INDIANAPOLIS, April 18 (UPI) -- Dario Franchitti will miss at least the Indianapolis 500 following his recent motorcycle wreck.
Franchitti is the former CART star who is one of the headline drivers for Andretti/Green Racing in the IRL IndyCar Series.
The team made the announcement Friday, two weeks after Franchitti broke a vertebra during a crash in his hometown of Edinburgh, Scotland. The L1 stable burst fracture does not require surgery, but Franchitti will wear a brace for some three months.
Shortly after the crash, Franchitti pulled out of the Honda Indy 300 in Japan. The resident of Nashville, Tenn., with actress-wife Ashley Judd, was visiting family on his way to Japan.
More importantly, Franchitti will miss the marquee event in open-wheel racing, and the first for the Andretti team, the Indy 500. He also might be sidelined for the three IndyCar Series events in June.
"I'm pretty devastated right now, between not being able to compete in the Indy 500 and possibly missing a couple of the other races," he said. "I'm going to work hard to get back in the car as fast as possible."
Franchitti said he was experiencing minor pain, and would do whatever Dr. Terry Trammell, his orthopedic surgeon at Orthopedics Indianapolis says.
"Dr. Trammell knows what he is doing," Franchitti said. "So I will listed to him and do whatever possible to get back in the car."
