Results from Daytona 500

1. Ryan Newman, No.12 Dodge

5. Reed Sorenson, No.41 Target Dodge

32. Juan Pablo Montoya, No.42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge

33. Dario Franchitti, No.42 Dodge Journey Dodge

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (February 18, 2008) - Dario Franchitti began his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rookie season at Daytona International Speedway finishing 33rd in his debut, bringing the No.40 Dodge Journey Dodge Charger home in one piece without any damage over the 500-mile event.

Franchitti started 40th in the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) back-up car after he was collected in an incident which damaged the team's primary car in the Daytona 150 Duel qualifying race. From there the Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate ran smooth and utilized flawless pit work from the crew to stay out of trouble and finish one lap down in 33rd.

On Saturday at Daytona, Franchitti qualified an impressive fourth (top qualifying rookie) in the No.40 Fastenal Dodge Charger and finished on the lead lap in 20th.

Franchitti will pull double duty again next weekend in the Sprint Cup (Auto Club 500) and Nationwide Series races (Stater Bros. 300) at California Speedway. The races will be broadcast on FOX (Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET/MRN 4:00 p.m. ET) and ESPN2 (Saturday, 7:00 p.m. ET/MRN 7:30 p.m.), respectively.

CGRFS Quoteboard:
“We finished - that's about all I can say right now. The guys gave it their absolute best on Sunday and we had great pit stops all day long. The problem was that anytime anyone got behind me and I was in the middle of the pack the car was unbelievably loose. I had to run at the back or I was going to crash. I think I need to work to give the guys better information to set the car up. We need to work on that, but we learned some stuff today, which was good, and I have a lot to learn about drafting.”