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NTT Group to Serve as Primary Partner on Tony Kanaan’ No. 10 Chevrolet

Kanaan's livery for Texas
Kanaan's livery for Texas

NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing announced today that former Verizon IndyCar Series Champion and Indianapolis 500 Winner Tony Kanaan will have NTT Group on-board as the primary partner this weekend at the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway, continuing their involvement with Chip Ganassi Racing Teams (CGRT) after running an NTT Group primary paint scheme in last season’s finale at Sonoma Raceway

Based in Japan, NTT Group is the parent company of NTT DATA, and one of the largest technology companies in the world with over $100 billion in annual revenues and 242,000 employees in 88 countries. NTT Group’s global strength is in cloud services, supported by expertise in every layer of a complete and secure cloud solution and offering a full lifecycle of services from Advisory, Migration, Operations and Management.

NOTES OF INTEREST:

  • NTT DATA at the Track: NTT DATA began its relationship with CGRT in 2013 at the Indianapolis 500, partnering on the No. 8 NTT DATA Indy car. Following the Indianapolis 500, NTT DATA maintained an associate partnership with CGRT on the No. 83 Indy car of Charlie Kimball. In addition, they fielded a second Prototype at the IMSA Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) with Kanaan at the helm of the No. 02 NTT DATA Prototype. NTT DATA became a primary partner on the No. 8 entry driven by Ryan Briscoe for the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season, and then in 2015 became the primary partner for the No. 10 entry driven by Tony Kanaan. NTT DATA is the official IT services partner for CGRT and have aided in renovating the team’s website as well as working on IT solutions for the competition side of the team.
  • Tony Kanaan On and Off the Track: 2004 Verizon IndyCar Series Champion and 2013 Indianapolis 500 Winner Kanaan is in his second year with CGRT. Kanaan continues to pilot the No. 10 car, and represents NTT DATA in the 2015 season. The Brazilian has 17 career wins and 15 poles entering Texas, and seeks to add to his record for consecutive Indy car starts, which is at 241. Only four other active drivers (Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves, Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay) possess a streak of more than 100 consecutive starts. Competing in every race this season will push his career starts to 310 – which would be good enough for seventh on the all-time list. Kanaan is ranked second among active drivers on the all-time top-five finishes list with 118, ranked only behind CGRT teammate Scott Dixon. In early 2015, Kanaan won his first Rolex 24 At Daytona alongside CGRT teammates Dixon, Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson. Early 2015 also saw the birth of Kanaan’s second child, Deco.
  • TK at TMS: Kanaan has 15 career starts at Texas Motor Speedway and he has only three finishes out of the top 10. He won the Firestone 600 during his Verizon IndyCar Series championship run in 2004 and has five podium finishes at the oval.

CGRT QUOTEBOARD:

John McCain, CEO, NTT DATA, Inc.: “We are excited to introduce NTT Group and its large global base of clients and employees to the fans and fellow sponsors of IndyCar and to use the No. 10 NTT DATA Chevrolet as a unique platform to promote our market-leading position in Cloud Services."

Steve Lauletta, President, Chip Ganassi Racing Teams: “We have completely enjoyed our partnership with NTT DATA over the last couple of years and we are pleased that it continues to grow. So to now add NTT Group into the mix is something that the team is both pleased and proud to announce. Everyone at NTT DATA has been great to work with across our whole organization, whether it be in our racing operations, IT services or collaborating on our website. NTT DATA is a great partner."

Tony Kanaan, Driver, NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing: “It’s been such an honor this season having NTT DATA as my primary sponsor and I think it’s only fitting that NTT Group will be on the No. 10 car when we race at NTT DATA’s North American “home" race at Texas Motor Speedway. It’s been great to see how integrated they have been with the competition side of Chip Ganassi Racing Teams. The whole company has become so much more than a sponsor – they’re really a part of the team. I know we’ll have a lot of fans watching this weekend at the track, so I’m hoping we can put on a good show for them."