Franchitti escapes penalty

Izod IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti wasn’t penalized for opening-lap contact with rookie Josef Newgarden in Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach because race control wasn’t sure there was contact.

Chief steward Beaux Barfield said his race stewards, including former drivers Arie Luyendyk and Johnny Unser, told him the two camera angles available to them were “inconclusive."

“That was really the word I was looking for to completely support how I felt about it," Barfield said today. “I didn’t have real evidence of actual contact. “It was just a little too much conjecture from either camera angle that I had, including Dario’s in-car. Without that hard evidence, it was difficult for me to make a call." Indy Star