Founded in 1990 from the assets of Patrick Racing, the team won four straight CART titles, Indy 500s, IndyCar crowns and Daytona races.
Chip Ganassi Racing is an American team founded in 1990 from Patrick Racing's assets. It won four consecutive CART titles from 1996 to 1999, six Indianapolis 500s and multiple IndyCar championships, and it has also raced in NASCAR, sports cars and Extreme E.
Chip Ganassi Racing is one of the most decorated teams in American open-wheel racing. Founded in 1990, it has won CART and IndyCar titles, six Indianapolis 500s and a string of sports car races, and it has also competed in NASCAR and Extreme E. Its story runs from a 1990 start-up to the modern IndyCar grid.
What is Chip Ganassi Racing?
Chip Ganassi Racing, LLC is an American auto racing organisation competing in the NTT IndyCar Series. The organisation was set up in 1990 by the businessman and ex-driver Chip Ganassi, who used the assets of Patrick Racing to enter the CART IndyCar World Series. The team has also run in NASCAR, Global Rallycross, Extreme E, IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship.
A 1990 start-up from Patrick Racing's assets that became the most decorated name in modern American open-wheel racing.
How did Chip Ganassi Racing start?
In 1989 Ganassi joined Pat Patrick as co-owner of Emerson Fittipaldi's Marlboro team, which went on to win the Indy 500 and the IndyCar Championship that year. Patrick then decided to retire, and the team was to pass completely to Ganassi, although Patrick later changed his mind and restarted his operation.
Ganassi took over the remaining assets, including the 1989 Penske chassis, and renamed the team Chip Ganassi Racing. The new outfit signed former Formula One driver Eddie Cheever, with Target as its main sponsor in the full-time programme.
Did the team run development series cars?
Yes. Chip Ganassi Racing announced on 20 December 2006 that it would field an Indy Lights team for 2007, with Chris Festa and Pablo Perez. Festa finished 10th in the standings without a win, in a year when Alex Lloyd was the stand-out driver, and Lloyd later joined the team.
In 2008 the team partnered with Integra Motorsports and fielded a range of development drivers, notably New Zealanders Marc Williams and Jonny Reid. In 2025 it returned to Indy NXT with a two-car effort, and in December 2025 it announced a move to four cars for 2026.
Who drove for the team in its early years?
In 1992 the team ran two cars for the Indy 500, with Arie Luyendyk in an Indy-only entry. For 1993 Luyendyk replaced Cheever full-time, took pole for the Indy 500 and finished second to Fittipaldi, who had driven in the Patrick partnership.
For 1994 Michael Andretti joined the team after his failed move to Formula One in 1993. Ganassi later said he had to stretch to sign Andretti, and at the opening race of the 1994 season Andretti scored the team's first IndyCar victory at Surfers Paradise.
How did the team win four straight CART titles?
Chip Ganassi Racing won four consecutive CART championships from 1996 to 1999 with Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya. Vasser won the 1996 title, Zanardi took the 1997 and 1998 titles, and Montoya won in 1999 in his rookie season. That made Ganassi the first car owner to win four consecutive CART championships.
Target sponsored the operation through the decade. By the middle of the 1990s the team had risen to the top of the series, and its success rested on its drivers as much as on its engineering.
Why did the team move to the Indy Racing League?
In 2000 the team became the first CART squad to switch sides, returning to the Indianapolis 500 under the Indy Racing League banner. Montoya dominated the race, giving the team instant success. He also won the Michigan 500 that year, the first driver to take both races in one season since Rick Mears in 1991.
Montoya could not repeat his championship form. The switch from Honda to Toyota engines was blamed for his drop-off. He still led the series with 867 laps led and had seven pole positions, but reliability problems limited him to 3 wins and a 9th-place finish in the championship.
How did the IndyCar years begin?
The team ran from 1992 to 2002 in CART before moving into the Indy Racing League full-time. In 2002 it ran one IRL entry for former motocross racer Jeff Ward, who won one race at Texas in a finish among the tightest in IRL history.
In 2003 Scott Dixon won three races and the series championship, after joining as a midseason addition in 2002. Dixon remained the team's anchor for more than two decades, and his name recurs throughout its IndyCar success.
When did Dixon and Franchitti bring Ganassi more titles?
Dixon was the eventual champion in 2008, taking six wins at Homestead, Indianapolis, Texas, Nashville, Edmonton and Kentucky. Dario Franchitti joined for 2009 as the replacement for Dan Wheldon, and he and Ganassi won the 2010 Indianapolis 500, the 94th running of the race.
The team reached another high in 2012, when Franchitti and Dixon finished first and second at the Indianapolis 500. In 2013 Dixon won four races to take his third IndyCar title, overtaking Helio Castroneves, but Franchitti was medically forced into retirement after a crash at Race 2 in Houston.
