Franchitti faces tough time at Bristol

Both the former IRL IndyCar Series champions have made inauspicious starts to their rookie NASCAR campaigns, leaving them outside the top 35 in positions in car owner's points.

Now they must score enough on one of the toughest events of the year, the Food City 500 on Bristol's notorious one-mile oval.

"It is what it is," said Franchitti, who has shown some pace in Ganassi's Nationwide car but has so far failed to get to grips with the Car of Tomorrow (CoT) in the top division.

"If we're out we'll just have to do qualifying performances like we did in Atlanta," said the Ganassi Racing driver. "If we end up out of it we'll work our way back in."

Fellow single-seater convert AJ Allmendinger lost his ride at Red Bull Racing after consistently failing to qualify in one of the eight final spots on the grid, therefore not getting to the chance to earn enough points to automatically qualify.

Franchitti remains confident however.

"Bristol is going to be wild," he said. "In one way I'm looking forward to it and we'll see what happens."

Hornish Jr has shown more consistent pace than Franchitti so far this year, but the Penske driver has endured some terrible luck in the races.

"It's pretty difficult," said Hornish. "We just need to be calm and that is the same thing we need to do Sunday to get ourselves out of that hole."