip and I went some ways down the road

on doing that and

then Monty and Montoya came in

and did the deal

but

I'll tell you my thinking it was

so obviously every driver

they want to win the 500 so I finally win the 500

I'm up front I'm looking good

for the championship

but the 500 was such a big deal

I thought I've achieved my goals and I could feel

the motivation just starting to

just tail off a bit and I thought I need a new challenge

what is that new challenge

and then Chip started

talking again about doing

about doing stock cars about doing

NASCAR and I

I did it I signed

I'd been to one

NASCAR race I think

I went with Richard Childress to Texas

that was the only small experience

I'd never driven a NASCAR vehicle

all that stuff I did this deal

completely ignorant of

what it took I didn't really

talk to any of you guys and I should have

I should have reached out to you

to Jimmy

just test a bloody

car

you know my great friend

Scott Borschetta I didn't know him

in 2007 and he always says

I wish we'd known each other because I'd

taken you to the fairgrounds in Nashville

I'd have put you in one of my trucks

we could have got you some reps to help you

understand what you were doing

and yeah I mean I can look back and see

at the time it was crap because there was

those COT things that

they're probably the most IndyCar like thing

but

it was a culture shock

it was hard it was

everything I'd learned actually

put me further back than zero

just from a starting point

and you know it

it was quite shocking

why would you want to risk

so you had won your championship

why would you

you know I'm trying to understand

like you're risking your

your

financial stability

right you're

was that ever that never was a

motivating factor for you to like continue

on this path of financial success

that you were having

by winning a championship by being a

championship driver

I got off for a pretty good deal as well

coming to stock car racing

but again that's

that's I think the difficulty

from the position I was in

I should have gone and done

I guess it was nationwide

at the time it'd become from the bush series

to nation man I probably should have gone and done that

for a year or two

was there anything behind your health

in this decision

no a lot of people say I had

two big flips that year

actually within six days of each other

but that was

it wasn't anything to do with that I just

I

I've got to be a hundred percent

and my motivation is going to be right there

and I could feel it

tail and off tail and I just thought

I need to try something different

whether that was going to be sports cars or NASCAR

so

I wish I'd done it differently

but I'm not

I'm not upset at all in

the fact I did it or how it ended up

because

it put me in such a better place

when all the various things

came together for going back to IndyCar

well you

you made an ARCA race debut

in 07 you ran the last

four races in the nationwide series

back in 07 you signed this

multi-year contract with Genasi

for 08 beginning there

you win the 24 hours of Daytona

with Juan and Scott Pruitt

and Mimo

you ran

10th in the opener in the ARCA race

at Daytona and you replaced

David Streamy in the cup car

driving number 40 attempting

14 races

your best finish came in Martinsville

the most non-IndyCar

type race track

on the circuit

24th

22nd actually

22nd

the car

tomorrow was here

probably the most

difficult or

unfun race car that NASCAR

ever had

and you struggled

ultimately this car would shut down in July

and

you had more

nationwide series races in

2008

6th in Las Vegas 5th at Watkins Glen

and then you broke your ankle at Talladega

that was that

that was the end of the stock car story

yeah you know I'd gone

to

you know when the cup team shut down

I was sort of doing a race by race thing

in the NASCAR

and I got so much better with that car

you know qualified on pole at the Glen

in the

car Jimmy was in that race a bunch of

bunch of proper

drivers so I was proud of that but then I went

to Bristol and I think I qualified on the front row

and I ran up front all night

I was getting the hang of this

but

then it all

you know it all changed I was

attested at Richmond I think and I was going to do the Richmond

race but then I went to

Detroit

to the IndyCar race and

I was going there actually to watch my brother

race in sports cars

I had no interest in going back to IndyCar

and

I really

I've done it and then I remember

standing watching Scott Dix and go through turn 1

and 2 in Detroit

and I just thought

I want to drive one of them again

I'd been lying to myself basically

and

I

completely by chance I sat down

with Mike Hull

from Gnasi next to managing director there

and we sat in the

tail lift of one of the trucks

and he said what's going on and I said

I thought I didn't want to race

IndyCar anymore but I saw the cars

I felt I really want to do it

but all the good stuff's gone Mike

and I don't want to drive at the back of the field

I'm not going to get in a bad car

and he said well not so fast

Dan Weldens just told us this morning

that he's leaving

so we've got an open seat

let me go talk to Chip

so Chip and I negotiated

my contract standing behind

Dixon's timing stand

in Pitlane

and

6 o'clock next morning

we had a signed deal

and that was it

so

you've got this opportunity to return

and

you're racing for Chip the same guy

that you've been messing with the stock cars for

tell us what kind of guy he is

I've absolutely

enjoyed every moment I've ever spent

around Chip Ganassi

fun dude

good

at the heart, at his heart

he's a racer understands

what it takes to go fast

but I would be curious

just to your opinion and

your experiences

to me Chip

and that's CartiMona was different than Chip

he

in NASCAR