What is the team's record in the table?
| Period | Series | Headline result |
|---|---|---|
| 1989 | IndyCar | Indy 500 and IndyCar Championship won by the Marlboro team under Ganassi's co-ownership |
| 1996 to 1999 | CART | Four consecutive championships with Vasser, Zanardi and Montoya |
| 2000 | IRL | Montoya wins the Indianapolis 500 on the team's return to Indy |
| 2003 | IndyCar | Dixon wins three races and the championship |
| 2010 | IndyCar | Franchitti wins the 94th Indianapolis 500 |
| 2013 | IndyCar | Dixon's third title, after four wins |
| 2018 | IndyCar | Dixon's fifth title, with wins at Detroit, Texas and Toronto |
| 2021 | IndyCar | Alex Palou wins his first title with three wins in the year |
What happened to the team in 2014 to 2016?
In 2014 Ganassi switched to Chevrolet engines and hired Tony Kanaan for the No. 10 Target car. Dixon won at Mid-Ohio and Sonoma, and Kanaan won the season finale at Auto Club. In 2015 Indy Lights champion Sage Karam shared the No. 8 with Sebastian Saavedra, and Dixon claimed his fourth title in a tiebreaker with Montoya.
The 2016 season was a down year. Dixon won twice at Phoenix and Watkins Glen, while Kanaan managed only two podiums and Max Chilton and Charlie Kimball struggled. Ganassi then changed back to full-works Honda in 2017, and Target ended its IndyCar sponsorship that year.
How did the team fare after 2017?
In 2018 the team downsized to two cars, and Dixon won his fifth IndyCar title with wins at Detroit, Texas and Toronto. Ed Jones was signed for the No. 10 car but was released at the end of the season in favour of Felix Rosenqvist.
The 2020 season saw Dixon win the first three races at Texas, Indianapolis and Road America, and he went on to win at Gateway on his way to his 6th IndyCar championship. For 2021 Alex Palou took the seat of Rosenqvist, and the team expanded to four cars for the first time since 2017, with Jimmie Johnson on the road and street courses.
Did Palou become champion for the team?
Yes. In 2021 Palou won at Barber, Road America and Portland to take his first IndyCar championship. He became the third Ganassi driver to win the title, and the first one other than Dixon since 2011.
The team scored the most wins of any IndyCar team that year, with Ericsson taking wins at Detroit and Nashville. Dixon won only once that season.
What was the NASCAR operation?
In 2001 Ganassi bought a majority stake in Felix Sabates' Team SABCO, which had operated since 1989. That marked his entry into NASCAR as Chip Ganassi Racing, while the team also competed in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. In 2009 Ganassi partnered with Teresa Earnhardt to merge the NASCAR operations into Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.
The NASCAR team dropped the Earnhardt name in 2014. Rob Kauffman bought a stake in 2015, and Sabates retired after the 2020 season. In 2021 Ganassi accepted an offer from former driver Justin Marks to sell the NASCAR operation to Trackhouse Racing Team. Drivers who raced for the NASCAR side included Kyle Petty, Sterling Marlin, Jamie McMurray, Kyle Larson, Kurt Busch and Ross Chastain, and the team also competed in the Xfinity Series.
How strong was the sports car programme?
The team won the 2006 24 Hours of Daytona with Dan Wheldon, Scott Dixon and Casey Mears, then won again in 2007 with Scott Pruett, Juan Pablo Montoya and Salvador Duran. It won a third Daytona 24 in a row in 2008, along with its third Grand-Am Championship with Pruett and Memo Rojas.
The team started 2011 with a one-two finish in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, with Pruett ahead of Scott Dixon. The result made Ganassi the first racing team owner to win four of North America's major races inside one 12-month period, spanning NASCAR, IndyCar and sports cars.
How did the team race Ford at Le Mans?
On 12 June 2015 Ford announced that it would return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for 2016 with a factory-supported, four-car effort as Ford Chip Ganassi Racing. The cars ran in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Chip Ganassi Racing, and in the FIA World Endurance Championship through Multimatic Motorsports Europe.
In 2016 the team moved to the GTLM class with the new Ford GT, and the Daytona Prototype programme ended. Ford finished third in the FIA World Endurance Cup for GT manufacturers in 2016 and second in 2017.
What did the team do in rallycross and Extreme E?
Ganassi announced a Global RallyCross team on 18 March 2015, based in the NASCAR shop in Concord, North Carolina. It ran M-Sport Ford Fiestas with Steve Arpin and Brian Deegan, and Arpin earned the team's first win at Daytona in 2016. The programme was shut down in 2017.
In May 2020 the team joined the Extreme E electric series for its inaugural 2021 season. Sara Price became the first woman in the team's history to drive a race-winning car on 7 July 2022. The team left Extreme E after the 2023 season.
