Franchitti: When your retirement really hits

Fontana, California, August 30. The familiar, gloss-red #10 Target Chip Ganassi car rounds the Auto Club Speedway's final bend headed to victory in this year's IndyCar Series season finale.

It's been a regular sight to IndyCar fans - except there's a major difference this time. It's not Scottish star Dario Franchitti pumping his fists in victory from the cockpit at the chequered flag, it's Brazilian Tony Kanaan.

Franchitti instead is dancing on the pitwall, watching the #10 that took him to two of his three Indianapolis 500 wins rack up yet another race victory.

It's unfamiliar territory for the 41-year-old from Bathgate, West Lothian, but he's getting used to it. And it's a role that's turned out to be something of a salvation.

Huge crash at the end of 2013 ended Franchitti's career © LAT

After having his driving career ended by serious injuries sustained in a horrific airborne crash on the final lap of last year's Houston race, Franchitti has had to reinvent his career to keep in touch with the sport.

His new spot is to act as an advisor to the Chip Ganassi Racing team for the entire IndyCar Series campaign. It's not driving anymore - that's no longer an option - but just staying in an active race paddock is something Franchitti is grateful for.

"This role with Ganassi is a godsend really," the four-time IndyCar champion tells AUTOSPORT's sister publication Motorsport News. "I'm advising the team, the engineers and the drivers at every race so it's pretty full-time. It's not driving, but it is the next best thing.

"I'm still in the paddock, still an important part of the team and I still have an influence on the competitiveness of the car. Obviously it's not to the same degree as jumping in it and winning races, but I still get the highs and the lows of competitive motorsport and all of the spirit that goes with it.

"It does take some adapting to though, I can't lie. When Tony won that race [at Fontana] in my car it was a fantastic moment, but also a very surreal one. It's great being in the pits and involved with everything the car's doing out on the track, but standing there watching everyone celebrate when that car actually wins is when it really hits you that you're not in that car anymore.

"You have to learn to celebrate race wins from the other side. It's very strange initially, but getting the chance to do it and stay involved has unquestionably been a godsend."

Kanaan was keen to share his celebrations with Franchitti, and was overjoyed to have won in the car he raced as a tribute to his friend.

"Dario helped me adjust to this team," he said at the time. "He's extremely capable in a race car but he was forced to retire. I'll always be grateful that he's still here to help. I know he wasn't driving, but he won that race too. He's been through a tough time."

Franchitti was fortunate to escape from that monumental accident with his life. When his Dallara DW12 struck the rear wheel of Takuma Sato's out-of shape machine through Turn 5 it was flipped into the crash fencing and rolled at unabated speed before coming to rest in the centre of the track.

Thirteen fans were injured by flying debris from the crash, but by far worst off was Franchitti. He sustained a spinal fracture (two fractured vertebrae), multiple ankle fractures and a serious concussion. It sparked two bouts of surgery and months of rehabilitation - which is still ongoing over a year later.

Franchitti's only knowledge of the accident that robbed him of his driving career has come from reviewing tapes and data.

"I have absolutely no memory of what happened in Houston," he says. "It took five weeks of my life away - two weeks before [the crash] and three after. I only know what I do because of the car's data and videos. I know I was quite lucky to still be mostly in one piece.

"I was in and out of hospital for three months, mostly for my right ankle because that was the worst injury. When I went into the fencing the data shows that my foot was still hard on the brake pedal, but when the car's crash structure deformed it pushed the brake master cylinder back into the cockpit.

"The impact shortened my right leg by about two inches, so they [the surgeons] had to pull everything back out and reset it. The rehab for that is still going on as I still have limited movement. I can't run on it for example, but I can cycle comfortably."

Franchitti has had to get used to spending his weekends on the pitwall © LAT

Despite the severity of his injuries, Franchitti adds the most difficult aspect of the crash was facing up to not racing again.

"The decision itself wasn't tough, there wasn't really a decision to be made," he explains. "At the first consultation the doctors didn't say 'we don't think you should drive anymore', it was more 'you're never driving again. Period'.

"That was tough to take, tough to hear. But in a way removing that choice made it easier because it was out of my hands. The care I received from the doctors, nurses and consultants in America was amazing. But I was also blown away by the amount of support from the motorsport community - the fans, the drivers, the teams... and not just from IndyCar - from Formula 1 and beyond. I was so touched by that.

"Nothing is the same as driving the car, so to know your career, that you've worked toward most of your life, is over is hard. But there are other ways to look at it. You can sit and complain and feel cheated, but then there's also the question of how much longer could I have gone on at the same level?

"I was 40 when I retired. Maybe it was the right time to stop anyway. I felt I could have challenged for a few more Indy 500 wins, but the championships were a different story. They were getting that much harder and felt that much longer every year. Getting harder physically and mentally. There's a time for every driver when their form drops off as they get older."

Franchitti says his last season hadn't been the success he'd hoped for: "The speed was there because I'd had four pole positions, but things just never came together in the races.

"Some people said the new [DW12] car hurt me when it came in [for the 2012 season], but the change from the old car wasn't that big. It was just that luck was against us. Things have to go right for you in IndyCar, but they didn't in 2013. But I still got to do what I wanted for 23 years, and that's pretty amazing."

Franchitti's career Stateside was impressive to say the least. In IndyCar he racked up four titles, 21 race wins, 57 podium finishes and 23 pole positions in 151 races. Add to that a hat-trick of Indy 500 wins and another 10 wins and 11 poles from 114 Champ Car races and you have a truly stellar list of achievements.

"Knowing that I could have been capable of winning more is actually very important to me," Franchitti adds. "If I'd gone out of the sport while I was running at the back, three seconds off the pace, that would have been terrible. But to finish knowing I still had that speed and that competitiveness is comforting.

"There are probably loads of regrets for things I should have done, or could have done better, but I don't have time to think about them.

"When I first went to America I didn't expect much. I went there fresh from British Formula 3 and the DTM [with Mercedes] and only expected to fight for a few wins here and there. Never did I think I'd achieve the list of things I did.

"But it's funny - when you're actually in the sport doing it you hardly realise. You just win a race, celebrate and then move on and try to win the next one. If you finish second you're pissed off and it makes you hungrier to win again so you plan the next race, go and win it. It's a cycle you get in and if you're winning you're happy; the more you win the more intense the cycle gets."

Despite the huge list of achievements, it's the three Indianapolis wins that Franchitti's most proud of - especially the emotionally charged third victory in 2012. His long-time friend Dan Wheldon was killed in a crash the previous year at the Las Vegas IndyCar finale. Dallara's DW12 chassis is named after him.

Third Indy 500 win was emotional following Wheldon's death © LAT

"Every Indy win is special," he says, "but each for its own reason. It's the kind of place that makes memories and you remember that special pass or that perfect lap. But 2012 was such a big one for me because of everything that happened before it. We lost Dan and it was the first Indy without him there and to win that race was just amazing and so emotional.

"I dedicated it to him and it really made it special. It's almost fitting that it turned out to be my last win at the Brickyard."

Franchitti is now firmly back on his feet - and the pitwall - and is relishing his new start in the sport he loves. He's relocated back to Scotland full-time and travels to America to coincide with the IndyCar schedule.

When home he's now active in the Scottish Motor Racing Club and a regular visitor to Knockhill. He's also taken up mentoring Scotland's rising star Ciaran Haggerty in Formula Ford 1600, giving the teenager a leg-up by buying his Ray GR14 through the Racing for Scotland initiative.

Franchitti says: "I'd love it if I was still driving, but things happen and you have to deal with them and move on. I actually had an offer on the table to do Le Mans next year, which I was going to take and have a proper go at endurance racing. Obviously now I can't, but plans change.

"I count myself lucky to have had the driving career I did and now to be in the position I am where I'm still involved and get the chance to help the next generation with my knowledge and experience.

"This is a sport I love and being involved in any capacity is a blessing."

For more on Franchitti and his new Scottish protege, take a look at the November 26 issue of Motorsport News