Indy 500 Update: Dario Franchitti leads with 100 miles to go

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Dario Franchitti, seeking his third Indy 500 win and second in a row, led this year’s race with 100 miles to go Sunday.

Oriol Servia of Spain was second, and Graham Rahal was third after starting all the way back in 29th in the 33-car field. His father, Bobby Rahal, won the Indianapolis 500 in 1986.

Franchitti teammate Scott Dixon of New Zealand was fourth and Tony Kanaan fifth as more than 200,000 looked on at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Danica Patrick had charged to seventh after starting 25th but fell back to 12th after the most recent restart.

Alex Tagliani, the pole-sitter, also was running in the top 10, but the Canadian lost control and scraped the Turn 4 wall on Lap 147, ending his race.

And on Lap 156, Ryan Briscoe and Townsend Bell of Pacific Palisades collided and slammed into the wall. Briscoe drives for the powerful Team Penske, and his two teammates also were having a lousy day. Will Power was 15th after losing a wheel early in the race, and Helio Castroneves was 19th.

Despite fears of more wrecks, the use of ‘double-file restarts’ after caution periods -- used for the first time at Indy this year -- were mostly free of accidents but nerve-wracking as the cars restarted side by side instead of single file as they reached speeds of more than 220 mph.

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-- Jim Peltz in Indianapolis