Ganassi’s mantra is ‘I like winners.’ In 35 years of IndyCar, his drivers say it is all that matters
Chip Ganassi started his 35th season in motorsports exactly how he finished the last five years — dancing in victory lane for either a win or yet another championship.
His drivers have won five of the last seven IndyCar championships, two straight and three of the last four with Alex Palou, who led teammate Scott Dixon to a 1-2 Chip Ganassi Racing finish in the IndyCar season-opening race. Palou returns this weekend to The Thermal Club in Thermal, California, as the defending race winner.
It is Team Penske, with its “Darth Vader” image and record 20 Indianapolis 500 victories —including the last two — that is considered the gold standard of American open-wheel racing. But for 35 years, there has also been Ganassi, who has 16 IndyCar championships and five Indy 500 wins.
All 16 Ganassi championship trophies were together with the Borg-Warner Indy 500 trophy for the first time this week at a gala in Pittsburgh, where Ganassi was honored with the Daniel M. Rooney Ambassador’s Award. The award is presented “to an individual who reflects Ambassador Rooney’s leadership, love of Pittsburgh and contribution to the community.”
Ganassi is a Pittsburgh-raised Italian who never left home. He’s no-nonsense, has no time for shenanigans, eats the french fries he didn’t order off your plate, and, well, isn’t always the nicest guy.
He bleeds the ‘Burg. His lifelong friends and VIPs at the track are all from Pittsburgh and are given a tag that reads “FOC” so the “Friends of Chip” have free reign to Ganassi’s kingdom.
He’s as loyal as they get, which is how he’s built an IndyCar empire that ranks second statistically only to Penske — especially in that pesky Indy 500 wins category. But he’s done it by keeping Scott Dixon, the greatest IndyCar driver of his generation, who has been with Ganassi since the fourth race of the 2002 season. Then there’s Palou, who won a title for Ganassi, decided to go drive for McLaren, changed his mind and stayed with Ganassi and has won two more championships all while McLaren sues him for almost $30 million.
Dario Franchitti, who won three IndyCar championships and two Indy 500s driving for Ganassi and remains a team adviser, said the loyalty runs deep between the team owner and his employees.
“He’s an uncompromising person and every part of his life is uncompromising.” Franchitti told The Associated Press. “From the very first day, he said. ‘Hey, I’ll give you whatever you need to win, but you better win. OK? OK?’”
Ganassi didn’t want to get a real job
Not many of the top team owners in motorsports make racing their full-time business. Ganassi — and his newly-aligned partner Michael Shank at Meyer Shank Racing — are anomalies. Neither owns car dealerships, leasing companies, restaurant chains or outside major businesses.
Ganassi started as a wanna-be racer, but a 1984 head injury ended his driving career. He transitioned into ownership because he really wanted to be in racing over anything else. When asked what he’d have done instead, Ganassi had to give it serious thought before finally settling on “a pilot.”
“I’m too lazy to work and too nervous to steal. All that was left was racing,” Ganassi quipped to AP. “When I got into racing, I was just trying to avoid getting a real job. When I got involved in IndyCar racing … the sport wasn’t recognized as a real business. It was a sport of kings.
“But I think IndyCar racing is now a viable business for people like Chip Ganassi or like Mike Shank. You don’t have to be a multimillionaire to have an IndyCar business. You can have a business and go out and you can beat billionaires at it.”
Ganassi likes winners
Ganassi adopted his notorious “I like winners” mantra sometime over the last decade, and he uses it on social media to celebrate victories. He also is known to give Palou a hard smack on the cheek when the Spaniard wins. It’s different for every driver and Ganassi has had a star-studded lineup that included Jimmy Vasser, who won Ganassi his first championship in 1996, Alex Zanardi, Juan Pablo Montoya, Franchitti and now Palou, who appears unstoppable.
But the glue has been Dixon, the six-time series champion who will end his career as one of the greatest ever. His tenure with Ganassi is also probably four times as long as any other driver with the organization, and Dixon has the same sense of loyalty to his boss as Ganassi does to his employees.
He learned in his first meeting with Ganassi that winning is all that matters to the boss, and that attitude cascades through the entire organization.
“Trust me, we have our differences, but I respect him for what he does,” Dixon told AP. “Some people like him, some people don’t, he’s not for everybody. But for what the guy has achieved and the team that he’s created, it’s amazingly tough. I know that all he wants to do is win, and that’s all I want to do, too. For me, I couldn’t ask for anything more out of a team owner.”
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
By JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer
