Franchitti concedes CART title hopes

Franchitti was inside Oriol Servia at the wide Turn 5 hairpin when Tracy came blasting through from behind carrying about 30mph too much speed. The three cars came together, and Tracy's Lola-Honda jumped over Franchitti's right front wheel, damaging the suspension too badly for the Scot to continue.

"I talked to Paul and some of the other guys around me about the start before the race," Franchitti related. "There was no need to be crazy at the start or on the first lap here, but as usual, Paul came charging in.

"The championship is gone for sure - time is getting short," Dario added. "When you're own team-mate takes you out, what can you say?"

Team Boss Barry Green was equally unimpressed with Tracy's move.

"I'm mad at him - he took his team-mate out," Green said. "We had a lot of trouble all weekend and we never gave the guys a decent setup. Paul is not very patient, but we've talked about it and talked about it and he knows it's doubly bad when you take out a team-mate - especially since Dario just won at Montreal and was right up there in the championship."

Tracy and Franchitti have had several run-ins during their four-plus years as team-mates, most famously at Houston in 1998 and Chicago in 2000.