Dario Franchitti was hired to replace Dan Wheldon at Chip Ganassi Racing. But none could replace the IndyCar legend in Franchitti’s life. In his latest interview with Dirty Mo Media, Franchitti comes clean about the worst heartbreak of his IndyCar racing career. In his eyes, he shares the responsibility for Wheldon’s horrific death at the 2011 Las Vegas IndyCar race.

“It was one of those wonderful periods in life, and we would say—Chip would say, ‘Enjoy it, cuz these things don’t last forever.’ You know, we went into that 2011 final in Vegas; we should’ve never have been racing there, which was a conversation we’d had before we showed up.”

Franchitti’s relationship with Wheldon extended beyond racing. He has been with the 2005 IndyCar champion since their childhood. For Dario Franchitti, the worst heartbreak was the fact that he had only recently made amends with Wheldon after their fallout a few years ago.

“I was a lot more mature, world-weary. I had seen a lot more in life when Dan had his accident. I had known Dan since he was 6 years old; we were very close at one point. We had a couple of discussions where we kind of fell out for a minute a few years before. But we were in a really good place, back to being friends, which I loved, and that’s a funny feeling. It’s just, that whole situation was so unnecessary. That was shocking, and we all felt that one.”

Dan Wheldon was not supposed to be racing in that IndyCar event that day. Back then, IndyCar Series CEO Randy Bernard had specially invited Dan Wheldon for his self-proposed $5 million contest. Wheldon was highly critical of the car that he was given, which was nearly 3 miles slower compared to the rest of the field. Still, he was trying his best to win from the back of the pack.

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Wheldon was trying to avoid a pileup that was created on lap 11. However, when he hit the left rear wheel of Charlie Kimball at 165 mph, his car went airborne. What followed later was pure terror. His car was launched nearly 325 feet in the air and smashed into the fencepost of the barrier.

Wheldon suffered 30 Gs of impact force in the incident, with two distinct blunt hits to his head. He was pronounced dead on arrival. The race was canceled after discussions between drivers and officials. Wheldon was the first driver to be killed in an IndyCar weekend since Paul Dana in 2006.

Even Dario Franchitti has had his fair share of scares on the track. In fact, his return to racing in recent years includes a lot of precautions.

Franchitti is going to take it easy

Dario Franchitti is making a comeback to NASCAR this year with Tricon Garage. However, he is being very careful about overexerting himself. Franchitti has made it clear that this is just a one-off race for him and not a full-blown return to racing. He had a career-ending accident in the 2013 IndyCar season.

Franchitti suffered so many serious injuries that he was at risk of paralysis and permanent brain damage. He is already facing loss of concentration, memory, and overall ability to race since his crash in 2013. So what brought him behind the wheel?

“Time is a great healer. And back in 2019 I had a conversation with the doctors and the stakeholders involved in my retirement, and I was allowed to then go racing again. So this is just an extension of that, but it’s definitely not a comeback.”

In his favor, the Truck is behaving according to his wishes during the practice sessions. Owing to his experience with other forms of motorsports recently, Franchitti is easily able to control the truck.

“I was surprised at how well the truck drove, actually. I know the Tricon stuff is very good. They won the championship last year, a lot of road courses. But I really enjoyed the way it felt. It responded to changes. I’ve driven a lot of different cars since 2019; I’ve driven more cars and different types of cars than I drove when I was racing INDYCAR full-time, so maybe I’m a bit more adaptable than I was back then.”

Even though he may not have had an extraordinary time in NASCAR when he drove earlier, Franchitti does have some edge over other drivers at St. Pete. He is familiar with the track and might even pose a real threat to the victory contenders.