During Saturday’s Nextel Cup Happy Hour practice session at Texas Motor Speedway, open wheel veteran Dario Franchitti was an observer on top of Jeff Burton’s hauler. His visit was purely business. Franchitti shares a business relationship with one of Burton’s team sponsors and the Scotsman was invited to attend and speak at a dinner in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Yahoo’s Bob Margolis had a chance to chat with Franchitti, and the conversation turned to Franchitti’s future. There had been some speculation during the summer that Franchitti perhaps was interested in a NASCAR ride. Obviously the interest was in passing or maybe a way to leverage a better deal from his current team as Franchitti acknowledged that he would be back in his Indy Racing League ride with Andretti Green Racing for the entire 2007 season. He also expects to race the entire season in the American Le Mans Series with AGR teammate Bryan Herta in AGR’s recently announced Acura/Courage program. Might there be a NASCAR ride somewhere down the road for Franchitti? “Not in the immediate future,” Franchitti said.(Yahoo Sports)(11-5-2006)
