Franchitti relaxed about goals

The Scot will be making his Sprint Cup debut at the season opener Daytona 500 for which he is already qualified. Earlier this month he impressed during testing at the 2.5-mile oval, running well both in qualifying-like single car runs and in the draft.

The current IRL IndyCar Series and Indy 500 champion says he is excited about the season ahead and admits to be ready for a year in which he expects to have a fair share of tough days on the track.

"Excitement level is high," Franchitti said. "I think with any new endeavor there's excitement coming in, a little bit of trepidation and the fear of the unknown I guess and what it's going to be like.

"Some days I'm feeling really comfortable and really good about things and other days we go test somewhere and I don't feel quite as comfortable. I think that's going to be the story of the season.

"Talking to Juan (Pablo Montoya) and other guys that have been rookies they say that's one of the things. Some days you're running well, other weeks it's not going to be good so you've got to realize why."

Franchitti is not setting any specific goals in terms of results for this year, where he will be one of the leading candidates to take the rookie of the year honors that Ganassi won last season with Juan Pablo Montoya.

"My personal goal is I just want to do the best job I can," Franchitti added. "I think it's keeping the bosses happy, Felix and Chip. That would be my number one goal. I think to set ourselves up and say we're going to finish X in the points or something, I think we're setting ourselves up there for failure.

"So I'm just going to go and do the best I can and being competitive is number one (goal)."

Chip Ganassi Racing announced this week that Franchitti will share driving duties in the No. 40 car in the Nationwide Series with Reed Sorenson, Scott Pruett and Kevin Hamlin, meaning he will only run a partial schedule in NASCAR's second division.

He will also compete in every round of the Sprint Cup Series in the No. 40 Dodge Charger, for which sponsors have yet to be announced.