After a 10-week layoff because of a motorcycle accident, Dario Franchitti returns to racing this weekend in the Honda Indy 225.
"I'm excited to be back in the car -- especially to have seen the car running so well in Texas last weekend," Franchitti said Friday at Pikes Peak International Raceway.
His return makes Sunday's field the best ever on the 1.6km oval. Drivers have combined for 112 IRL or CART wins and 78 IRL or CART pole positions.
Bryan Herta, driving Franchitti's car last Saturday night, finished fifth in the Bombardier 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Two weeks earlier, Robby Gordon had the ride in the Indianapolis 500. Dan Wheldon was in the car earlier in Japan.
Franchitti, who won 10 races on the CART circuit before moving this season to the IRL, last raced on March 23 in Avondale, Arizona. He broke a vertebra in his lower back April 4 in an off-track motorcycle accident in his native Scotland.
"I was riding in the country and the bike broke," Franchitti said. "Mechanical failure. It wasn't the best thing that could have happened."
His timing, however, could have been much worse.
"It was a mixed blessing because if it had happened at another time of the year, I would have missed more races," he said. "Because it happened when it did, I only missed three races. But, yeah, one of them was the biggest race of the year -- at Indy."
Herta had expected to be racing again this week for Franchitti's team, Andretti Green Racing. Instead, Herta will drive in the CART race in Monterey, California.
"Last week I felt like physically I could have raced the car, but the bone probably wasn't completely healed," Franchitti said. "The doctor said there was a certain amount of time after the incident that I couldn't drive the car and that was 10 weeks. I think I'm on schedule."
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