Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price and 2012 Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti ride in a horse drawn carriage through downtown to the Indianapolis 500 Champion’s Luncheon at Mercury Chop House on May 29, 2012 in Fort Worth, Texas.
(May 28, 2012 – Source: Brandon Wade/Getty Images North America)

(PhatzRadio / USA Today) — INDIANAPOLIS – With the Izod IndyCar Series racing for the next four weekends, there wasn’t much time for Dario Franchitti to dwell on his third Indianapolis 500 win — or the first prize of more than $2.47 million.

The day after a thrilling and at times improbable victory, the question for Franchitti, 39, was whether Sunday’s Indy 500 would change the four-time series champion’s fortune in 2012.

“We have a guy that hasn’t reached his mid-life crisis yet, that drives with the experience of his age, but he comes to work every day with the enthusiasm and the intent of an 18-year-old,” said Mike Hull, Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s managing director. “That’s a pretty tough combination to beat.”

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Until the moment Takuma Sato’s car thumped Franchitti’s left rear tire and spun out of contention on the final lap Sunday, 2012 hadn’t been a typical Dario production.

Perhaps everything changed with one turn of the wheel.

With the win, Franchitti rose from 10th to sixth in points, going from 98 behind Will Power (who crashed out Sunday) to 64 back, putting a fourth consecutive crown back on his radar.

It’s a good time to get hot. IndyCar has begun a rare five-races-in-five-weeks stretch, with Detroit, Texas, Milwaukee and Iowa on the docket in June.

“I hope it turns the season around, but right now I’m just enjoying the fact that we won the race,” Franchitti said Monday as a day-long round of photo shoots, interviews and ceremonies began. “We’re taking a day to let that soak in before we think about anything else.”

Two major advancements indicate Franchitti may be able to right his championship course with the Indy win. First, his Ganassi team was strong in Sao Paulo — the race prior to Indy — and Ganassi and Honda made a tremendous comeback between Indy 500 qualifying and the race itself.

With a temporary addition to turbocharger boost for qualifying, Chevrolet dominated rival Honda on the starting grid, taking all but one position in the first three rows. Franchitti started 16th, his lowest Indy starting position since 2006, when he started 17th and finished seventh with Andretti Green Racing.

With the boost returned to pre-qualifying levels, however, Honda was, as it had been in practice sessions prior to qualifying, quite competitive. In the race, Honda took five of the top 10 finishing positions.

“We knew coming in that the engine for the race was going to be better than the qualifying engine,” Franchitti said. “The small changes that they could make made a big difference. It was a very impressive performance. They worked very hard on that, and it was a huge step.”

Franchitti knows about huge steps as a fixture in American open-wheel racing for 16 years, not counting a 2008 venture into NASCAR.

“He’s been through a lot of the changes in the sport, different cars, different tires, different engines, different series, different this, different that,” team owner Chip Ganassi said. “He’s the kind of guy you’d like to have because he’s sort of been there, done that. … That’s the kind of guy you want in your car.”

The buzz Monday revolved around the issue of veteran skill. Franchitti’s adept defense on the final lap will be remembered as one of his best moves at Indy, a careful tightrope-walk that ended in victory.

As Sato darted inside him heading into Turn 1, Franchitti at first considered moving down, then considered the potential penalty for blocking. Instead, he held his line, giving Sato enough space to attempt an implausible move.

Sato had two choices as he lurched below Franchitti: Stay in the throttle and force something dangerous, or lift and risk spinning out. He lifted, his car’s rear end broke away, and Franchitti managed to hang on to his car as Sato made contact.

“I’d done it all day — entering (Turn 1) on a tight line like that,” Franchitti said. “I was passing people and staying wide open on that tight line. But I think his car was on more of a knife’s edge than mine.”

As Sato approached from behind, Scott Harner, Franchitti’s spotter, warned him. Franchitti had little time to react, but he left the inside lane open.

“You’re not allowed to defend in reaction to the car behind you,” he explained. “It’s a gray area. I knew it wouldn’t be tolerated, so I moved back over a bit. As we started to turn in, I thought, ‘I don’t want to pinch him, and I don’t want to chop in front of him. If I do that, we’re both in the fence.’ So my plan of action was to try a higher line and just keep my foot down.”

Sato complained afterward that Franchitti had forced him below the white line, but no penalties were administered. “He didn’t give me enough room to go there,” Sato said. “I was well below the white line.”

Franchitti said Sato approached him after the race. “We had a little discussion in the bus lot later,” Franchitti said. “He was a little upset. I told him to watch the replay.”