Franchitti commits to IndyCarposted in INDY26 | 01 | 2013

BATHGATE'S DARIO FRANCHITTI has quashed retirement rumours by confirming he will contest this year's IndyCar Championship.

The 39-year-old, who starts today's Daytona 24 Hours in Florida from second on the 57-car grid, will again race for Target Ganassi.

"I'll definitely be racing in IndyCars this season," the three-times Indy500 and four-time IndyCar champ stated.

"I'm going to try and go for that fourth Indy500 win, and make amends for our shocking display in the championship in 2012."

After three-straight title wins in 2009, '10 and '11, Franchitti's team struggled with the new regulations last year leaving him a frustrating seventh in the championship.

"I know the guys were disappointed with the performance last year," Franchitti continued. "It was a case of whatever could go wrong, did go wrong.

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"We'll see what happens after this season but hopefully I'll be back for another couple of years at least, because I love driving for the team."

The Scot's relationship with Ganassi extends to the Daytona. This weekend he's driving the team's Riley-BMW alongside IndyCar winners Scott Dixon and Scott Pruett, and Nascar winner Jamie McMurray.

"It's terrific to team up with the Ganassi boys from other divisions of the team in a sportscar, which is totally alien to my single-seater," Franchitti said.

"We've won here before, and I'd really love to have another Daytona 24 Hours win on my CV. I genuinely think we have the pace to do it."

Franchitti's car was fastest in today's final practice, but starts the race behind the polesitting Ganassi car which edged out the Scot's by 0.093secs on the 3.56-mile circuit.

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Jim McGill