Franchitti still angry with Andretti

The Scot was leading the Motorola Indy 300 at Infineon Raceway last Sunday when he and Andretti collided 11 laps from the finish. The crash sent Andretti out of the race and significantly damaged the left-front suspension on Franchitti's car, causing him to lose the lead to Scott Dixon on the ensuing restart and eventually finish third.

The crash cost Franchitti the lead in the IndyCar Series standings; he led Dixon by eight points before the race but dropped four points behind after Dixon held off Helio Castroneves to win.

"I haven't talked to Michael. I've talked to Marco," Franchitti said. "I thought it was important to do that. It's good to talk about something like that and forget about it."

At issue is the reaction of Michael Andretti, the team's co-owner and Marco's father.

Andretti reacted angrily when he saw the crash on monitors in the pits, slamming down an awning on one of the team's portable pit stands, then blaming Franchitti for the crash on the nationally televised broadcast and indicating Franchitti may have just cost himself the championship.

"I'm highly disappointed," Michael Andretti said after the Infineon race. "All Dario had to do was wait one turn and we would have had a one-two finish and that would have opened up the points lead.

"We should have left out of here with a 20-point lead and now we're leaving with a four-point deficit.

"I think Dario should have had patience. He had a teammate that would have let him by and fall in and finish second. Dario should have had more patience than that."

Franchitti indicated in Detroit today that the comments stung, especially in light of the nature of the crash.

"I wasn't very impressed with (Michael's) reaction, I have to say," Franchitti said.

"At some point we'll try to sort it out the way we've always done. This isn't the first time we've had disagreements as a team. We'll talk about it and sort it out.

"I disagreed with what he said. I was not happy with his comments, and I've made that plain."