Chip Ganassi Racing, LLC (CGR, also sometimes branded as Chip Ganassi Racing Teams), is an American auto racing organization competing in the NTT IndyCar Series. They have formerly competed in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, Global Rallycross Championship, Extreme E, Rolex Sports Car Series, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the FIA World Endurance Championship. It was founded in 1990 by businessman and former racecar driver Chip Ganassi from the assets of Patrick Racing to compete in the CART IndyCar World Series.
After winning four consecutive CART championships from 1996 to 1999 with drivers Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya, in 2000 Ganassi became the first CART organization to return to the Indianapolis 500 after the open-wheel "split" between CART and the Indy Racing League in 1996. A dominant victory with Montoya would foresee the team's permanent switch to the IRL (now IndyCar Series), where further championships would be won with Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti and Álex Palou, including another four straight from 2008 to 2011. In 2026, the team fielded the Nos. 8, 9 and 10 Dallara-Hondas for Kyffin Simpson, Dixon, and Palou full-time in the IndyCar Series, and the Nos. 8, 9, 10 and 11 Dallaras for James Roe, Bryce Aron, Niels Koolen and Carson Etter in the Indy NXT Series.
In 2001, Ganassi bought a majority stake in Felix Sabates' Team SABCO NASCAR team, which had operated since 1989, marking his entry into that championship as Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates and inheriting that organizations history, while also partnering to compete in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. In 2009, Ganassi partnered with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. owner Teresa Earnhardt to merge their NASCAR operations into Ganassi's shop and run under the banner of Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. The NASCAR team dropped the Earnhardt name in 2014, and Ganassi revealed that Teresa was never truly involved with the team. Rob Kauffman, chairman of the Race Team Alliance, purchased a stake in the team in 2015. Sabates retired from his ownership role after the 2020 season. In 2021, Ganassi accepted an unsolicited offer from former CGR Xfinity Series driver Justin Marks to sell the entire NASCAR operation to Marks' Trackhouse Racing Team, with the deal finalized after that season. The NASCAR program fielded full-time entries for notable drivers including Kyle Petty, Joe Nemechek, Sterling Marlin, Jimmy Spencer, Casey Mears, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jamie McMurray, Kyle Larson, Kurt Busch and Ross Chastain
Together, they have won 18 Open Wheel titles (4 in CART, 14 in IndyCar), 7 Grand-Am sports car championships, and wins in the Indianapolis 500 (six times), Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring, Petit Le Mans and a 24 Hours of Le Mans class win, and over 275 wins across all categories.
American open-wheel racing history
Drivers
Current 8 Kyffin Simpson 9 Scott Dixon 10 Álex Palou
Drivers (chronological) Eddie Cheever (1990–1992) Arie Luyendyk (1992–1993, 1997) Robby Gordon (1992) Didier Theys (1992) Michael Andretti (1994) Maurício Gugelmin (1994) Bryan Herta (1995) Mike Groff (1995: Indianapolis 500 only) Jimmy Vasser (1995–2000, 2001: Indianapolis 500 only) Alex Zanardi (1996–1998) Juan Pablo Montoya (1999–2000) Nicolas Minassian (2001) Memo Gidley (2001) Tony Stewart (2001: Indianapolis 500 only) Bruno Junqueira (2001–2002) Jeff Ward (2002) Kenny Bräck (2002) Scott Dixon (2002–2026) Tomas Scheckter (2003) Tony Renna (2004) Darren Manning (2004–2005) Jaques Lazier (2005) Giorgio Pantano (2005, 2012) Ryan Briscoe (2005, 2013: Indianapolis 500 only, 2014) Dan Wheldon (2006–2008) Dario Franchitti (2008–2013) Graham Rahal (2011–2012) Charlie Kimball (2011–2017) Alex Tagliani (2013) Tony Kanaan (2014–2017, 2021, 2022: Indianapolis 500 only) Sage Karam (2015) Sebastián Saavedra (2015) Max Chilton (2016–2017) Ed Jones (2018) Felix Rosenqvist (2019–2020) Marcus Ericsson (2020–2023) Álex Palou (2021–present) Jimmie Johnson (2021–2022) Marcus Armstrong (2023–2024) Takuma Sato (2023) Linus Lundqvist (2024) Kyffin Simpson (2024–present) Christian Lundgaard (beginning 2027)
CART history
In 1989, Chip Ganassi, who had driven in the IndyCar World Series but had his career cut short due to a crash at Michigan in 1984, joined Pat Patrick as co-owner for Emerson Fittipaldi's Marlboro IndyCar team. Patrick had announced he was going to retire at the end of the year, and the team would go completely to Ganassi. The team won the Indy 500 and the IndyCar Championship.
