IndyCar: Celebrating Chip Ganassi’s Achievements
The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California was the location of a special event held to honor Chip Ganassi and the success of his team over the last 30 years on Wednesday night. After a two-year delay in honoring the former IndyCar driver due to COVID, everyone gathered on the roof of the magnificent building on a beautiful night to celebrate the accomplishments that Ganassi has achieved.
Chip Ganassi Racing was founded in 1990 by the businessman and former race driver, from the assets of Patrick Racing to compete in the CART IndyCar World Series.
The team has 240 wins from all his teams competing in the NTT IndyCar Series, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (under the banner of Cadillac Racing due to sponsorship), and Extreme E and was formerly in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, Global Rallycross Championship, FIA World Endurance Championship, and the Rolex Sports Car Series. Ganassi Racing has 21 championships and four wins in the Indianapolis 500, eight Rolex 24 at Daytona victories, and wins in the 12 Hours of Sebring and 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The Pittsburgh native drove in the Indy 500 five times, from 1982 to 1986. A brutal crash at Michigan International Speedway in 1985 almost ended his racing career. Ganassi explained that he had a broken hand, had stitches in his knee, and a cerebral contusion from his head hitting the guard rail. The accident was supposed to stop him from ever driving again but the doctors were wrong.
The fireside chat was hosted by Ray Evernham. The former NASCAR Cup Series team owner commented about Ganassi’s ability to hire talented drivers. “In my opinion, nobody in the sport has brought in more superstar drivers, in the top of our sport, than Chip Ganassi, no matter where you look. Obviously, you can run down the whole list of drivers that you have and people certainly recognize all of your IndyCar and SportsCar drivers.”
“But you also brought in some NASCAR superstars, Jamie McMurray. Here is a kid that really nobody knew a lot about. He wins his second race out for your team. And later won the Brickyard in Indy and the Daytona 500. That kid was not getting any opportunities.”
Ganassi responded “He (McMurray) won in Charlotte the second race out with us. And a lot of that is that car and team was pretty well developed. And he got in and went really fast. So I got to hand it to him, winning his second race with our team.”
“I like to think I have some good guys who put some good cars underneath these guys too. And good teammates. Like Jamie was just a good kid who needed an opportunity.”
“There are a lot of drivers, ladies and gentlemen, that die on the vine. All of us that have raced, we all know drivers like that, that have immense talent, that never made it. Drivers that we raced against, whether it was in go-carts or Formula Fords, we can all point to someone who was a great driver that never got the opportunity to continue their career.”
Among the 100 guests at the event, several of Ganassi’s drivers were in attendance at the event. The NTT Data Series drivers were Scott Dixon, driver of the number 9 PNC sponsored entry, Alex Palou, driver of the number 10 NTT Data sponsored entry, and Marcus Ericsson, driver of the number 8 Huski Chocolate sponsored entry. Ganassi’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande, drivers of the 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac and Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn, drivers of the 02-Cadillac entry, also participated in the festivities.
Ganassi was asked how he choose his new drivers and what was the process, like did he take them to dinner and how involved were his interviews. Palou, the 2021 NTT Data Series champion, went up on stage to give the audience the answer to this question.
“I think the interview was quite easy for me. I remember sitting with you and Mike (Hull) and that was it. I told you I wanted to drive for your team and you said “OK, let’s do it”. You just told me I had to learn from Scott Dixon, And it was a great team.”
At the conclusion of the hour-long chat, a birthday celebration was held for a good friend of Ganassi’s, Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme. A racer himself and a California native, The Snake was surprised with a birthday cake which was later served as dessert to the guests at the event.