Franchitti celebrates first top ten

The Scot, making his seventh Nationwide start, had qualified the No.40 Ganassi Dodge sixth, then slipped back in his first stint before some well-judged strategy calls helped him move up the field to put him second for the penultimate restart.

When the green flag waved he was overtaken by some of the quickest cars of the day but he was still able to hold on to sixth place in the last two laps following the final caution, despite being on older tyres than most of the field.

"The caution came out just at the right time for the guys that needed to pit, which was kind of ironic," Franchitti said. "We'd have liked to have seen an earlier caution. I think that would have put us in even better shape but it is what it is. But we'll take our sixth place finish and move on to next week."

Franchitti went out of sequence from the leaders on lap 126 when he pitted under caution, changing only two tyres, and then returned to the pits on lap 139, also under caution, to fill up the tank.

Then during the penultimate caution he stayed on the track when the leaders pitted, as he still had enough fuel on board to make it to the end.

"I had not been in that situation before so I didn't really know what to expect," Franchitti said about the last part of the race. "I just went into Turn 1 and 2 as hard as I could and I was sliding around when other guys with new tyres had a bit more grip. From that point I knew the situation and I just did what I could."

Brad Parrott, who works as Franchitti's crew chief in the Nationwide Series, and last season worked with Juan Pablo Montoya, reckoned that Franchitti should consider the result a victory.

"Dario Franchitti did a great job all day long, kept the car clean," Parrott said. "He had some issues with the faster cars and everything but sixth place is pretty much a win for us.

"To come here and start sixth in Vegas, and finish sixth and roll the dice here in Vegas, we came out with a Royal Flush, I guess."

Last year's Indianapolis 500 champion reckons he is currently adapting better to the Nationwide series car than to his Sprint Cup machine.

He believes his team still have some work to do to get their Cup cars to handle better, something he claims would ease his learning curve.

"In the Nationwide side, it's not too bad." Franchitti added. "I think we know the cars very well, the team know the cars very well so they're helping me out by giving me pretty good cars. They've got a little bit more downforce.

"But when I get into the Sprint Cup car right now I think as a team we're struggling to figure those cars out. That makes my job a lot more difficult and also makes my crew chief's job a lot more difficult because I'm struggling when the car is very loose to hang on to it."

Franchitti currently leads the Raybestos rookie standings in the Nationwide Series with 37 points, 12 ahead of fellow Ganassi driver Bryan Clauson.