Franchitti can thrive on stock exchange

For once, it is not Lewis Hamilton but a man so anonymous in his homeland he could walk along The Strand without turning a head.

So why was Dario Franchitti, from Bathgate in West Lothian, plastered over the front page of USA Today?

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Arm candy: Ashley Judd and and Dario Franchitti

He made his debut in the fabled Daytona 500 on Sunday, the opening round of Nascar's Sprint Cup series, which will earn him an annual salary of £15million.

Nobody expected him to win 'The Great American Race', having just switched from the lithe, openwheel Indy Racing League (IRL) to the muscular stock cars which race nose-to-tail at 190mph like a high-speed traffic jam.

Dukes of Hazzard meets the M25.

He didn't, finishing 33rd and a lap off Ryan Newman, who clinched the Harley J. Earl Trophy on the 200th and dramatic final lap.

"We finished — that's about all I can say," reported Franchitti, branding his No.40 Dodge Charger slow and admitting the feedback he gave the team was too sketchy.

"We need to work on that but we learned some stuff which was good."

For the moment, it's all academic because he means more to Nascar bigwigs than simple on-track performances.

They can revel in the fact they have wooed the reigning IRL champion and last May's Indianapolis 500 victor, to their brand of red-blooded motor sport.

He brings cachet and kudos.

He is also European, a welcome novelty in Nascar's concerted move to push itself out of its white Southern constituency and towards a global audience.

Then there's the X-factor — his beautiful Hollywood wife, Ashley Judd.

Several times during coverage of the weekend's 50th running of the Daytona 500, the cameras cut to her glamorous presence in the pit box. Photographers followed her by the dozen.

"We have not had anyone of Ashley Judd's stature here on a regular basis," said long-standing Nascar administrator H.A. 'Humpy' Wheeler.

"People love celebrities and they help make our sport bigger and better."

She provided abiding images of Franchitti's Indy 500 win, her normally billowing summer dress rain-soaked as she ran to him for a congratulatory hug.

She can also be volatile, snapping at unwanted photographers and deriding her husband's old IRL rivals as 'the bloody sharks'.

Now, though, she claims to seek the shade.

Declining interviews, she instead issued a statement through a Nascar spokesman, saying: "I don't want to get painted the wrong way. It's his career and I don't want to intrude."

If so, it will suit Franchitti, given the private man behind a personable exterior and the trappings of fame: a ranch in Nashville, Tennessee, a £3m Perthshire estate called Rednock Castle, a collection of vintage Ferraris and a private jet on the way.

Franchitti said: "There was certainly less attention and people were certainly respectful of our privacy in IRL.

"We're hoping for the same in Nascar but there will definitely be more attention. That's something we have talked about and prepared for."

Judd, a graduate of University of Kentucky, should ease Franchitti's cultural transition.

Her background fits the Southern soul of the typical Nascar audience, with country music stars for a mother and sister, Naomi and Wynonna.

Coming into Nascar — National Association of Stock Car Automobile Racing — at the relatively advanced age of 34 represents a stiff challenge for this Scotsman of Italian descent.

"I'm a huge fan of Nascar and have been for a long time," said Franchitti, who hopes to emulate his Chip Ganassi team-mate and former F1 driver, Juan Pablo Montoya, who was 2007 Rookie of the Year.

"But in the short time I've been driving them, I've come to realise how difficult they are to drive and find the limits."

The Daytona 500 is an experience for the fans, too.

There were 200,000 of them crammed into the grandstands — one almost a mile long — and milling around the stalls feasting on fast foods.

There is barely a black face in sight.

They were entertained by marching bands, the USAF Thunderbirds display team in their F-16 planes and a presentation of past winners.

They included 'The King', seventimes victor Richard Petty in his trademark cowboy hat, 'Fireball' Roberts and Awesome Bill from Dawsonville.

Whether or not Franchitti can join the roll-call, he will make a fortune trying.