• Indianapolis 500

Dario Franchitti wins second Indianapolis 500

Dario Franchitti celebrates winning his second Indianapolis 500 © Getty Images

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Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 to help Chip Ganassi become the first car owner to win at Indy and the Daytona 500 in the same year. Dan Wheldon crossed second and Alex Lloyd third as British drivers swept the top three places.

Franchitti's victory was his second at the Indy 500 in four years and denied Helio Castroneves a chance to become the fourth driver to win a record four times at the Brickyard. Castroneves was running in the top three until he stalled coming out of a pit stop on the 145th lap. He finished ninth, as none of Roger Penske's drivers came across in the top seven.

Tony Kanaan started in the 33rd position and rose as high as second, but had to pit for a splash of fuel with four laps to go and finished 11th.

Franchitti dominated much of the race, leading 155 of the 200 laps. He fell off the lead after a pit stop and regained it with seven laps remaining, as the cars in front of him had to pit for fuel.

"It's just as good the second time," he said. "Up until 10 laps to go, I was pretty relaxed. Then all hell broke loose with fuel savings and all. I just needed to know what the other guys were doing. If they were saving more than me, they were doing something special here. This means so much.''

Franchitti finished the race under caution, as an accident on the final lap sent Mike Conway's car airborne.

The race was eventful from the off, with Davey Hamilton crashing on the first lap. "This is the start of the Indy 500 right, we have 200 laps to complete," he fumed. "Tom Scheckter thinks he can win it in the first lap. He's an idiot, he does it all the time. He appeared out of nowhere."

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