Tim Sharp - AP
Dario Franchitti takes the checkered flag in front of Scott Dixon in the first of two races Saturday night.
Dario Franchitti should have been able to really celebrate winning for the first time in Texas. Instead, he lost ground in IndyCar Series points by losing a lottery that could wind up costing him another championship.
After Franchitti's dominating victory on the 11/2-mile, high-banked Texas Motor Speedway, there was still another race in major open-wheel racing's first doubleheader in 30 years. When starting positions for the Saturday night finale in the Firestone Twin 275s were determined by a blind draw during a gameshow-like production between races, Franchitti was 28th on the starting grid and points leader Will Power was third.
"We should never have been in that position," Franchitti said. "To have a championship in the IndyCar Series, drawing the grid out of a hat is a joke. Through no fault of our own, we started 25 places behind Will. Will, he took advantage of it. ... We had a massive handicap."
While three-time series champion Franchitti was able to work his way through the field for a seventh-place finish, the points differential created by the luck - or bad luck - of a draw for the second race could be critical by the end of the season.
Power got to Texas with a 16-point lead over Franchitti. The gap was trimmed to seven points after Franchitti won the opening race, with Power finishing third. That margin tripled to 21 after Power won the second 114-lap race.
To put that in perspective, Franchitti won his title last year over Power by five points. In 2009, Franchitti finished only 11 points ahead of Target Chip Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon, the runner-up in both races Saturday night.
Even though he benefited the most, Power agreed.
"It was going to be very unfair to someone. It happened to Dario," Power said. "In a tightly fought championship, you just can't have that. If it comes down to five points at the end of the year, Dario will look back at this race and say, 'If I started where I should have, I would have had those five points.' "
Sunday's results
Canadian Grand Prix: Jenson Button passed Sebastian Vettel on the final lap to win the rain-soaked Formula One race at Montreal.
Vettel, of Red Bull, had won five of the first six Formula One races this season, and he led almost all of the 70 laps at the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit. But Button, who was second in Montreal last year, started the final lap less than a second behind and took advantage of a mistake by the German to squeeze past and take the checkered flag.
Mark Webber was third in the other Red Bull car, and six-time world champion Michael Schumacher was fourth.
Vettel started from the pole and early was challenged only by the weather, which red-flagged the race for 2 hours, 4 minutes after the 25th lap for a torrential downpour.
24 Hours of Le Mans: Audi overcame two spectacular crashes and held off a charging Peugeot to give the German carmaker its 10th title in the renowned endurance race.
Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer drove the Audi No. 2 to victory, moving Audi into sole possession of second place for most titles at Le Mans behind Porsche with 16. Ferrari is third with nine.
Audi No. 2 completed 355 laps in 24 hours, leading the Peugeot No. 9 driven by Simon Pagenaud, Pedro Lamy and Sebastien Bourdais by 13.854 seconds.