he was trying to build the organization

in IndyCar he was the organization

to beat him and Roger

and have had for decades

this competition

but Chip to me

as

this talk team owner first of all

he

puts the right people in position

to do the job

he gives you the tools to do the job

whether that's the financial tools

whether that's the technical stuff

whether that's the people

and then he expects you to go do it

and he wants results

but he's very loyal

you've seen a lot of people

in the team

have been there for 25 plus years

and I still

I work with the team as an advisor

on the IndyCar side

and he

as you said he's a racer

he wants to win

he always says at the start of every season

in every race what sorts of two goals

with Indy 500 win the championship

he's there to

win

but he doesn't suffer fools gladly

he's got no time

for BS

but as a person

as a human

if you're in trouble

ships the guy

you want on your side

for his drivers, for anybody in his organization

for his friends

he kind of half knows in the paddock

he's that guy

who'll get stuff done if you're in trouble

in whatever that may look like

in medical trouble whatever he's

he's a

there's a soft center to that hard shell

yeah for sure

yeah I've always enjoyed

I hate that I never got the chance to like

I don't know race

with him but I

in the NASCAR

ecosystem

you know you got back in the car

and you got back to your winning ways

2011 you had

four wins

you'd win the championship

and

but

that was a

that was a difficult moment as well for the series

and for motorsports in general

at Las Vegas when

we lost Dan Weldon

and I know Dan a little bit through the nationwide

or the National Guard

relationship we both were sponsored by them

at one point and I got to spend some time

with him a little bit at Indy

and

that was just a terrifying

experience I think for everybody

in such a horrible horrible crash

how you know how was that

how did that affect

that's you know we're getting toward

you know just a few years later

when you would decide yourself to step out of the car

motorsports is inherently dangerous

and there's no way to

entirely eradicate that

from from no matter what

what discipline it is

there's always going to be some dangers

how did that crash

and Dan

losing his life there affect you personally

yeah that you know that had been this

this since we had those conversations

in Detroit had been this great period

of success the three

championships on the bounds

with Chip

and

you know it had

I'd gone into that

that situation

as Scott Dixon's teammate thinking

I just don't want to embarrass myself because

Scott was at the top of his game man

yeah

he'd won the 08 championship

I like to tell him he'd won that because I was in NASCAR at the time but

I'm not going to tell you what he says

but he

so I

the fact I was able to win those three championships

with him in the same

equipment and we came close

trust me it could have been either of us but I was able to

get the job done it was

it was one of those wonderful periods

in life and we would say

and Chip would say

enjoy it because these things don't last forever

and you know we went

into that

2011 final in Vegas we should never

have been racing there which

was a conversation we'd had before we showed up

you know with Indy cars

they're not suited to that

track

but I was

I was a lot more

what's the word

mature

world weary

I'd seen a lot more in life

when Dan

had his accident

you know I'd known Dan

since he was six years old

and you know we were

we were very close at one point

we had a couple of

what's the words couple of

discussions

when we kind of fell out for a minute a few years

before but we were in a really good

place

we were back to being friends which I loved

and

the

you know that's a funny feeling here it was just

that

whole situation was so unnecessary

and

interestingly I didn't think

of stepping out of the car though

again I was in a much different place in my life

and I was a lot maybe

mentally tougher

and Greg died

and

I was able to just

get back

and get on with it

and put it out of my mind

but it's

that was

shocking and

we all felt that one

losing a tire

running out of gas

wrecking a teammate

you never know what's going to happen

your race day story even more epic

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as a casual fan of any car

I don't understand all the intricacies

and don't get into the weeds

of

of the series

enough to know as much as you

about where the car should and shouldn't race

there's

there was debate

there's that opinion that you shared

about Vegas that a lot of people have

there was

again

some tough moments at Pocono

another equally

dangerous place for

any cars to be racing

there's some

great memories of

any car racing at places like Texas

World Speedway in Michigan

where is the

where is the line is it

is there a line is it is it a

absolute

definitive sort of

break between

where you can take these cars and where you can't

how would you maybe explain that

to somebody like me

of like what's where

where's the threshold of I we don't need to

this is the type of track we shouldn't be at

our cars aren't designed to be

racing here

and

what tracks are you know because fans

when I ever you know

having dipped my toe in

the Indy car world a little bit through the work with

NBC and so forth

I would ever mention Michigan

and they would go oh gosh yes let's go back

to Michigan all the fans really miss

you know the 80s and 90s

in Michigan but the cars

are different these days and

you know so where's your take on all that

I think it's the

cars but also the

regulations you know that the

the horsepower against the drag

is I think is a

that's the kind of the part of the

equation two and the tires

