CHARLOTTE, North Carolina – As the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series gets closer to the March 29 season-opener in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg team owner Chip Ganassi is already in “Race Mode.”
He won the Rolex 24 at Daytona with a winning quartet including three-time IndyCar Series champion and 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner Scott Dixon, 2004 IndyCar champion and 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan, Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray and talented NASCAR star-in-the-making Kyle Larson.
Next week, Ganassi’s NASCAR team heads to Daytona for SpeedWeeks culminating with the Daytona 500 on February 22.
The cornerstone for all of Ganassi’s racing teams is the IndyCar operation based on the Northwest side of Indianapolis. And Ganassi is ready to get started with the Chevrolet Aero Kit, currently in production and are expected to be delivered to the teams before March 1.
“I think it’s going to be good; it’s going to add some flavor to the series and the fans are going to be able to pick one car from another and I think that’s a good idea,” Ganassi said. “It’s going to add some interest to the series to an otherwise Spec car. We are moving in a direction away from that and that is good. We’ve had a busy offseason getting ready for that.”
Ganassi would like to have the same level of success that he has enjoyed in IndyCar with his NASCAR effort that includes McMurray and Larson. He believes this combination can produce the same kind of success that Dixon and others have enjoyed with Ganassi’s team in IndyCar.
Sage Karam, the 2013 Indy Lights Series champion, is set to take over the No. 8 Ganassi entry in IndyCar as the team is committed to a four-car team once again in 2015. But the funding for the No. 8 car is being put into place before Karam is officially given the ride.
“We’re close,” Ganassi said. “We’re not there yet but we’re getting there. I don’t know when I expect to have it completed – I’m not making any promises.”
Steve Lauletta is the president of Chip Ganassi Racing and is a central figure in lining up the sponsorship for the ride that Karam is ready to take over.
“How close am I? I feel like we are making progress,” Lauletta said. “We all want to give Sage a full-season opportunity 100 percent. He deserves it. He has shown what he can do behind the wheel. We have some more work to do on the partner side. I think it is a huge opportunity for somebody to align their brand with a young American that has tremendous talent and great personality. We have a lot of great conversations going on to do that. We’ll have some announcements on some partners that are already secured soon but we are still working on it.
“It’s happening as quick as I can bring it all together.”
Ganassi also commended INDYCAR’s decision to name Brian Barnhart as Race Director in a three-steward officiating system that was implemented last season.
“It’s a good thing,” Ganassi said. “The guy obviously has the experience and he has not been far from Race Control the last couple of years so I’m glad we have somebody in there that knows the fundamentals. It’s not an easy job and Brian has taken his shots from all of us from time to time and the good news is he has shown a level of maturity and doesn’t give us the shots back that we probably need sometimes.
“I’m all for it.”