ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The floor to ceiling panes of glass in the Barber Motorsports Park tower provided Dario Franchitti a perfect perch from which to view swaths of the road course and how the four Chip Ganassi Racing cars entered and exited a slow-speed turn.

Team advisor. It’s a brand new term in Franchitti’s lexicon and a new role for all involved – the retired champion, team, engineers and teammates. It’s not a formal title, but then Franchitti doesn’t stand on formality. It will be a work in progress – from Franchitti focusing on his race preparation and skill set pertaining to individual racetracks to assisting Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Charlie Kimball and Ryan Briscoe get maximum performance out of the Chevrolet-powered cars and themselves.

"When you have drivers like Tony and Scott and Ryan and Charlie, you're not coaching as much as occasionally having a discussion about something,” said Franchitti, who won three of his series titles and two of his three Indianapolis 500 victories in a Target Chip Ganassi Racing car. "I think we can come up with some ideas. So it's more in that kind of role, working with them, working with the engineers a bit.

"It's a new role so we are just getting used to it and we are just all coming up with ideas to maximize it, too."

“He has such a fresh perspective, having so recently driven the car, this iteration of the car,” Kimball said. “While he hasn't driven the Chevrolet we're running this year, he has a fresh perspective on what the racing is like. Being such a student of the sport, he understands the history and development of that.

“He has a good relationship with Brad (Goldberg), my engineer.  Brad was the assistant engineer on (Franchitti’s) 10 car.  They can talk data.  He knew what he did in the car.  Comparing that to what I'm doing, as he said, it's filling out my toolbox for the year. As things change and develop throughout the year, we'll be able to go through that toolbox and rifle and, for lack of a better analogy, pick the right tool for the job.”