and the way that all works

but the problem

of Vegas for me is you could just run around

wide open I remember

putting 400 pounds

of cross weight on the left front of the car

to try and free

it up and it made no

difference the

car and at that point there was a sort of a mandated

minimum amount of downforce

it was all wrong but Pocono

for me

Pocono I wish we could race there

it was

it was terrifying I mean it was

scary but wow

it was something special turn one was

was wide open oh I can't

imagine I mean it doesn't sound like

something I would want any part

of you

you'd come down there and you'd kind of position

yourself in the car

to sort of take these g-forces and the

problem was it's so long to think about it

down that front straight yeah here we go

here we go

you know but then you know not to make light

of it but then we lost Justin Wilson

at Pocono that accident could have

happened anywhere that's not a

you know just with the time it was just such

dreadful timing but then

Robert Wickens

that was that was shocking but I

I believe I was thinking about this

the other night I believe that Robert

Wickens would have been a

would have been an IndyCar champion

and a 500 winner that guy was

special when he rocked up an IndyCar

I knew him from DTM but

man he's his talent

is something special and even

now he's in there with hand controls and stuff

and he's still going

yeah but up there

the brain is

just he's so tough he reminds me he's an

already in that way and just that he

doesn't know when he's beaten he's just a machine

yeah and I wish I'd

got to see him fulfill

his his potential yeah so

I mean it in if you

if you were

you know if IndyCar

were to go back to Michigan

it could work with the right

package

because I think fans

are curious

your opinion on that

you know we talked about it earlier in the show

you

your eventual decision to retire

there was a new car

that came into the series

the DeLar

DW12 in 2012

was that a car that you struggled with didn't

enjoy why

I would say you know I had

I didn't like COT didn't like it never

never felt good in it didn't think it

suited my skills that was a period in the

sport where I just didn't feel like I feel like

I was racing with a hand tie behind my back

that's two of us

so the DW12

I struggled with

a little bit the weight distribution was very

odd I remember the first test we did Tony

Kanan and I did it

and this was shortly after Dan died

and we went to Indy

and ran it and we

we went into the

the trailer together to debrief

you know he was doing it for Chevy I was doing it for Honda

and we were both white

it was just

it was so bad the weight distribution

the aero it was all a bit

it was all a bit wrong

but they made it very quickly

they made that car a good car to race

it was certainly a lot safer

than the old car so that was good

but it raced well

didn't look very nice to start

with all those pods and stuff

I've got a good memory

from that from winning the

2012 500 in the

DW12 but

the biggest

problem I had was I was

a right foot breaker on

road courses and this thing had two

big pedals and a hand clutch

and Indy car

wouldn't allow us to modify the pedals

so I could right foot brake

most bizarre decision it was Indy car

the officials at the time so

I destroyed two cars trying to learn to left

foot brake and

eventually Chip had to go to Indy car

and say you're going to have to do something here

because it's costing me a lot of money

so they'd let me right foot brake

but I struggled a little bit with that car

with the Honda at the time had a single turbo

as well so the turbo lag and all that stuff

I could qualify it like mad

qualifying things were good

but

I struggled

sometimes in the races to

to be

competitive through the whole tire run

as the balance of the car shifted so

and that was

again that was sort of that 2013

season I could feel

that motivation going away

that competitiveness

yeah that just wasn't feeling as competitive

and I looked around

the Ganassi group and a lot of the same

people I look at today when I'm in the

I'm in the trucks and I looked at them

and I thought I don't want to be the weak link in this chain

I don't want to do that I'm not going to

hang on past when I

when I can be competitive

2013 I was

40 I just turned 40

I was looking for other things

I want to see Porsche about driving

at Le Mans I done a handshake

deal with them to drive for them in the future

Le Mans so

I was already sort of looking

to

step back a bit from Indy car because

again I just didn't feel

I was as good as I had been two years

before and that was a worry

you had this massive crash and suffered

and cushion a lot of fractures to spinal fractures

you know I can imagine what the process

was like trying to rehab from all of that

but

you

you had to eventually

hear from your doctors that you didn't need to be driving

at least for the foreseeable

future how difficult

I'm you said

earlier that you know you're okay with that

decision for a while a couple years but I imagine

initially

you know having not being able to make

that choice yourself

you had these other plans I want to go run

24

hours and do other things

you had that taken from you you had

someone telling you what you were going to do for the first time in your life

I was

I was alive

so I was okay honestly

I was so happy

to be alive I don't

mean to be all sort of

but the sky was

blue or the grass was greener

you know

I limped about for

my right leg was shortened up

two inches so I had to put a bunch

of metal in my right ankle to get

it fixed all that dealt with the back injury

the brain

was the hardest bit though and

again that took a long time

but I was

okay I remember the conversation

I remember early on because it was Dr.

Trammel and Dr.

