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Dario Franchitti opened the season, with four championships and 30 career victories, with the chance to move into very elite status. Two wins this year would push Franchitti into seventh on the all-time wins list, and the only drivers ahead of him are the icons of open-wheel racing. Three of them are Unsers, two are Andrettis, and the all-time wins leader is A.J. Foyt himself. Pretty solid company but not something Franchittis dwelling on during his 14th full season. "Lets see if I win another one first," he said. "I mean that quite literally. I dont think you can ever take for granted winning another race. It would be wonderful, a great feeling for me, to be in that kind of thing. But lets see if I can win another race before we start talking about that." It seemed a bit silly at the time for Franchitti to question his ability to win races. After all, he has collected 12 wins and three consecutive titles since returning to IndyCar in 2009 following a brief NASCAR stint. Maybe he made it look easy the last three years. Right now, it appears to be a challenge. Franchitti is off to one of the roughest starts of his IndyCar career. The Scot was 13th in the season-opener, used what he called "one of the greatest drives of my career" to finish 10th at Barber and slipped to 15th Sunday in Long Beach after starting fourth. He enters this off weekend 13th in the IndyCar standings. Its his lowest ranking since he finished 18th in the 2005 season opener. And its his worst start to the season since 2004, when he opened with a pair of 17th-place finishes, a seventh and a 14th. His worst overall season was 2006, the only year he failed to finish a race, and ended up a career-worst eighth in the final standings. Franchitti has always managed to turn things around, so he wasnt about to hit the panic button following Sundays race. "Whats the point? I mean really whats the point in worrying about it?" he asked. "Ive said it too many times. You do your absolute best and some weeks it just all happens and some weeks it doesnt look good but it still goes your way, and some weeks are like (Sunday). "Weve had a lot of weekends where everything has just gone well for us, so sometimes you have to expect the opposite. Hopefully it ends very, very soon." Change might be whats ailing Franchitti right now. IndyCar has introduced its first new car in nine years. During most of his testing the location of the brake pedals forced him to use his left foot. It was awkward and uncomfortable for the career right-foot braker, who felt he was being forced to relearn to drive. IndyCar and manufacturer Dallara approved a new pedal for him toward the end of January. But it didnt get in his car until a test session at Sebring, a little more than two weeks before the season opener, so Franchittis still learning the car. It doesnt help that his Target Chip Ganassi Racing team is powered by Honda, which has been easily handled so far this season by rival Chevrolet. Although a Honda driver has been on the podium each of the first three races -- Franchittis teammate Dixon finished second in the first two, and Simon Pagenaud was second at Long Beach -- Chevrolet drivers from Ganassi rival Penske Racing have won all three poles and all three races this season. "To sit here and come up with a bunch of excuses -- I dont want to do that," Franchitti said. "It really just comes down to me getting comfortable with the balance of the car." His peers consider Franchitti a finesse driver who spends the opening days of a race weekend perfecting the car setup, then taking it out for what seems like a causal Sunday drive. "Hes a good, tough competitor," said Will Power, runner-up to Franchitti the last two seasons. "Hes very good at his job and hard to beat." But Power is among those who have publicly marveled at what they consider an unbelievable streak of luck that has given Franchitti finishes and wins he maybe didnt earn. Perhaps, but it takes a lot more than luck to win two Indianapolis 500s and championships in four of the last five seasons. "He came over here, and immediately he was a factor," said Mario Andretti, who ranks second on the all-time list with 52 victories. "Hes been a factor ever since. He wins races and championships, and you dont win championships over and over just being lucky. Hes a great person, very intelligent, a sophisticated guy, and you can talk to him about politics, you dont have to talk racing. "Hes absolutely the complete package." Although Franchitti won 10 races in the former CART Series, his first championship didnt come until 2007, a full 10 years after hed joined the top level of American open-wheel racing. His younger brother, Marino, remembers the frustration of watching his brother fall short in his goals. "I think I had unrealistic thoughts about what he should achieve. He was my big brother, and I always expected him to win," Marino said. "And I could get quite upset if he didnt win. But then 2007, he finally started to put it altogether. Since then, hes achieved more than I thought was possible, and thats because he works so hard. "If he feels he has a weakness, he makes himself better through hard work. He thinks about it all the time. He thinks about motorsports all the time. Its his job, and its what he loves." In all that time thinking, though, Franchitti insists hes never considered his place in history. He grew up idolizing Andretti, Ayrton Senna, Jimmy Clark, Jackie Stewart and Gilles Villeneuve. Never did he imagine being mentioned in the same conversations as those racing greats. Last season, a four-win campaign, saw Franchitti pass Helio Castroneves, Rodger Ward, Dixon, Johnny Rutherford and Rick Mears on the all-time wins list. His final win of the season, at Toronto in July, pushed him past Mears for ninth on the list. He didnt reflect on it then, and he hasnt since. "Rick Mears and I were talking once. He said If you think you belong in the company of your heroes, theres something wrong with you," Franchitti said. "I cant argue with that. The numbers could be wherever they are on the list. But those guys are my heroes, and I just dont think of myself as one of them." http://www.maxshoecheap.me.uk/nike-free-3-0/nike-free-3-0-ru n-2s.html . Ki, who is on loan from Swansea, darted into the box midway through the first half and was tackled by Howard, who was given a straight red card. The midfielder then converted the 25th-minute spot kick to give Sunderland its first away win of the season and a much-needed boost in its fight to escape the relegation zone. nike blazer sale . Jackson beat Cleveland for the ninth straight time after Indians rookie Ezequiel Carrera dropped an easy fly ball in centre field to give the White Sox two runs in a 4-2 victory Sunday. http://www.maxshoecheap.me.uk/nike-roshe-run/nike-roshe-run- mesh.html . Manager John Farrell says Lawrie isnt yet to a point where he might need to be shut down for the season. Lawrie is hitting .282 with nine home runs, but has been on the disabled list since Aug. Nike Roshe Run Flyknit . Ribery, who won UEFAs best player in Europe award for the 2012-13 season, helped Bayern Munich win the Champions League and Bundesliga and German Cup titles. Messi, winner of the last four Ballon dOr awards in voting by coaches, team captains and media, was injured late in the season and could not prevent Barcelona from being beaten by Bayern in the Champions League semifinals. nike free trainer 5.0 review . The NHL said Rolston was fined for "player selection and team conduct" after putting six-foot-eight enforcer John Scott on the ice after a fight between Torontos Jamie Devane and Buffalos Corey Tropp.PATTAYA, Thailand -- Fourth-seeded Ekaterina Makarova put her close friendship with Vera Zvonareva to one side by easily beating her fellow Russian 6-0, 6-2 in just 63 minutes in the second round of the Pattaya Open on Wednesday. Zvonareva, who won the tournament in 2009 and 10, couldnt handle her opponents big groundstrokes in only her third event back after 17 months out with a shoulder injury. Zvonareva made her comeback in January in Shenzhen and played in the Australian Open but lost her first matches at both tournaments.dddddddddddd She is currently outside the top 900 in the rankings, having once been at No. 2. Top-seeded Sabine Lisicki withdrew before her second-round match against Andrea Hlavackova after hurting her shoulder in her opening win against Donna Vekic. cheap nfl jerseys cheap soccer jerseys ' ' '
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