Now what drives you, no pun intended, while you're driving in the car? You listening to music?

Hey guys, Baruch here for Young Hollywood in the heart of Central Park, chatting with Dario Franchitti, the winner of the Indy 500. Congratulations on winning the Indy 500 again.

Thank you.

So, what's the excitement like this time around?

Crossing the finish line and there's that that instant excitement there, you drive into Victory Lane, you see the your I saw my family, um my friends from Scotland and and and the Target crew and you know, it's a big team sport, so that's when when it really I think hits. It's all part of the the fun of winning Indy.

Now, you actually spent some time with NASCAR as well. How did that experience compare to your time with IndyCar?

At the end of 2007, I I I'd won my first Indy 500 championship in IndyCar, and I decided I wanted to try something different. I wanted to change the scenery and tried NASCAR. And, you know, I didn't get the same thrill from driving the car. And I was very much learning at the time, you know, it was it was starting completely again. You know, it was one of those things, I broke my ankle, the team didn't have a sponsor, and so luckily I was able to at the end of that season to to sign to drive for the Target team, and and I've been there ever since.

So, the car itself is actually more exciting for you this time around.

No, the IndyCar is is definitely. And going away for those sort of six months, whatever it was, made me realize how much I missed driving the IndyCar. I yeah, I looked back and thought, I shouldn't have I shouldn't have uh I've left and I was lucky that I got to come back and and and and still be in a drive for a competitor competitive team and and since then it's been it's been great.

Now, what drives you, no pun intended, while you're driving in the car? You listening to music?

No, I'm listening to uh my strategist, my spotter, Scott, my boss, Chip. We've got all this information coming in all the time, you know, so you're very much concentrating on you're trying to position a car, you know, if it's in Indianapolis for instance, you're trying to position a car with pinpoint accuracy to the to less than the inch, lap after lap, doing 220 miles an hour. So, the focus is is absolute. You've got other cars doing different things on the track at the same time. Um they change the way your car handles. The focus is is is pretty crazy.

Speaking of focus and of discipline, tell me about your exercise regimen, your diet, leading into a race like this.

Well, the the the diet and the the exercise regimen is season-long. Actually, I work out harder in the off season because you can I can push it a little bit more, I've got more time to recover, there's if I end up with an injury. But, you know, that a typical week um certainly in the off season is probably 15 hours between cardio, strength stuff, stretching, you know, you name it. It's a an ongoing thing, running, cycling, some yoga in there as well.

It's a lifestyle.

It it is. Um and obviously the diet is important, the hydration is is is something I take very very seriously. I mean for Indy I was hydrating the whole month just focusing leading up to the race. Um it's pointless trying to hydrate the night before. It's a it's it's just something you got to you got to keep on at all times.

Now, you and your wife have both been very successful in your respective fields. How do you support each other in your careers?

Well, if I'm, you know, at the track at Indy or or any other race actually when if she's not working she'll come to uh to the race. Um she she's become a very big race fan, you know, and if I can support her whether it's on on set or or whatever she's doing, um, you know, she's got such varied interests in her life that I I support her when I can and we try and ultimately spend as much time at home together as we can. That's that's the fun part.

There have been a lot of films made about race car drivers. Who's your favorite fictional race car driver?

Grand Prix was made in the 60s and the film Le Mans with Steve McQueen was made in the early 70s and those films were were a different level than anything I think that's been made since. There's actually an animated film coming out about IndyCar about the Indianapolis 500 called Turbo. I'm the technical consultant and I work with the guys at DreamWorks and helped them out with just accuracy and stuff like that and it it's been so much fun to get involved in that.

So you might be a cartoon, sir.

You never know. You never know what's going to happen.

Now, what about in the real world? What's your favorite car to drive out on the streets? Every day or day to day?

Day to day. I have an Acura TL. We run Honda engines in the in the race cars and um I have an Acura that is given to me by by the Honda guys and that is my everyday car. I have a lot of cars, my hobby is cars, my passion, my weakness is cars. There's a good few here but my everyday car in America is my Acura. In back in the UK I have a a Mercedes E55 that I drive every day. Um which I love. I mean it looks like a Frankfurt taxi but it'll do almost 200 miles an hour. So, it's it's it's a lot of fun but there's various Porsches and Ferraris and and now Indianapolis Pace cars in there too.

Do you ever feel the impulse when on the highway to start racing the car next to you?

No, it's no, I mean I like driving fast but there's not that impulse to race on on the road. Uh when I was younger it was maybe harder um but I mean there's nothing compares to driving an IndyCar. It's it would be like somebody flying a 747 or flying a an F18 it's that different. You know, the the performance of our IndyCar against a street car.

Your friend Dan Wheldon recently passed away. How did you commemorate him during this race?

Well, this this race this Indianapolis 500 was really a tribute to Dan because he won it last year and and when you win it the the next year your picture's on the ticket and, you know, you're celebrated, you're given the trophy, the ring, all these different things. Dan wasn't there to do that this year and his his wife Susie did that and she was incredibly brave. Um but the fans had all these different tributes, t-shirts and and banners, everybody wore white sunglasses. It was lap 26 and lap 98 the two car numbers of the years that he won the Indianapolis 500. Dan always wore not always white. His favorites were the white ones. Indy was the was really the the focal point of that and it was a great tribute to to a guy who loved Indianapolis so much.

Dario, thank you so much and congratulations.

Thank you.