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Franchitti wins Texas race one

Dario Franchitti survived a late restart to win the first of the two races at the IndyCar Twin 275s at Texas, leading Scott Dixon across the line for a Ganassi one-two

Franchitti took the lead from polesitter Alex Tagliani at the start and comfortably controlled most of the race, but the Scot's hopes of a straightforward win were shot when rookies Wade Cunningham and Charlie Kimball came together at Turn 3 with 21 laps remaining, bringing about the race's only caution period.

Franchitti and Dixon controlled the double-file restart, but Penske's Will Power and Sam Schmidt's Tagliani were both right on their tail, and the quartet broke away from the rest of the pack and fought between themselves over the final three laps. Although all retained their original positions, the intensity of the scrap was reflected in the fact that all four were covered by just 0.2 seconds at the finish.

"From the first lap I was able to get into the lead and the biggest problem was traffic," Franchitti said. "The first win at Texas feels good. We've come close before."

The grid for the second race will be determined by random draw, and Kimball and Cunningham are both expected to have their cars repaired in time to make the start.

Results - 114 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team                  Time/Gap
 1.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            54m47.2787s
 2.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi              + 0.0527s
 3.  Will Power           Penske               + 0.2064s
 4.  Alex Tagliani        Sam Schmidt          + 0.4109s
 5.  Takuma Sato          KV                   + 1.4174s
 6.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske               + 1.4337s
 7.  EJ Viso              KV                   + 2.1127s
 8.  Vitor Meira          Foyt                 + 2.5355s
 9.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi              + 2.8146s
10.  Helio Castroneves    Penske               + 4.3388s
11.  Tony Kanaan          KV                   + 4.7842s
12.  Paul Tracy           Dragon               + 7.0114s
13.  Marco Andretti       Andretti               + 1 lap
14.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne             + 1 lap
15.  Jay Howard           Sam Schmidt            + 1 lap
16.  Danica Patrick       Andretti               + 1 lap
17.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold      + 1 lap
18.  Ed Carpenter         Sarah Fisher           + 1 lap
19.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti               + 1 lap
20.  James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas            + 1 lap
21.  Oriol Servià         Newman/Haas           + 2 laps
22.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold     + 2 laps
23.  JR Hildebrand        Panther               + 2 laps
24.  Mike Conway          Andretti              + 2 laps
25.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne            + 2 laps
26.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                   + 3 laps
27.  Davey Hamilton       Dreyer & Reinbold     + 5 laps
28.  Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest             + 17 laps

Retirements:

     Wade Cunningham      Sam Schmidt            92 laps
     Charlie Kimball      Ganassi                91 laps

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