George Dario Marino Franchitti, MBE (born 19 May 1973), known professionally as Dario Franchitti, is a retired British racing driver. He is a four time IndyCar Series champion (2007,2009,2010,2011), a three time winner of the Indianapolis 500 (2007,2010,2012) as well as a winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona (2008). Franchitti started his career in his native United Kingdom in the early 1990s, competing in Formula Vauxhall and Formula Three and was also the winner of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award in 1992. After Franchitti did not secure a single-seater drive in 1995, he was contracted by the AMG team to compete in touring cars in the DTM and its successor— the International Touring Car Championship. Despite 2 seasons with relative success, the series folded at the end of the 1996 season, again leaving Franchitti without a drive. Mercedes placed Franchitti in CART in 1997 with the Hogan Racing team.