Top 25 IndyCar drivers of all-time
By Asher Fair
Top IndyCar drivers of all-time: #5 – Dario Franchitti
It’s hard to believe that it’s been seven and a half years since Dario Franchitti was forced into retirement thanks to serious injuries caused by a scary crash on the streets of Houston, Texas. It’s been almost nine years since he won a race. But we’re still going to classify Franchitti as one of the more modern drivers on this list.
When Will Power was unable to close out championships in the early 2010s, Dario Franchitti was usually the guy picking up the pieces. After coming from behind to win the 2009 title, he capitalized on Power’s miscues in 2010 and 2011 to become a three-time and then a four-time champion — always in clutch, come-from-behind fashion.
Franchitti won his four titles in a five-year span. But when looking at IndyCar alone, he really won four in a row, as he left the series for NASCAR after winning his maiden title in 2007.
That ended in disaster in more ways than one, and he returned to IndyCar in 2009. For three seasons, it was like he didn’t skip a beat.
In 2012, he was unable to win a fifth “consecutive” title, but he still won an epic Indy 500 that saw more lead changes than any previous Indy 500 at the time, and that win made him the 10th driver to win the race three times.
With three wins in five attempts from 2007 to 2012 and just 10 total attempts, he could easily be classified as a top five driver in the history of Indianapolis Motor Speedway as well.
The fact that Franchitti is only tied for 10th place on the all-time wins list is actually quite shocking given the fact that he was able to win so many titles in such a short span of time. Nevertheless, he deserves his top five spot on this list, or at the very least, some other spot inside the top 10.
Additionally, only one driver has won more than 31 races, four championships and three Indy 500s. Spoiler alert: that driver is in the top four.