Crewman injured after freak Franchitti clash.

Dario Franchitti missed out on a potential podium finish in the Japan Indy 300 after a pit lane incident put him a lap down and placed one of his crew in hospital.

After qualifying in tenth place, Franchitti, in his Andretti-Green Honda, made a stunning start to vault himself into fifth place, a position that became third by lap 30. Holding that place behind Helio Castroneves and Dan Wheldon by lap 145, Franchitti entered the pits in a bid to get himself into contention for the race win.

However, as he entered his pit box he hit the slightly raised timing and scoring line, the bump launching his car to the left, forcing one of the tyres that he was about to have fitted into Steve Price. He has now been taken to hospital for further evaluation.

Franchitti was upset by the incident, unable to explain why the car went to the left on impact having driven straight over it during practice.

"We knew about the massive bump at the entrance to our pit box but the car had been taking off and going straight during practice. For some reason in the race, the car took off and went left and hit Pricey. Obviously we're worried about him and hope he's okay."

Team manager John Anderson was equally concerned. "We talked about the bump in the pits all weekend, but thought we had overcome it. You have good days and bad days; you just have to keep working toward the next one. We're all concerned about Pricey, but will be ready to get on the track at Indianapolis."

As for the race, Franchitti was pleased to have been running better than he believed his car was capable of, although was still disappointed not to have been able to capitalise on that.

"I don't really know what to say at this point. We didn't have a winning car today but the\Klein Tools/Jim Beam car was a good third-place car, which we are not delighted about but certainly would have taken it."