drove an unreliable car he occasionally crashed. Franchitti's best finish of the season was second at both the Firestone Firehawk 500 at Twin Ring Motegi and the Molson Indy Vancouver. The rest of the season yielded six more top ten finishes (including third places at the Michigan 500 and the Honda Grand Prix of Monterey) and two pole positions. Franchitti was 13th in the championship with 92 points. He was retained by Team Green for the 2001 season after signing a contract extension with the team in August 2000. The season's opening eight rounds saw Franchitti achieve six top-ten finishes which included a second place at the Tenneco Automotive Grand Prix of Detroit. At the Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland at Burke Lakefront Airport, he qualified 14th, passing race leader Memo Gidley with ten laps remaining for his seventh career CART victory. The rest of the season was sub-par, with four top-ten finishes and two second places at both the Harrah's 500 and the Texaco/Havoline Grand Prix of Houston. Franchitti concluded the season seventh in the championship standings with 105 points. For the 2002 season, he returned to Team Green, signing another two-year contract extension through to the conclusion of the 2003 season in August 2001. At the season-opening Tecate/Telmex Monterrey Grand Prix, Franchitti came second and went on to claim three third places at the Bridgestone Potenza 500, the G.I. Joe's 200 and the following CART Grand Prix of Chicago (starting from pole position in Chicago). He led the final 15 laps of the Molson Indy Vancouver after teammate Paul Tracy's pit stop for fuel and tyres in his first victory of the season. Three races later, Franchitti led 43 laps to win the Molson Indy Montreal at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve starting from second. He won in the Sure for Men Rockingham 500 at Rockingham Motor Speedway in his only CART oval track victory two races later. Franchitti finished the season's final four races within the top ten to place fourth in the Drivers' Championship with 148 points. IndyCar Series and stock car racing 2002–2004 He made his debut in CART's rival, the Indy Racing League (IRL), in the 2002 IRL season, driving Team Green's one-off No. 27 Dallara IR02-Chevrolet Indy V8 entry for the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after the team located funding for the programme. Starting from 28th, Franchitti sustained a puncture after making a