Ganassi’s two teams in the Chase “the biggest thing ever”

Chip Ganassi – "biggest thing ever"

Chip Ganassi has accomplished many great feats in his career as owner of a myriad of teams in NASCAR, IndyCars and other top-tier racing series. But until last Saturday night, Ganassi had never before been able to claim that he put his entire two-car Sprint Cup Series stable in position to claim his first championship in NASCAR.

Perhaps Ganassi himself was overstating it just a bit when he told a television reporter prior to Saturday's Federated Auto Parts 400 that getting both Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray qualified into the 2016 Chase for the Sprint Cup would be "the biggest thing ever" for him.

But perhaps not. After McMurray had finished seventh in Saturday's race to secure the 16th and final seed in the Chase field, the winner of Ganassi's only Daytona 500 back in 2010 explained why it means so much.

"Well, when you look at Chip's organization, he's been so successful in IndyCars, the sports cars," McMurray said. "We've won some big races in NASCAR, but the NASCAR side is really hard to keep on top, and it's that way for everybody. When you get down, it's really hard to climb your way back up. We made some changes earlier in the year as far as personnel. He moved some people around. The crew chiefs, everybody is working really well together, and they've been able to build some great cars, and he's proud of that because when you make those changes, there's no guarantee that it's going to show up on the racetrack. But it has."

Ganassi said the formula for the improvement that has come about for his two Sprint Cup teams is simple. "We have been really lucky to have some great people and that is what it's all about these days," Ganassi said. "You know everybody has all the stuff. It's on to your people. It's pit stops, it's the guys that work Monday through Friday (at the shop). It's the guys that bust their ass on the weekends here (at the track). "It's the wives of all the guys and the girlfriends and the significant others that put up with everything and get us in this spot. It's people on a team making the team bigger than themselves. That is when you have success like this. It's individuals making the team more important than themselves." Fox Sports