Dario Franchitti Wins The Iowa Corn Indy 250

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) -- IndyCar Series points leader Dario Franchitti held off a furious late charge from teammate Marco Andretti to win the inaugural Iowa Corn Indy 250 Sunday.<br/><br/>Franchitti, whose

Sunday, June 24th 2007, 3:37 pm

By: News On 6

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) -- IndyCar Series points leader Dario Franchitti held off a furious late charge from teammate Marco Andretti to win the inaugural Iowa Corn Indy 250 Sunday.

Franchitti, whose other victory in 2007 came at the Indy 500, won by 0.0681 seconds.

Scott Sharp was third, followed by Buddy Rice and Darren Manning. Seven of the top 10 drivers in the points standings, including Tony Kanaan and Sam Hornish Jr., were either involved in crashes or had mechanical trouble through the first 100 laps.

Franchitti went high to pass Rice on lap 151 and take the lead. He was quickly joined by Andretti, and the pair took a sizable lead over the rest of the field. Franchitti made his final pit stop with 35 laps to go, stopping only for fuel.

He opened his lead to more than five seconds shortly thereafter, but a caution flag allowed Andretti to close the gap. Andretti couldn't get enough space to make a move down the stretch, but he had his best finish of the season. The 20-year-old hadn't been
anywhere near the top 10 in his last five races.

Unseasonably cool weather left the drivers with cold tires coming out of pit stops, leading to three accidents that knocked out seven cars.