The Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS - Dario Franchitti will have surgery and miss the rest of the Indy Racing League season after breaking a bone in his back in a motorcycle accident in April.

"By having the surgery, I can be back to 100 percent fitness" for the 2004 season, he said Thursday.

Franchitti has missed three races, including the Indianapolis 500, so far this season. He returned for the Honda Indy 225 last week at Pikes Peak, where he finished a season-best fourth.

Andretti Green Racing has not named a replacement driver for the final 10 races of the IRL schedule. Robby Gordon filled in for Franchitti at Indianapolis last month, and Bryan Herta substituted in at the Bombardier 500 at Texas Motor Speedway two weeks ago.

Franchitti injured his lower back when he crashed a motorcycle during a visit home to Scotland on April 4.

"I feel awful for Dario right now," team owner Michael Andretti said. "I know this is one of the hardest decisions he has ever had to make, and I know he is making the right choice."

Andretti Green teammate Tony Kanaan is the series leader through the first six races.

The next IRL race is the SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond, Va., on June 28.

READY FOR THE ROAD: They are hired guns, specialists brought in to drive in the only two road races on NASCAR's Winston Cup schedule each season.

There will be a handful of them trying to qualify for Sunday's race, and it wouldn't be a shock if one of them won. Mostly, though, they are just thrilled to get the chance to race with NASCAR's biggest stars.

"I wait all year for the two Winston cup road races," said Boris Said, who will drive the MB2 Pontiac in place of injured Jerry Nadeau. "It's like a starving kid who has never seen an ice cream sundae. You slide a sundae in front of him and it's hard to eat it slowly."

Other road racing specialists who will be at the Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway, a hilly 1.949-mile road course in Northern California, include: Ron Fellows in place of injured Jeff Green in the Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s No. 1 Chevrolet; Scott Pruett in a fourth Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge entry; P.J. Jones replacing Larry Foyt in the A.J. Foyt Racing Dodge; and Johnny Miller in the Morgan-McClure Racing Pontiac for Mike Skinner, fired earlier this week.

"Someday, I would like people to point at me and say, 'That Winston Cup driver is also a pretty good road racer,' " remarked Said, the reigning SCCA Trans-Am Series champion. "My goal is to be a full-time Winston Cup driver and I am not giving up on that."

Said has competed in seven Cup races - six of them on the two road courses- since 1999. His best Cup finish was eighth at the 2001 event at Watkins Glen. He also finished 11th here in 2001 in a Cup car.

"Infineon Raceway is a very demanding road course," he said. "There are no big straightaways to rest on and the surface makes it tough on tire wear. It's a grueling 112-lap race, but I love it."

Like Said and Pruett, Miller, the current Trans-Am points leader, will do double duty in Sonoma, competing in the Cup race and the Trans-Am event Sunday. He was ninth in his sole Trans-Am Series start at Infineon.

"I like the track. It's a very three-dimensional and technical track. The hills add a lot to it and it's also pretty fast," he said.

Fellows, a Canadian who has won 20 Trans-Am races and competed in Winston Cup, Busch and sports cars, once teamed with Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the 24 Hours of Daytona.

"I get goosebumps just thinking about racing with this team," he said. "I spoke with Dale about racing Winston Cup when we raced in Daytona. He was a hero to me."

Pruett, a two-time Trans-Am champ, former CART star and a full-time Winston Cup driver in 2000, drove a Ganassi car twice before, finishing 11th and sixth in the past two races at Watkins Glen.

Jones is the son of Parnelli Jones, the longtime open-wheel star and Indianapolis 500 winner.

BODINE GOES HOME: Brett Bodine, injured in a crash during practice at Michigan International Speedway, was released from the hospital Wednesday after surgery for a broken collarbone. A spokesman for Bodine's team said the owner-driver will begin physical rehabilitation on Monday, with a projected recovering time of three to four weeks.