by Lee Spencer

FOXSports.com has learned that Franchitti, who has been out of a car since breaking his left ankle in a crash in the Nationwide Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, will take part in the Heluva Good! 200 Nationwide event at Dover, but will remain on the sidelines for the Best Buy 400 Sprint Cup Series race. Instead, Jeremy Mayfield will be in the No. 40 Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.

However, Franchitti will test at Pocono Raceway during NASCAR's two-day open test beginning on May 27 in an anticipation of a return to Cup action at Pocono following the Dover race weekend.

The 2007 IndyCar Series champion is also expected to compete in the ARCA RE/MAX Series race at Pocono the same weekend of the Cup event.

In 25 career Cup starts at Dover, Mayfield has four top fives and eight top-10 performances for an average finish of 18.8. More importantly for Ganassi, the 38-year-old Mayfield has an average start of 16.3 at Dover — a significant statistic as the No. 40 team has fallen outside of the top 35 in owner points and will likely have to qualify based on time.