Notes: Franchitti plans to make Cup return at Pocono

DOVER, Del. -- Dario Franchitti was back in the Sprint Cup garage on Friday, but only as a visitor. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who broke an ankle in an accident April 26 at Talladega Superspeedway, won't return to NASCAR's premier division until next week's event at Pocono Raceway.

Franchitti took part in Sprint Cup testing at Pocono earlier this week, and planned to compete in Saturday's 200-lap Nationwide Series race at Dover International Speedway. A 400-mile bruiser on the tough, physical Monster Mile seemed a little too much, too soon.

"They thought it was a bit much to do both in one weekend, so I think it's a smart decision to do that," Franchitti said. " We'll run Nationwide here, and then next week we'll do Cup."

Franchitti's No. 40 Sprint Cup car is being driven this weekend by Jeremy Mayfield, who on Friday qualified a surprising 10th for Sunday's main event.

"This is probably the best car I've had in two years," Mayfield said. "It amazes me how they have worked with me. They wanted to know what I wanted in a car, and I haven't had that in a long time. [Crew chief] Steve [Lane] and I have worked together before, so we're just being reunited. This is a great day. I appreciate Chip and [minority owner] Felix [Sabates] giving me the opportunity. I had a lot of fun [Friday]."

Franchitti walked through the garage Friday without a limp. The day after the Pocono test, his first time in a car in more than a month, he attended a charity golf tournament, although he did not play. He hasn't needed the carbon fibbed brace that doctors fashioned for him. The only real difficulty he's faced is twisting his foot to get in and out of the car.

"Everything is fine," the former Indianapolis 500 champion said. " I'm sure after Saturday night it'll be a little sore, but it's really working well."

Crafton fills in

While the rest of the Sprint Cup field was in Dover, Robby Gordon was in Ensenada, Mexico, preparing for the Baja 500 off-road race. Truck series regular Matt Crafton, who won a race two weeks ago at Lowe's Motor Speedway, drove Gordon's No. 7 Dodge on Friday, posting the 42nd-fastest practice time of the 45 cars that participated (speeds), and qualifying in 41st position.

Gordon will fly to Dover immediately following the off-road event, and expects to be at the track for the start of the Best Buy 400. Such dual weekends are nothing new for Gordon, who has also run the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.

"This is going to be an exciting weekend of racing for me, driving almost 1,000 miles and flying across the country," Gordon said on his Web site. "After his recent win in Charlotte, I have all the confidence in the world that Matt will get the Jim Beam Dodge dialed in for Sunday's race. I finished in the top 10 at Dover last year after completing the Baja 500, and I think our Jim Beam Dodge will perform well on the fast, 1-mile concrete track again this year. At some point, our bad luck has to go away so that all of this team's hard work can be paid off."

Up and down Haas

Friday started so promisingly for Haas CNC, the Sprint Cup team that had two cars confiscated and four team members suspended in the wake of rule violations discovered last week in Charlotte. Despite the upheaval, drivers Scott Riggs and Jason Leffler were both in the top 20 after the weekend's first practice.

"You go through challenges, and all of the sudden people get opportunities," said team general manager Joe Custer. "We're excited."

But reality set in when Leffler, driving a 70 car outside the top 35 in owner points, failed to qualify for Sunday's event. Riggs qualified in 28th place. Such struggles weren't unexpected, given that the team's crew chiefs and car chiefs were both suspended six weeks for illegal rear-wing mountings. Crew chiefs Robert "Bootie" Barker and Dave Skog also were fined $100,000 apiece (read more).

Working in those positions Friday were team competition director and former crew chief Matt Borland, and Steve Genenbacher, a former crew chief on the Truck circuit. Custer said Haas CNC has accepted the penalty and just wants to move on.

"We didn't have any illegal parts on the car. It's just how we handled the car, how we touch it, what we do with it," he said. "After the template, NASCAR showed us how that can affect things. We accept that. We have some things in place to make sure that doesn't happen again. It's a tough pill to swallow, but the positive is, we learned something."

Others in the garage weren't surprised by the severity of the penalty. "It's been pretty consistent as far as how [NASCAR has] reacted," Kevin Harvick said. "I think the precedent was set a long time ago as far as what the penalty would be. When you start messing with the wing brackets and the templates and things on the cars, they've been pretty consistent about that. As a competitor, the main thing you want to ask for is consistency. And the consistency has shown up in all the penalties."