Dario Franchitti Wins Third Indianapolis 500 - East Idaho News
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Dario Franchitti Wins Third Indianapolis 500

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Getty S 52712 Franchitti?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1338162550397Robert Laberge/Getty Images(INDIANAPOLIS) — Dario Franchitti won the 96th Indianapolis 500 on Sunday beating out his Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon on the final lap.

It was an emotional day for everyone on the racetrack as the remembered last year’s winner Dan Wheldon who was killed in October during the season’s final race.  Tony Kanaan finished in third, marking the podium sweep of Dan Wheldon’s closest friends.

“Everybody up there was a friend of Dan’s, and that about sums it up. Everybody loved him,” said Franchitti who has now won the 500 for the third time in his career.

It wasn’t easy on the final lap for Franchitti who beat out Takuma Sato on a wheel-to-wheel battle after Sato  spun out trying to make one last pass on the inside and slammed into the wall.

“It looks like he didn’t give me enough room to go there,” Sato said. “I was a little below the white line. I had nowhere to go.”

Ryan Briscoe who won the pole headed into the race finished in fifth.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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