Franchitti fitting in at track one pant leg at a time (cont'd)

"I worked for a lot of drivers and most don't give two cats who you are, but Dario seems like he wants to know everyone," he said. "This morning I was cooking breakfast for the guys and [Dario] made a point to say hello and shake everyone's hand."

Landon Cassill, 18-year-old driver for Hendrick Motorsports who was unable able to qualify due to a transmission issue, echoed those sentiments after meeting Franchitti for the first time in the ARCA drivers' meeting.

"He was in front of me and just turned around and introduced himself," Cassill said. "I was like 'wow; you would never guess he was an Indy 500 champ'."

The two talked about the Talladega track and Franchitti even paid yCassill a compliment on his Busch Series run in St. Louis.

"It was just like I was talking to my friend, [Brian] Clauson," he said.

After signing a multiyear contract to drive the No. 40 at Chip Ganassi Racing, Franchitti will become the first European driver to compete full time in NASCAR's premier series.

He admitted his mind was made up to make the switch to NASCAR before he won the IndyCar series championship.

Various reasons factored into Franchitti's decision to leave the IndyCar Series for NASCAR, and although he said it was minor, safety was one of them.

Franchitti experienced a handful of crashes during his most recent and final IndyCar season. Two of them, one in Michigan then another in Kentucky, sent the driver airborne, nose over tail at speeds more than 200 mph.

During the first wreck at Michigan, Franchitti and Dan Wheldon made contact sending Franchitti's car flipping. It was then hit again by Scott Dixon, a driver in the Ganassi IndyCar stable, resulting in a seven-car incident.

The second flip came a week later in Kentucky when Franchitti crossed the start-finish line to finish the race. Franchitti crashed into the back of Kosuke Matsuura, flipped again, and then hit the outside wall.

With advances in safety and technology, Franchitti walked away from both incidents, however the driver, with nearly three decades of racing experience, was a bit rattled.

"After the second one in Kentucky, I didn't have a good feeling. It was not a comfortable feeling. I worried about what could've been," Franchitti said.

Various media reports alleged Franchitti's wife, actress Ashley Judd, urged her husband to leave the IndyCar Series because of safety reasons, however, Franchitti denied the rumors and said his wife has always supported his decisions.

"Racing is dangerous, everyone knows that, but safety was only a tiny reason why I came to NASCAR."

Franchitti's ARCA RE/MAX Series 250 race will air live on SPEED at 4 p.m. ET Friday.