"My career's over": Zak Brown reveals racing legend Dario Franchitti's big fear before IndyCar career took off

IndyCar legend Dario Franchitti conquered everything there was to in IndyCar, with four championships and three Indy 500 wins. However, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown recently revealed how the Scottish driver's belief in his dream was shattered during his junior years.

During F1's Las Vegas GP weekend, Brown appeared on The Red Flags Podcast, where ex-Haas boss Guenther Steiner is a co-host. While talking about the racing events he participates in even today, like the Monterey Historic and the Estoril Classics, the 53-year-old recalled his younger racing days, stating how he raced Dario Franchitti in the 1994 British Formula 3 season.

Franchitti raced for Paul Stewart Racing in Class A of the championship with Danish driver Jan Magnussen, who today's generation might know as F1 driver Kevin Magnussen's father, as his teammate. Brown, who drove for Mark Bailey Racing in Class B of the championship, said on the podcast (8:22 onwards):

"I remember, in Formula 3, Dario won the first race of the year, and (his teammate Jan) Magnussen won like the next 15 (races). And I remember Dario coming in... he was buddies with my teammate, and going, 'My career's over. This guy's destroyed me.' (However, it) turned out pretty good for Dario."

At the end of the season, Magnussen won the championship with 14 wins and 308 points, and Franchitti finished fourth with 133 points. The Scot then competed in the Touring Car Championship before joining the CART series (now IndyCar) in 1997.

Franchitti's four championships came later in his open-wheel racing career - the first in 2007 and three consecutively from 2009 to 2011. In 2013, a life-threatening accident at the Grand Prix of Houston forced his premature retirement from racing.

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Zak Brown's sweet tribute to Dario Franchitti after their reunion in 2015: "He was on a different planet"

Dario Franchitti at the Goodwood Festival of Speed - Source: Getty

In 2015, two years after Dario Franchitti's career-ending accident, the former Chip Ganassi Racing driver opted for a non-competitive racing exhibition - the two-day "Highland Tour of Scotland". He was set to drive a rare Ferrari 275 GTS owned by Zak Brown, who hadn't ventured into F1 yet.

In the build-up to the prestigious charity event, Brown and Franchitti showed mutual respect with kind words. Brown said (via United Autosports):

"Dario is one of the few ‘super nice and super quick’ guys in motorsports. I’m privileged to have him as a friend and to have witnessed what can only be described as a fantastic career. Dario and I raced against each other in the 1994 British Formula Three Championship, or to be more frank, we were on the racetrack at the same time! He was on a different planet.

"In more recent years with my role at JMI (Just Marketing International), I attended a number of IndyCar and Indy 500 races that Dario contested. He’s not only an immensely gifted driver but a great character outside the cockpit of a racecar which I’m sure the spectators at the Concours in Edinburgh will quickly realise."

Franchitti returned the appreciation for his "old pal," promising to show him around Scotland when he was there for the event.

Franchitti currently serves as a Formula E commentator, a post he's held since the category's inaugural season in 2014. His old friend Brown has resurrected McLaren Racing and returned them to winning ways in both F1 and IndyCar.