Dario Franchitti is one of the most successful IndyCar drivers in history, with three Indianapolis 500 wins, four IndyCar championships and 31 victories in a 17-year career that includes a six-year stint in Champ Car.

Autoweek caught up with the 43-year-old Scottish driver at the Autosport International event in Birmingham, England, where he talked about the emotions surrounding his forced retirement following a horrific crash in 2013 and his new career in the media.

Autoweek: First, let’s look back to 2013 and the crash—your career-ending crash in Houston. What were your thoughts when you were told that if you raced again, you would be risking everything?

Dario Franchitti: I didn’t have that big of a reaction, I think, because I was suffering from the effects of the head injury. I was actually just happy to be alive.

I was going through my rehab. The only time I got a little emotional was when I had to call (team owner) Chip (Ganassi) to tell him—that’s when it became quite real to me. I was a bit sad making that call, but he was amazing.

AW: You had won a championship two years before your accident. Was retirement on the horizon or was it still a million miles away during the 2013 season?

DF: I felt my retirement from IndyCar was getting closer. I could feel that to keep my motivation up I was going to need a finishing line in sight. I needed a time limit, and I felt that the end of 2014 would be it. That would have allowed me to go and do (the 24 Hours of) Le Mans.

I had kind of put a plan in motion to go and do Le Mans in ’15, and I was going to have those conversations with Chip—probably the end of that (2014) season is what I was thinking—because I always wanted to keep him informed because he was such a brilliant boss.

AW: With that in mind, you would have given yourself another year, possibly two in IndyCar. You’ve got three wins in the Indianapolis 500. One more would have matched the record. Does that eat at you a little bit that you didn’t have that chance?

DF: It doesn’t, no. I think once when I was back at Indy—I don’t know if it was ’15 or ’14—I thought that it would be nice to have a go after that fourth, but then every other time I think about it, I think, ‘Crikey, I’ve got three.’ I’d never have expected to get three wins here, so I’ll be happy with that, really.

Dario Franchitti's mangled Indy car is pulled off the fence in Houston. LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

AW: Would you consider racing in any other category?

DF: I can’t. I’m just not allowed. I couldn’t even race in Formula Ford. I’m just not allowed to do it.

I can demonstrate cars, so I get to go and do some fun stuff. I drove a Lotus 88 twin chassis at Goodwood last year, and that’s brilliant fun, but as far as the racing thing … I’d have liked to have done other things, but it’s just not an option.

AW: Do you like the extra fan interaction that you can have at events these days?

DF: On IndyCar weekends, I’m still pretty busy with my work for the Ganassi team, but I have a lot more space. Before, I literally just lived in a bubble, my focus was just on a bull’s-eye pinpoint, and that’s all I cared about.

It’s much nicer now to be able to stay and chat with fans at the track. I can spend more time doing that, and it’s a lot more fun, that part of it. I get to relax a lot more at the tracks than I used to. I used to take it very seriously.

AW: Since your retirement, you have done a lot of media work, specifically with Formula E. Is that a kind of thing that you ever envisioned yourself doing?

DF: There were times in Indy when I had done the qualifying show with ABC and I thought to myself, ‘This commentary thing might be all right. I might be pretty good at it. I’ll give it a go.’ I was pretty lucky with the Formula E thing. I got teamed up with Jack Nicholls, and he’s young but very good and very experienced. We got along really well, and it’s worked very well for us, which led to the guys asking me if I’d fancy doing this at Goodwood. So I do a lot now with the Festival (of Speed), the Revival, the members meeting, classic-car shows. Lots of that stuff.

It’s not something that I expected to do, not something I’m a natural at, so I’m still working at it.

AW: Is a Franchitti racing team something that we might see in the future?

DF: Not unless somebody else pays for it! No. I watch what my last two team owners—Michael Andretti and Chip Ganassi—go through, especially Chip. Michael, I talk to about it at Formula E races, some of the stresses that he faces.

I see what Chip goes through, and it’s not an easy job. You’re not in control. You put all the pieces in place and you’ve got to let other people do their job. And a lot of times it doesn’t work out.

You watch the stresses and you watch the frustrations that these guys go through—never mind the financial gambles that they have to take. Nah, it’s not for me!

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