JOLIET, ILL. (AP) -Dario Franchitti can hardly wait to get back in an IndyCar.
The 2007 Indianapolis 500 winner and IndyCar Series champion was at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday, less than a week after the announcement that he will return to open-wheel racing in 2009 as part of Chip Ganassi Racing.
The Scot left IndyCar at the end of last season to make the jump to NASCAR with Ganassi. But Franchitti was struggling to find his way in July when Ganassi pulled the plug on his unsponsored No. 40 Dodge, leaving Franchitti without a Sprint Cup ride and unsure of his racing future.
Even then, the apologetic Ganassi said there would always be a ride for Franchitti somewhere on his one of his teams. Most people thought that meant the Grand-Am sports car team, but Ganassi surprised everyone last week when he named Franchitti to replace Dan Wheldon as teammate to Scott Dixon in the IndyCar Series.
"The trepidation is you want to make sure you can still do the job," Franchitti said. "You believe you can do it, but until you can see it, there's always that nagging doubt. I want to be as good or better than when I left."
Although he won't be racing for points until the opener next year at St. Petersburg, Franchitti said there is a possibility he will drive for Ganassi in the non-points event at Australia in October.
"I think there's a definite possibility of that," Franchitti said. "I think Dan's going to do the race with Panther (Racing), so I don't see any roadblock to doing that. I think if I could get a couple days testing in first just to get used to things again, that would definitely be helpful."
Franchitti, who drove in 10 Cup races and 14 second-tier Nationwide events this season, said he has no regrets about the move to NASCAR.
"It was all about the challenge to do that," he said. "And, my God, was it a challenge.
"If I had to do it again, I'd probably try and get a bit more testing and a bit more buildup before getting in there. It was one of those deals that I felt this year that everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
"Looking back, I wouldn't change anything," Franchitti added. "I'd make the same choice again. I got to experience something completely different and maybe will do so again in the future. Who knows? But this is definitely a positive way to go into next year."
Franchitti said Ganassi didn't make the offer for him to move to his IndyCar team until last weekend at Detroit's Belle Isle.
"We tossed the idea around for a while, but it was really over the Detroit weekend," Franchitti noted. "Chip said, `You want to do this, or what?' When we decided that, the deal was done in maybe half an hour."
