ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competed in a new venue Saturday in the streets of St. Petersburg, and a handful of tour veterans took to the place. Layne Riggs’ star burned the brightest in victory, and ThorSport teammates Ty Majeski and Ben Rhodes gave a gallant, proper chase.
A pair of IndyCar veterans, however, held their own in one-off starts, making the most of their home-court advantage in unfamiliar vehicles.
James Hinchcliffe rallied from a host of on-track issues in Saturday’s OnlyBulls Green Flag 150, netting a strong top-10 finish in his Truck Series debut. Another St. Pete pro, 52-year-old IndyCar champ Dario Franchitti, ran top 10 for the majority of the day before damage to his No. 1 Tricon Garage Toyota knocked him from contention.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: COTA, St. Pete
At the end of the sunny, warm afternoon, both drivers were spent. Hinchcliffe sat on the exterior pit wall alongside his No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, drenched with water to cool off. Franchitti sought out shade as he sat in a Tricon pit stall and hydrated, a faulty helmet cooling system the cause of his fatigue after his 27th-place finish in his first NASCAR start since 2008.
Both, however, were all smiles — even after mid-race contact between the two — after the Truck Series’ first street-circuit race before a festival-capacity crowd.
“We had to learn a couple lessons the hard way, figure out these tires, figure out how to race some of these guys,” said Hinchcliffe, who adopted a “Jimmy Hinch” alter ego for the race weekend. “But by the third stage, I felt really good in the truck, even with a little bit of damage. That thing was that was humming along. So I wish I could start the race, like I did knowing what I knew at the start of Stage 3, but at the end of the day, just super thankful to Spire for the opportunity, and yeah, really happy to get out there and salvage the top 10 after going to the back a couple times.”
Hinchcliffe got his introduction to full-fendered racing in a hurry, rubbing sheet metal with both Riggs and Majeski in Stage 1, but he tumbled down the leaderboard in the next stanza with a Turn 10 off-course excursion after contact just after getting past Franchitti.
“I mean, the irony of it being him that hit us. It was almost funny,” Hinchcliffe said. “I was almost laughing in my helmet, but it seems kind of poetic. Seems appropriate. You know, honestly, I’m glad that he hit me and not a full-season guy that’s running for points. In some ways, that was a big thing.”
Another Hinchcliffe spin in Turn 5 of the 1.8-mile course seemed to sink his day with 23 of the 80 laps remaining, but his comeback effort was rewarded as he made use of fresh tires and an improved feel for the heavier stock-car style.
“You wouldn’t think necessarily in something like this, compared to a formula car, precision isn’t necessarily the first word that would come to mind, but you really have to,” Hinchcliffe said. “Credit to all the guys and girls that do this full-time. This is not an easy series, and it was a lot of fun to be part of it for a weekend.”
Franchitti’s day was a bit less eventful, though he informed his Tricon team at the race’s halfway mark that he needed a beverage and an ice pack, noting “this helmet fan is … not the best.” The unscheduled pit stop he made 24 laps later knocked him off the lead lap and outside the top 25.
If there was any rust from the driver who last competed full-time in IndyCar in 2013, it didn’t show in his nearly 20-year-later return to NASCAR. The endeavor stemmed, Franchitti said, from a wine-fueled conversation with close friend Jimmie Johnson, who helped make the arrangement through his sponsor and manufacturer connections to get him in Tricon equipment for St. Pete.
While the chance to race in a NASCAR national series was a privilege, Franchitti said the one-off start provided another opportunity for a homecoming.
“The special thing for me is my family are here,” Franchitti said. “My wife, my daughters have never seen me race anything but historic cars and we’ve had a blast doing that. My mom and dad are here, and there’s also my IndyCar family. Everybody I worked with, everybody I’ve known in the paddock since I was a kid. The fans, all that. That’s what makes this, for me, so, so special. I had a great truck. I really did. I wish I hadn’t done so much damage to it, but that was just my inexperience in the truck, catching me out.”
The finishing outcome, Johnson said, was almost a side note to his overall performance.
“I just can’t overstate how well of a job he did,” Johnson said on pit road. “I mean, it’s so tough to come into this series and drive with the regulars, and I think the first part of the race, he built a lot of respect amongst the competitors around him. They were respectful at the end as we got down to the point in time where yellows come out, and he just did an incredible job. Of course, you want a little better result, and that’s where his head is, what he’s thinking about, but I know once that competitive nature kind of goes away and he reflects on the weekend, he has a lot to be proud of.”
The question that lingered was whether the experience was enough to bring both IndyCar vets back to the NASCAR world in the future. When Franchitti mentioned a braking issue, Johnson slipped in a sly hint about the adjustments the team could make for next time. “Next time?” Johnson recalled Franchitti saying. “We’ll see. It’s more on him than on me. I’d love to do it again with him.”
Count Hinchcliffe in as well: “It’d be pretty hard to say no at this point,” he said, with a hopeful note that NASCAR could return to St. Petersburg for a second go-around.
“Oh man, if they don’t come back to St Pete, I think that’d be a real shame,” Hinchcliffe said. “I mean, I didn’t see exactly what’s happening up front, but from where I sat, it seemed like a pretty exciting race, so hopefully everyone in the stands enjoyed it, and we’ll see the Truck Series back here again next year.”