Franchitti Not Driving Champ Car

Posted by Iannucci | 9/14/2006 | 3 comments »
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Curt Cavin 1, Robin Miller 0.

Now you see why Curt Cavin's name is all over the stories forwarded here at My Name Is IRL. Last week Robin Miller of SpeedTV was breaking the news that Mr Judd would drive the last three races of the Champ Car season for RuSport as Cristiano da Matta continued his recovery from his serious head injury.

Afterwards, Cavin's reports in the Indy Star said he heard no such word and that Franchitti told him Miller's was a false report. Well, now Crash.net reports the following quote from Jeremy Dale of RuSport.

"After investigating all of our viable options, we have concluded that it is in the best interest of RuSPORT to only compete with one car at Road America," he said. "This was a very difficult decision, but we believe it was the correct one.

"We will continue to focus on Cristiano da Matta's recovery, the da Matta family, and on our efforts to help Justin Wilson win as many races as possible for the remainder of the 2006 season."

Taken at face value the quote indicates that Mr Judd will not drive at the first of the three remaining races in the CCWS. But all indications are that he is fit to drive if he so choses, and if he isn't driving at Road America then he probably isn't driving at all in CCWS.

Since he is without a contract it he could still conceivably jump to Champ Car for next year, but Dario's future may already be decided. Given his remarks at Infineon about Herta not being around with "the team" and Michael Andretti's confirmation about running four cars again lends to the theory that Mr Judd will return to AGR for 2007.

There are still two other CCWS races remaining in which Franchitti could participate, but for now it appears I may have been mistaken for believing Miller's earlier report. It would seem he was reporting "wishful thinking" instead of actual news.

3 comments

  1. Anonymous // September 14, 2006 9:12 AM  

    IRL has Champ Car FEVER. I can tell it. He's going over to the Dark Side.

  2. Iannucci // September 14, 2006 9:16 AM  

    Riiiiight.

  3. Anonymous // September 14, 2006 1:33 PM  

    You mean Robin Miller makes stuff up???