Ovi Trammel for the bones

Ovi for the brain that was you know these guys

same guys my whole

career we whenever I busted

myself up we're always there and the conversation

always went like right this is what's

wrong and there was a race

to get me back into the cars

quickly as possible how could we do it how could

I beat the timeline that they'd given me

and they were always on board with

you know helping me to push myself

as hard as I wanted

and then I don't remember

much about that period of time just because

there was so much damage but

I remember

the tone of

their voice the look in their eye

and it was I knew something

was different and then sure enough I went to Miami

and did the

I did some scans and I did remember

the impact test yeah

and I scored something like 2%

on the reaction test oh man

and they were like

and that was it

and so

there was no I didn't

have any honestly I was fine

I was quite

okay with all the decisions that

had to be made I struggled telling

Chip

I vaguely remember a conversation

I was in Scotland by then

and I remember calling him

and I think he was

struggling more than I was

but

I think it was on that conversation

we agreed

that I was going to come and be

an advisor for the team

on that day and

here I am 18 years

later

you know still

18 years I've been working with Chip

13 years since I stopped

still doing that

so

you I bet

everybody's

experience with those type of injuries is different

but we both

make a decision not to drive anymore

we both make a decision hey I'm at this point in my life

our age and all those things it's just a good time

to sort of pivot

and think about

prioritizing other things and we both did that

and then we both

started dabbling playing piddling

race here race there

scratching the itch yeah

and I don't know about you but

I went and ran a couple of Xenity races

I do one a year

and I would get about halfway through those races

I would perform way better than I expected to

but I would get about halfway through the race

and go all right I'm good

that's I've

I've learned that I'll still love this

and I've also learned that

yeah I don't need to do it every week

you know I'm all I just needed to reassert

assurance that

I was in it I was I had made the

right decision

and then I'd go six months and go

damn I want to do it again I need to do it

and then I'd get back in

halfway through the race I'd go yeah I'm good

I'm all right you know is that the experience

you had yourself

yeah I couldn't agree more

I don't need to do it every week

I don't need to be in it

you probably went through the same

is this a comeback this is not a comeback

this is just getting the opportunity

you know

having this this idea

and then our crazy friend

Jimmy

helping me make it all happen

but it's just about

yeah it's just about doing it from me

it's just about

going out and having fun

and as you say scratching that edge

getting involved and I've loved

the conversations with Jeremy

my crew chief just getting involved

in the

setting up for the weekend all those things

I'm

I'm okay

that I'm not doing it the week after

oh I bet so tell me

I guess how this did come about

so was it as simple as a little

conversation with Jimmy had you been telling Jimmy

you know hey man

car owner now

you know Jimmy as well as I do

so

I had seen

that they announced that

trucks are going to race at St Pete

and Dixon and I have always

talked about the MX5 race

at St Pete

we should do the MX5 race

that would be so much fun

and now he's talking about

he wants to do it at Daytona but he's

slightly insane

but I was like okay I want to do

something I'd see Pete

track a love

that would be fun

that would be fun to do that

so Jimmy and I

at the time

Jimmy and Shani and the girls were in London

and

we have a lot

and we were sitting having a glass of red

and

I said to him

did you see the truck thing that looks fun

I wonder if we should

look at trying to do that

and Jimmy's like we had a bit of a conversation

back and forwards and

I literally think it was the next morning

Jimmy calls and says

hey man I found your truck

what

I said I found your truck

I said oh is it a good truck

he said well it's

a team called Tricon

