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Diamars 6 Juli 2021

Ganassi saw writing on wall for his NASCAR future

with him if he leaves after the sea- in NASCAR,’” Penske said. “What
son. Should Monster move, Ganassi he’s doing is continuing to cultivate
would have been left with huge fund- the greatness he had in IndyCar. I
ing shortage to fill for 2022. was surprised, but when you look at
all the facts, it was probably a good
There’s a flurry of new ownership move.”
entering NASCAR — Michael Jor-
dan with Denny Hamlin and Marks And there is so much to do.
with Pitbull were two of three new
teams this season, and others may Ganassi said he would like to move
arrive in 2022. Ganassi never caught Magnussen from IMSA to IndyCar
the likes of Hendrick, Joe Gibbs Rac- and would expand to a fifth car if he
ing and Team Penske in two decades found the sponsorship for the for-
of trying, and young new owners are mer Formula One driver. Magnussen
now elbowing their way in. himself asked Ganassi over sushi in
Pittsburgh if the sale of the NASCAR
Ganassi had become the middle class, team freed up funds for a seat.
with no secure path to join the elite.
Ganassi also is awaiting General Mo-
“You look at it and it’s like, ‘What am tors’ plans for a new LMDh car that
I doing?’ Do I owe this all to the rac- could return his IMSA team to the 24
(AP) — After telling the world Dario Franchitti a shot in the series. ing public to risk this every year and Hours of Le Mans in 2023, is in his
he was pulling out of NASCAR, all my winters are a bundle of nerves first season with an Extreme E team
Chip Ganassi returned home to In 2010, Jamie McMurray won both trying to find sponsors?” Ganassi and has a championship to win in In-
Pittsburgh for sushi dinner with the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard asked. “I’m so tired of that.” dyCar. He’ will ride out the remain-
drivers Kevin Magnussen and 400, but Ganassi also won the India- ing 16 races of the NASCAR season
Renger van der Zande, his house napolis 500 and IndyCar title with The decision to sell the entire NAS- and hope both Busch and Ross Chas-
guests for a week between sports Franchitti and all six of his drivers CAR portion to Marks — Ganassi tain qualify for the playoffs.
car races. won at least one race for a total of 19 will essentially hand him the keys to
Ganassi victories across three differ- the shop after the November season And even though his NASCAR team
Then Ganassi went back to work and ent series. finale — was a bombshell no one saw was not for sale when Marks cold-
his first stop was Watkins Glen, New coming but it makes so much sense. called him, Ganassi applied a firm
York. “How many people do that?” Ganassi business belief he holds in weighing
said. “No one ever keeps that kind of “I think not knowing where Kurt’s the emotional aspect of the transac-
Magnussen and van der Zande didn’t stat, but you could spend the rest of going, there’s a lot of questions and tion.
win the IMSA race — “first loser, your life trying to be better than we someone came to him with an offer
P2,” Ganassi said — before Ganassi were in 2010.” he couldn’t refuse,” rival owner Rog- “I’ve always said, if you have your
headed to Mid-Ohio Sports Car er Penske said after Josef Newgarden largest two or three assets and some-
Course to spend the Fourth of July When NASCAR’s commercial mar- was the only driver to beat the Ga- body ever wants to buy, you need to
with his IndyCar team. It was P2, ket began to crash, Ganassi suffered nassi camp at Mid-Ohio on Sunday. look at it — whether it’s your car,
again, but Marcus Ericsson, IndyCar as much as any organization. He your house, your business. Some-
championship leader Alex Palou and lacked the business-to-business op- “He had a lot of options and NAS- body wants to buy that stuff, you
Scott Dixon showed the strength of portunities his rivals with primary CAR is not his only life or his only got to look at it, you can always buy
the organization with a 2-3-4 finish. companies used to adjust to the new racing operation. He thought about another one,” Ganassi said. “There’s
sponsorship models. Sponsors such it as a businessman and said ‘Hey, just a lot of things that made this
Justin Marks and Trackhouse Rac- as Coors Light, Texaco/Havoline, where can I be? I want to be in rac- seem like the right time. I had a great
ing bought Ganassi’s NASCAR team Wrigley’s and, after a 27-year partner- ing and I built this brand and repu- time while I was there. Looking back,
effective at the end of this season, ship, flagship backer Target, all pulled tation and it certainly wasn’t built all I would say this was all very positive.”
but the weekly grind of motorsports out.
won’t stop for the 63-year-old life-
long racer. “I took a lot of body blows,” Ganassi
said.
“There’s a lot of racing that goes on
in this world that we’re still involved He’s been clawing his way back the
in,” Ganassi said at Mid-Ohio. “When last several years but the hits just nev-
you look at the calendar, it frees up a er seem to stop coming. Ganassi was
little of my time, but not a lot.” forced to fire Kyle Larson, the driver
he’d developed since Larson was 19,
Ganassi built one of the top organi- when sponsors threatened to leave
zations in motorsports long before over Larson’s use of a racial slur in
he waded into NASCAR in 2001 as 2020.
the sport was exploding in popular-
ity. His cars won 19 races in the na- Now driving for Hendrick Motors-
tion’s top stock car series but never a ports, Larson has a Cup Series-high
title. The closest Ganassi ever came four wins and is a title contender with
to a championship was in 2002 when increasing interest from companies
Sterling Marlin led the points for 25 with money to spend.
consecutive weeks in a season cut
short by injury. DC Solar was scheduled to be a ma-
jor sponsor in 2019 but was raided by
His two decades in the series weren’t the FBI in December 2018. The fi-
a bust. Ganassi formed a friendship nancial fallout is winding through the
with NASCAR chairman Jim France courts and Ganassi may have to repay
and took chances on drivers — he some of the funds the team received.
brought Juan Pablo Montoya back to
the United States from Formula One He is also in a contract year with Kurt
to race in NASCAR, and he gave Busch, who is tied to primary spon-
three-time Indianapolis 500 winner sor Monster and can take the funding