{"id":453571,"date":"2026-02-04T15:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T15:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/453571\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T15:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T15:59:07","slug":"motorsport-legend-set-for-surprise-nascar-return-18-years-in-the-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/453571\/","title":{"rendered":"Motorsport legend set for surprise NASCAR return, 18 years in the making"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four-time IndyCar champion and three-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti was medically forced to retire<\/a> from motorsport competition after a horrifying IndyCar crash on the streets of Houston, Texas in October 2013.<\/p>\n

That crash happened less than three weeks after the release of GTA V. His unlikely return is still set to come before the release of GTA VI.<\/p>\n

Franchitti, who spent time competing in the NASCAR Cup Series and Nationwide (now O’Reilly Auto Parts) Series in 2008, just one year after winning his first IndyCar title and Indy 500, is set to return to NASCAR later this month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dario Franchitti set for sensational NASCAR return<\/p>\n

The 52-year-old Scottish legend is set to drive the No. 1 Toyota for TRICON Garage on Saturday, February 28 in the Truck Series’ inaugural race on the streets of St. Petersburg, which happens to be the very venue that opened up his 2011 IndyCar Series championship charge.<\/p>\n

It also happens to be the venue that is scheduled to open up the 2026 IndyCar season later in the weekend. Franchitti remains active in the IndyCar paddock, serving as an adviser and driver coach for Chip Ganassi Racing. Four-time champion, three-time reigning champion, and reigning Indy 500 winner Alex Palou has given Franchitti a ton of credit for his own meteoric rise in the series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Franchitti’s first and only career Truck Series start came at Martinsville Speedway with Cunningham Motorsports in 2007, just over a month after winning his first IndyCar title. He was knocked out of that race in an accident. His best career NASCAR national series finish is a fifth place finish at Watkins Glen International in the 2008 Nationwide Series season.<\/p>\n

TRICON Garage’s full-time lineup consists of the No. 11 Toyota, which is set to be driven by Kaden Honeycutt, the No. 15 Toyota, which is set to be driven by Tanner Gray, and the No. 17 Toyota, which is set to be driven by Gio Ruggiero. No driver has been confirmed for the No. 5 Toyota following Toni Breidinger’s departure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As for the No. 1 Toyota, the only other driver confirmed for this year is another racing legend in Jimmie Johnson<\/a>, who is set to make his own first Truck Series start since 2008 in the series’ inaugural race at the Coronado Street Course on Naval Base Coronado in June.<\/p>\n

The St. Petersburg Truck Series race is set to be shown live on Fox beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, February 28. It is the third of 25 races on the 2026 schedule. Start a free trial of FuboTV<\/a> and don’t miss any of the upcoming action!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four-time IndyCar champion and three-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti was medically forced to retire from motorsport competition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-453571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}