Andretti team to steal top Ganassi engineer (Update)
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| Dixon and Bretzman |
09/26/16 Racer.com rumors that Andretti Autosport is expected to announce its acquisition of championship-winning engineer Eric Bretzman from Chip Ganassi Racing. Bretzman, who served as Scott Dixon's race engineer for 12 years and won three IndyCar championships and the 2008 Indy 500 with the New Zealander, was reassigned to Ganassi's NASCAR program in 2015 to help turn around the engineering side of its fading Sprint Cup operation.
With Ganassi's Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray now safely in The Chase, and Andretti in need of an engineering rebound after a tough 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season, the signing of Bretzman could rank among the biggest off-season scores made by any team.
Attempts to reach Bretzman for comment were unsuccessful.
It's believed Bretzman will work in the capacity of a technical director overseeing Andretti's IndyCar engineering program, and possibly some of its other racing endeavors, rather than return to the timing stand to engineer one of its IndyCar entries for the year.
Despite the valiant efforts led by Andretti's drivers and engineers, a single win, albeit at the Indy 500 with Alexander Rossi, was the lone bright spot among far too many races where ill-handling cars blighted the program's capabilities. By adding Bretzman in a senior engineering role to spearhead a turnaround, a return to form would seem inevitable.
And on a lighter note, with Eric's younger brother Ben having just won his first IndyCar championship with Simon Pagenaud at Team Penske, the Bretzman rivalry will resume as Andretti Autosport seeks its first title since 2012. Racer.com