Dario Franchitti will return to NASCAR in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the Streets of St. Petersburg for TRICON Garage, the team announced Feb. 3.
Franchitti will pilot the No. 1 with sponsorship from Dollar Tree and in partnership with Legacy Motor Club.
“The thought of racing a NASCAR truck on a street circuit is really intriguing to me,” Franchitti said in a team release. “The different surfaces, the fact that part of it is on an airport, then you go into the streets, the different bumps all those things you got to try and master. This was just the chance to race on a circuit that I love, and a chance to do something fun.
This all stemmed from a conversation with Jimmie Johnson. For me, with the opportunity to race the truck, it was really him, it was the whole team that he has there that made it all happen. His relationship with Toyota, Dollar Tree coming on a sponsor — it’s all been through Jimmie and the team at Legacy MC. If it goes well, great. If it doesn’t go well, I am going to be blaming Jimmie.”
Added Johnson: “Dario and I had been talking for a long time about the chance to race together, so when he approached me about St. Petersburg, I knew I had to get to work. I called him back a day later with an incredible opportunity to join a championship-winning team with Toyota and the great people at TRICON. It’s been a lot of fun getting him integrated into the team and spending more time together, going through the process of getting him back to racing.”
Franchitti is a multi-time NTT IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500 champion who has a previous win in the series at St. Petersburg in 2011.
He also made a brief foray into NASCAR in 2007 and 2008, including one previous Truck start at Martinsville Speedway in ’07, finishing 33rd.
Franchitti retired from full-time competition after the 2013 IndyCar season.
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