241 Laps and the Truth: Franchitti Stomps Richmond - When a car racer leads 241 laps of a 250-lap race, well, there isn’t much left to the imagination. And thus was the case on Saturday evening, June 30, 2007 on the 0.750-mile, D-shape oval that is Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Virginia. Powering around the small course — whose turns are banked at 14-degrees and normally better suited to 3,500 Nextel Cup cars — at approximately 154 miles per hour, Franchitti absolutely stomped the competition into submission, winning his third race of the 2007 IndyCar Series, as well as increasing his points lead to 65. With the series now past the halfway mark, Franchitti and is number 27 Canadian Club/Dallara/Honda appears to be the combination to beat as the tour heads into the dog days of summer. Surprisingly, though, Franchitti’ s third win of the year did not come without a touch of drama during the twilight stage of the race. With Franchitti out front and on cruise control, the race suddenly went yellow with only 12 laps to go when Sam Hornish Junior and Kosuke Matsuura inadvertently banged off one another in turns three and four. Running low on Ethanol, all in attendance at Richmond assumed Franchitti would breath a sigh of relief, but in all actuality, he was pissed to have to give up the lead he had amassed. He need not worry, though, as withy six laps to go, the race went green and Franchitti just plain checked out. On lap number 250, Franchitti crossed the finish line a mere 0.4194 of a second over Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon. Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Dan Wheldon finished third, with Tony Kanaan placed fourth. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing's Buddy Rice finished fifth, while Danica Patrick, the third Andretti Green Racing driver, was sixth to the checkered flag.