Franchitti hopeful of Dover return

The Scot will drive a racecar for the first time next Tuesday since his crash in a Nationwide Series event at Talladega, where he fractured his left ankle.

He will wear a special carbon-fibre brace, and following his scheduled two-day run at Pocono he is set to decide whether he can return to racing the following weekend at Dover.

"I'm going to drive the car on Tuesday and Wednesday at Pocono," Franchitti told autosport.com. "I've got some movement [in my ankle] now, so it should be OK to do that and then we'll see from there. We'll make a decision after that for the following week in Dover.

"It's more about my decision and what I can and can't handle in the car, you know. Pushing the brake pedal as hard as I need to push it. Sitting in the car for the length of a Cup race or even a Nationwide race for that matter.

"So we've just got to try that out on Tuesday and I'll get an idea from there. I'll talk to Chip and talk to the guys in the team and then we'll make a decision."

Franchitti says he has not enjoyed being out of the car for the past four weeks despite having the chance to learn from watching from the outside and interacting in a different way with his team while attending races.

"It sucks," he said. "It's horrible to be at the track and not be driving. I've been trying to use my time in the best way possible to look in and talk to the engineers and the crew chiefs and just understanding the little things and absorbing things I wouldn't normally see from inside the car.

"Hopefully that helps us a little bit but it's tough to be out of the car. You get into a good rhythm with the racing every week and it's tough to miss three or four races now. It's been hard."

The Scot is still uncertain whether he will return to action both in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series, or if he is set to concentrate on the top series on his return behind the wheel.