On a night when tire management and consistent handling were the keys to success, Dario Franchitti and his Honda-powered Target Chip Ganassi Racing team recovered from a poor opening segment in Saturday night’s Firestone 500K and combined long runs between pit stops with handling improvements during each stop to finish sixth at Texas Motor Speedway.

Other Honda-powered IZOD IndyCar Series drivers and teams, including Josef Newgarden, Justin Wilson, James Jakes and Scott Dixon, all ran in the lead pack at times during the 128-lap contest, but all encountered problems at various times to prevent strong results.

Dixon was the first to encounter difficulty, a broken rear axle component resulting in a long pit stop, followed by a brief flash fire during attempted repairs that resulted minor injuries to three Ganassi pit crew members.  Newgarden, who ran as high as second in the early laps, was caught out by a pair of unfortunately-timed yellow flags, putting him one lap down to the leaders in eighth at the checkers. 

Wilson, the 2012 Texas race winner, and Jakes, coming off a second-place finish last week in Detroit, both had long runs in the lead group.  Like Newgarden, Wilson also ran as high as second, but rapid tire wear during the closing third of the race sent him spiraling down the order to an unrepresentative 15th-place finish.  Jakes also spent the first half of the contest near the front of the field, but dropped in the final 30 laps to finish 12th.