{"id":142035,"date":"2026-02-03T15:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/142035\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T15:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:35:08","slug":"indycar-champion-dario-franchitti-to-make-nascar-return-in-one-off-appearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/142035\/","title":{"rendered":"IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti to make NASCAR return in one-off appearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dario Franchitti, one of the most accomplished racers in the history of open-wheel competition, is set to make his NASCAR<\/a> return in 2026. According to Marshall Pruett of RACER<\/a>, Franchitti will make a one-off appearance in the Feb. 28 Truck Series race at Grand Prix of St. Petersburg with Tricon Garage.<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg that weekend happens to be the site of the 2026 IndyCar Series opener, where Franchitti serves as a special advisor for Chip Ganassi Racing. Seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, a close friend of Franchitti, reportedly arranged the ride in collaboration with his Legacy Motor Club team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen this came up with the NASCAR Truck race on the Saturday, I thought, \u2018Well, I\u2019m not going to get to drive an Indy car there; I\u2019m too bloody old for one thing, but I love the track, I love St. Pete,\u201d Franchitti told RACER. \u201cJimmie and I have spent a lot of time together over the last couple years at the track, racing together, racing against each other occasionally, and just having fun away from the track. We were basically drinking a glass of wine, and I said to him, \u2018God, that would be fun to do that at St. Pete.\u2019 And the next morning, he calls me and goes, \u2018Hey, found your truck!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cJimmie\u2019s been the driving force behind it. We know the equipment\u2019s good because the Tricon guys obviously won the championship. Dollar Tree\u2019s come on board and Scott Borchetta\u2019s involved and Legacy Motor Club, obviously. And then JJ will be my guy on the stand, on the radio. I know the track like the back of my hand, which is an advantage, but the big disadvantage is a lack of familiarity with the vehicle. But It\u2019ll be part of the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dario Franchitti is back for one race only<\/p>\n

Franchitti, 52, is a four-time IndyCar champion, winning three in a row from 2009-2011. His first championship came back in 2007, the same year in which he left for the Cup Series. Franchitti returned to IndyCar in 2009 after one season in NASCAR. Franchitti is one of 10 drivers with at least three Indianapolis 500 wins.<\/p>\n

Franchitti was forced into retirement in 2013 after suffering a concussion in an IndyCar crash in Houston. He intended to race in IndyCar in 2014; however, doctors advised him against it. While this is not an official comeback, Franchitti \u201ccan\u2019t bloody wait\u201d to get back on the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime is a great healer, and correct, this is not a comeback for me,\u201d Franchitti said. \u201cI\u2019ve been in cars something like 12 days out of the last two weeks, so this isn\u2019t too much of a change of normal. I\u2019m in cars constantly, and all the testing with the Gordon Murray Automotive cars and the track cars, the performance level of that thing is up there, and that\u2019s really made me more comfortable doing other stuff. We\u2019ll get to test the truck at Sebring, which I know well, just to get a feel for it, and I can\u2019t bloody wait.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dario Franchitti, one of the most accomplished racers in the history of open-wheel competition, is set to make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-142035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}