Honda: Successful at the Iowa Speedway

Dario Franchitti Indianapolis 500 Champion hasand his first ever oval-track finish of the year.
made it two wins in the last four races ahead ofThe second-year IndyCar driver led by four laps
Andretti Green Racing teammate macro Andrettibut never really got the chance to lead.
across the finish line last Sunday at the IowaAside from Adretti, Scott Sharp was also able to
Speedway held in conjunction with the inauguralrank third while Buddy Rice places fourth and
Iowa Corn Growers Indy 250 in front of a selloutSarah Fisher finishing in seventh place---all had their
crowd of 35,838.bets results this year. Panther Racing's Victor
Beginning at the inside of the second row,Meira led 71 laps and was trying to achieve his
Franchitti successfully shunned all three multi-carfirst IndyCar victory before suspension failure
crashes which caused the delayed and eliminationmakes him to retire on Lap 216. The accident
of more than half of the 19 car starting field.was able to take out from the race Danica
Franchitti was able to lead throughout the finalPatrick, A.J. Foyt IV, Sam Hornish Jr., Kosuke
third of the 250-lap event leading 96 laps for hisMatsuura, Kanaan, Jeff Simmons, and Tomas
second IndyCar Series victory of the season withScheckter.
a remarkable point lead in the championshipDario Franchitti driving the #27 Andretti Green
standings after 8 of 17 races.Racing Honda has started in 3rd and finished 1st.
In addition it was also the second 1-2 result forthis is the second win for 2007 of Franchitti and
the Andretti Green Racing in the last three raceshis 6th career IndyCar victory and his seventh
as Tony Kaanan and Franchitti finished first andtop-five finish in eight races for this season.
second respectively at The Milwaukee Mile thisBecause of his achievements, Franchitti becomes
month.Honda's all-time winning driver with 16 opne-wheel
Dario's win has given him a total of 16victories in CART and IndyCar competition.
Honda-powered victories in North AmericanFranchitti said, "It was just a great job by the
open-wheel competition surpassing Alex Zanardiguys all weekend long. This may be a short track,
who has only 15 wins as Honda's most successfulbut it drives a lot like a super speedway. We took
driver in Indy-style racing.a bit of a gamble on our last pit stop [taking fuel
Last weekend's race at Iowa Speedway hasonly and running the final 104 laps on the same
proven to be a success for the Honda Indy V8set of tires] to gain some track position, so I
engine and Honda lowering springs that shows 100certainly didn't need to see that last yellow. All
percent reliability throughout 7,241 laps of testing,credit to Firestone and to Honda, who once again
practice, qualifying, and then finally at last Sunday'sgave us a great engine. There were no team
race totaling to 6,493 miles covered withorders, and I know Marco [Andretti] wants a
temperatures ranging from the mid-90s on Fridayvictory just as much as I do, so that made the
to as low as 70s during the race.final run pretty exciting for both of us. It was a
Andretti with less than seven-hundredths of avery physical race, but a lot of fun at the same
second behind the finish was able to have his besttime.
result in what has been a difficult 2007 season