Kanaan prevails over teammate Andretti after multi-car crash source: indycar.com / Dave Lewandowski Dario Franchitti tightly embraced Tony Kanaan in Victory Circle at Michigan International Speedway -- both joyous (for different reasons) to have such a backdrop after one of the wildest races in recent IndyCar Series history. A spectacular crash on Lap 144 involving seven cars - including points leader Franchitti and his closest pursuer, Scott Dixon - partially eclipsed the results of the Firestone Indy 400. The final half-dozen laps were as exciting as any all season, with Kanaan edging Andretti Green Racing teammate Marco Andretti by 0.0595 of a second for his third victory of the season. Scott Sharp finished a season-high third in the No. 8 Patron Rahal Letterman Racing car in the race delayed 4½ hours by rain. There were 23 lead changes among nine drivers. Kosuke Matsuura also posted a season high (tying his career best) of fourth in the No. 55 Panasonic Panther Racing car, and Buddy Rice advanced 12 positions to finish fifth in the No. 15 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing entry. Those two were mostly the result of attrition, with the biggest impact being the Lap 144 incident. With Franchitti taking the outside line in overtaking race leader Dan Wheldon on the backstretch, the cars touched wheels and Franchitti's No. 27 Canadian Club entry became airborne, landing upside down on the asphalt. With nowhere to turn, the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing driven by Dixon and the No. 22 Vision Racing car driven by A.J. Foyt IV ran into (under actually) the No. 27 car. "We touched and the next thing I knew I was upside down going backward," said Franchitti, who was dazed but uninjured. "I thought, 'This isn't good.' I'm glad everyone is OK. I said to Scott, 'We have to stop meeting like that.' We've been running side-by-side in so many races recently. When I stopped and realized I was in one piece, I couldn't believe it. I'm a lucky guy." The debris field and spinning cars also caught up the cars driven by Sam Hornish Jr., Ed Carpenter and Tomas Scheckter. Two laps earlier, Scheckter's No. 2 Vision Racing car was 0.0538 of a second behind race leader Wheldon. Dixon returned to the race long enough to move ahead of Franchitti, who finished 13th, in the results. But with Franchitti gaining the three bonus points for leading a race-high 101 laps, he retained a 24-point lead headed to the twilight race in six days at Kentucky Speedway. To that defining point of the race, Franchitti was the class of the 20-car field -- moving from 18th after stalling during a pit stop to second behind Dixon in eight laps. "Damn, that car was fast," he said. There were no other injuries reported, but Foyt was showing everyone tire marks from Franchitti's car on his helmet. "Man, we were really lucky," he said.
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