Motorsport: Franchitti captures third IndyCar title in four years

The 37-year-old, who entered the weekend trailing his rival for the championship, Will Power, by 12 points, essentially sealed the title when the Aussie damaged the suspension on his Penske after he brushed the wall. Franchitti, who had started the race from pole position and spent the opening part of the race dicing for the lead with his Target Ganassi team-mate Scott Dixon, then backed off to cruise to his third title in four years.

"It's difficult to take it all in at the moment," Franchitti admitted. "I was happy battling it out with Scott at the front, but when Will brushed the Turn 4 wall on Lap 135, we decided to go conservative.

"With only 65 laps left, we knew then that I only needed to finish tenth but, to be honest, when I dropped back and went cautious trying to save fuel, things got a bit too action-packed.

"After our final pit stop we were right at the back, and the cars ahead were three, four-wide, banging wheels and spinning right in front of me."

But Franchitti, whose team-mate Dixon won the race by 2.7587secs ahead of Danica Patrick's Andretti, said the significance of his victory would take some time to sink in. "I'm very proud of the achievement, winning three championships in four years," continued the Scot, who was 59 points behind Power with four races remaining and who also won his second Indianapolis 500 earlier this year.

"For whatever reason, we at Team Target, both Scott and myself, maybe didn't have the speed advantage we had last year. So to come away with a championship after a season like that is very satisfying."