and I'm like well Tricon

won the championship

and just you know on the

Charlotte Roval smashed everybody's doors in

and yeah them

oh okay so it's a good truck

it's like yeah it's a good truck

and I'm going to drive it in San Diego

we need to get a sponsor

he's like yeah well we'll work on that

you know with Legacy

and the Legacy Motor Club and all that

he said well we'll work on it you work on it I'll work on it

so the next thing he calls me

he says hey Dollar Tree are on board

sweet

he's like yeah they love the idea he said I'm going to come

on the box and I'm going to advise you

from the box like you used to do with me

and IndyCar I'm like oh here we go

so

Dollar Tree came on Pie Barker came on

Scott Borchetta with Borchetta Bourbon

came on board so all this thing happened

and then yeah

I mean honestly Jimmy has been

the driving force behind it

he's getting

such a kick out of

me getting back in

the car you know we were

we raced at Goodwood together we won

in Aston Martin

DB4 GT which Jimmy put a rather

sizeable dent in it

but

then we went to

Spa in the

six hours of Spa in a 4 GT40

which

you know so we've done some great racing

together recently and he could see that I wanted

to do something

and he's

he's helped me make it happen so

I think I have to

thank him we'll see you after Saturday

yeah I would you know that's Jimmy

he got me

in the road biking he got me on

snow skis

like he's that kind of guy that's like

oh you've never tried this well you gotta try this

and I've got a guy I'll fix it up don't worry

it's all here he

just puts it all out in front of you like

here you go you're on you know first class

operation every time

let's go but

you've experienced what I've experienced

I think I think fans think of Jimmy as this

very buttoned up very

you know he's so

sort of

ruptured and polished

you and I know different we know

the

they are when he gets this twitch

in his eye and that

can mean you're about to get in a competitive

situation with him and you're going to finish second

or you're

going to go skiing with him or something and he

skis like a lunatic he's

you know and

he's you know I think

he's one of those we're so lucky to have him as a friend

he's

he's not he

invited me

and some other great friends on a trip

and to

Europe and we actually ended up

at dinner with your wife which was incredible

and I swear

I I've never been to

London or never been to Europe

been to German Germany but I'm never

really spending much time there and I mean

we were in the

top in

places it was just like a hotel

everywhere we went to eat

first class out of

the out of the park

and I felt like I was on another

planet like a really cool planet but

it was so insane

my Amy told me

to tell Ellie I guess that

to tell her hello

right right back

out yeah Ellie had fun

she told me all about it yeah I was so I was

so jealous I was the fish out of water

I was I was so out of my element

but you just when you're in those moments

with Jimmy you just trust

he knows where he's going he knows what

he's not going to put you in a bad

a bad spot but I was like

man I don't I have no idea

where I'm at and you went to Scotland

we did we did go to Scotland which was

that was a little more

that was a little more my speed

like we were out in the wilderness

yes drinking beer and riding

you know out in the woods

and these bikes down down this

own creek and out in the middle of nowhere

it was so awesome

and the old place old in where we

stayed the hotel we stayed in was just

very vintage and

like I've been there for 500 years or more

it probably had

right and so we and we went into

this town we stayed at and you know this

but I'm saying it's for the listeners we

stayed in this little town maybe

maybe 300 people live there

and we went to the local tavern and hung out

and I mean that right there

is right in my wheelhouse

I want to do that kind of stuff right there

you and me both

when we went to London

I mean it is like being in New York City

but in Europe it was

wide open people everywhere and

fancy fancy fancy dinners and all this stuff

but it was still cool to do it

yeah

so I have a question for you

you mentioned Amy

what's going on with Daytona

what?

