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However, the 35-year-old has stressed he is unlikely to return to the IndyCar Series, where he won the championship and Indy500 last season, simply because he is confident he can still make a success of his Nascar career.

In the wake of losing hiADVERTISEMENTs seat in the Ganassi Dodge, in which he has contested this season’s Nascar Sprint Cup, his team boss Chip Ganassi stated he would be happy to help the Scot return to IndyCar if that was what he wanted. Franchitti, though, has other plans. “Let’s see what the future holds,” he said. “I need to sit down with Chip and see where his head is, but Nascar is where I want to be. I want to be successful here and I don’t want it to end like this.

 

“I made a big commitment coming over here and I’d like to get an opportunity to be successful. When I made the decision to come to Nascar, I wasn’t going to do the IndyCar thing any more anyway, so this isn’t a case of missing out on what could have been in IndyCar. That just wasn’t a direction I wanted to go in. Never say never, but it’s unlikely I’ll go back.”

 

Having battled to a best finish of 22nd at Martinsville in his first 17 Sprint Cup races, Franchitti believes his No.40 car team had just turned a corner and was sure his team were making progress.

 

“There’s no denying we definitely struggled in the first couple of races,” Franchitti, who is expected to continue in the Nascar Nationwide Series, admitted, “but we were getting there.

 

“Me and the No.40 guys all thought things were turning around.”