Franchitti laments missing Sprint race

The Scot scored his second best result in NASCAR with an eleventh place finish, crossing the chequered flag on the lead lap. Normally the experience would serve him well to prepare for the Sprint Cup race on Sunday but he failed to qualify, having lost his automatic provisional last month.

Now that his entry is outside the top 35 in owner points and he needs to qualify for races on speed.

Franchitti blamed the lack of grip on the front end of his car for not being able to make the field for Sunday's race.

"That's one of the things that qualifying is one lap but I really think we're racing well." Franchitti said following his Nationwide race. "So it would have been nice to go out there tomorrow in the car and have some fun but it's not to be.

"The [Sprint Cup] car was just incredibly tight. We expected the track to free up
in qualifying and it tightened up and we couldn't carry the momentum because of the tightness.

"You know, after a deal like yesterday, it's nice to have a good finish and to show that we can do it."

Franchitti will have to try to make the field again at Phoenix next weekend. He completed a test at the one-mile track last month and also raced there in the Nationwide Series last year, crashing out with four laps to go when he was running 24th.