well yeah

we were just sitting in the bed after the 500

and we were just going over the weekend

and talking about just there's

not so much the result that we had that day

but more the emotions of being there and how heavy it is

and it's good we have fun

but it's super emotional to just

not only my connection to the racetrack

but to trying to run the Daytona 500

doing this once a year

we were just in our feelings and

she was like you should just do it

and I was like the hell

like I

I thought she was

I've been racing a late model

stock car which is local, regional

short track

it's where I started

so I kind of made this big arc

to get the cup and I went out the same

way I came in and I'm all the way

back to square one and I love going

and playing and doing that

and I get my ass kicked but I still

it's fun

but she was like you should just drive

the cup car next year I'm like you have no idea

how hard that is and to your point

like getting in shape

and being in the mental shape and knowing where the corners

of the car is

and I don't drive those cars and I don't

they got sequential shifters now

they got all these whole interiors

completely foreign to me

and so

but she was just wishful thinking

but I know better than to get into

that mess but Jimmy's done it

you know Jimmy's had fun doing it but

I don't know

we went down there to watch him

Scott Dixon and I went down

LA and the girls came down we were all there

supporting Jimmy he had a great strategy

to get in the front for the last stage

but he spun coming on pit road

and that messed the strategy

that would be me I would be spinning

on the pit road I would be

you wouldn't be able to give me a strategy

because I'd screw it all up but

I try to tell

people like

you know it's

so whimsical to think

yeah go run one more race

at the top level of the motorsport

discipline that you know

it ain't that easy these guys are elite

they're that 5%

that they have that none of us have anymore

that's you can't race without it

you know and expect to do well

to your point like I could go do it

I could stay out of trouble I could

disappear into the pack and probably get

lost the finish line but that's not what we

want to do that's not the experience that we

want to have and so

we want to get out there and do it well and if we

can't do it well it's not as easy

to go through the commitment of it and all

the extra stuff you have to do as well so

I gotta tell you man

I learned about you racing this truck

I'm excited for you we've had

some very brief kind of exchanges

over the years

about our you know our own

experiences and

I am thrilled for you to

be able to get back

behind the wheel I know you've had some

experiences behind the wheel racing over the years

but this is a real deal

this is a legit

top 3 NASCAR

you are back to 2007

back to square one

but you're at least at a place you're familiar with

I think you'll have an advantage over a lot

of the competition in terms of your experience

on the racetrack and your great

expertise as a road course racer so I'm

looking forward

to seeing you just like this

at the end of the day all smiles

proud that you did this

arm in arm with Jimmy

thankful for this opportunity

can't wait to see it happen this weekend buddy

thanks junior appreciate it

alright man thanks for

thanks for giving us some time today I know you're a busy man

trying to figure out how you're gonna get over to St. Pete

get ready for this weekend but good luck

and enjoy it

thank you

now let's download

alright so man that was a great conversation

I wanted to say this

to him before he got off the air

I wanted to add this into the back end of the conversation

but

Dario thank you for being

transparent and open

about some of the toughest moments in your

career and some of the

heartbreak and loss that you experienced

this guy

is prepping himself

for the race this weekend

and in a racer's

mind you want to like put the blinders

on and just forward focus on

trying to do the best job you can

with this singular opportunity

so asking him to like

kind of open up the chest

and dive into some of those

those old memories some that

some that probably still are difficult

to discuss that was a big

task in a tall

order I think for Dario

so thank you Dario for doing that

for our listeners for the show

not always

assumed and expected

but just a great conversation

I

so he I didn't never really

I didn't know know him at all I obviously

was a fan or had watched him race

and then when he retired

we had some

brief interactions

you know in the

direct message and so forth

on social media

about his injury and about his

experience and so forth

and I'm very grateful for that

I mean he I think he's the one that instigated

the the conversation

but it made me

it made me really care about his

his health his well-being his

experience in life beyond

racing and

so

yeah I

I'm glad to know that he got back behind

the wheel that he got to enjoy some great moments

that he mentioned with Jimmy and so forth

at Goodwood and now this

truck opportunity we should all

you know knowing what he's

experienced everything that he's done everything he's

accomplished we should all be wanting him to be

able to go to st. Pete and just have

a blast

the performance where

what the end result is matters

none matters very very little

you know the competitor in him

is certainly going to want to go out there

and run well right

put up a good effort but honestly

that matters very little

it's about the laps

the smells the sounds the

feeling the rush

you know

and I'm sure he's gonna he's gonna

capture all of that perfectly

just thankful for him he couldn't make the

flight to get here he's supposed to be in the studio

and he's like I could still do remote

and we as a team

got together had a conversation and I'm glad

we were able to do it today

and that was a lot of fun yeah so

excited about this weekend I think

I'll be tuned into the truck race

anticipating

how he may do

and

thanks for joining us here in the Arby's studio

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Dario Franchitti: Why He Almost Lost His Love For Racing

About this episode

Daytona 500

Chrysler Daytona

racetrack

front stretch

braking zone

street circuit

tight corners

narrow track sections

fender

wall contact

turn one

IndyCar Championship

Indy 500

Shelby Cobra

Ford GT40

Formula One World Championship

restored

racing motorbikes

Paul Stewart Racing

Autosport

Formula Three

Formula 1

DTM

Mercedes

Mclaren F1

test driver

Formula One engines

IndyCar engines

NASCAR truck engines

oval

die cast

Lionel Racing

Tata Motors Aria

stock car

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