By season's end, Patrick had second thoughts. Instead of retracting the sale of the team to Ganassi, he went ahead with the deal as planned and instead restarted his team by taking over the upstart Alfa Romeo IndyCar effort for 1990. Fittipaldi took the Marlboro sponsorship to Team Penske, an arrangement that was also pre-planned (Penske had supplied Patrick with a fleet of Penske chassis for 1989 as part of the deal).
Ganassi officially took over the remaining assets of the team (including the 1989 Penske chassis) and renamed it Chip Ganassi Racing. He signed former Formula One driver Eddie Cheever and raced full-time in the IndyCar World series with Target as the primary sponsor.
In 1992, Ganassi expanded to a two-car effort for the Indy 500, adding Arie Luyendyk for the Indy-only entry. Later Ganassi debuted rookie Robby Gordon in selected events. For 1993, Luyendyk replaced Cheever full-time. Luyendyk won the pole position for the Indy 500 and finished second to Fittipaldi, Ganassi's former driver in his partnership with Patrick. For 1994, Michael Andretti joined the team, immediately after returning from his failed transition to Formula One in . Prior to the 1994 season, Ganassi speculated that if the team couldn't win with Michael Andretti, perhaps he shouldn't be a team owner, "We had to stretch to get Michael Andretti, and we stretched. I knew then we had a guy that could win races. I thought, 'If I have a guy in the car that can win races and we don't win races, who are they going to look at?'"Ganassi builds INDYCAR powerhouse over last 30 years with 'life times people' At the opening race of the 1994 season Andretti scored Ganassi's first IndyCar victory at Surfers Paradise.
Target continued to sponsor Ganassi's operation through the decade, and by the mid part of the decade, the team had risen to the top of the series. Perhaps the most impressive was Juan Pablo Montoya winning the championship in his rookie season in 1999. They won four consecutive series championships, with Jimmy Vasser (1996), Alex Zanardi (1997–1998), and Montoya in 1999, becoming the first car owner to win four consecutive CART championships. In 2000, Ganassi became the first CART team to break ranks and return to race in the Indianapolis 500, part of the rival Indy Racing League. The team saw instant success as Montoya dominated the race. Montoya also became the first driver to win the Indianapolis 500 and the Michigan 500 in the same year since Rick Mears in 1991. However, he was unable to duplicate his championship success of 1999.
The switch from Honda to Toyota was responsible for Montoya's drop-off. He matched his 1999 total with seven pole positions. He again led the series with 867 laps led, nearly matching his 1999 total. Reliability issues limited Montoya to 3 wins and a 9th-place finish in the championship. With double digit DNFs, mechanical failures cost him the opportunity to defend his title.
Vasser's performance steadily dwindled, as his lone victory at Houston was his first in nearly two years.
The team ran from 1992 to 2002 before moving into the Indy Racing League full-time. They had run one IRL entry for former motocross racer Jeff Ward in 2002, in which Ward won one race at Texas in one of the closest finishes in IRL history.
IndyCar Series history
Chip Ganassi Racing initially entered the Indy Racing League (IRL) with Juan Pablo Montoya and Jimmy Vasser in the 2000 Indianapolis 500 won by rookie Montoya. In 2001, they returned to Indy with Vasser, Bruno Junqueira, Nicolas Minassian, and NASCAR's Tony Stewart, who would also compete in that evening's Coca-Cola 600. But in neither year did they run the entire IndyCar Series season.
For 2002, Ganassi made the jump to the IndyCar Series full-time with Jeff Ward driving one car, with the addition of Ganassi's two CART Championship drivers Kenny Bräck and Bruno Junqueira at Indianapolis. None of those three would drive for Ganassi in 2003; the replacements were Scott Dixon – a midseason addition to Ganassi's Champ Car team in 2002 – and Tomas Scheckter. Dixon won three races and the series championship while Scheckter struggled and was released from his contract. Tony Renna was due to replace him, but was killed in a testing crash at Indianapolis. Englishman Darren Manning wound up in the seat for 2004. The team's performance suffered the next two seasons and when Manning was fired, a bevy of drivers ran in Ganassi's cars, among them former Formula One test drivers Ryan Briscoe and Giorgio Pantano, and Jaques Lazier. For 2006, Ganassi scaled back to two cars, with Dixon returning along with 2005 Indianapolis 500 Champion Dan Wheldon, whom Ganassi signed away from Andretti Green Racing in the offseason. The team also changed to Honda engines (due to series engine supplier standardization from 2006 to 2011 seasons), along with all other IndyCar teams, and Dallara chassis for 2006.
The 2007 IndyCar Series season showed promise for Ganassi, as Dixon took 4 wins at Watkins Glen, Nashville, Mid Ohio, and Sonoma and Wheldon took 2 additional wins at Homestead and Kansas. The 2008 IndyCar season was even stronger for the team with eventual champion Dixon taking wins at Homestead, Indianapolis, Texas, Nashville, Edmonton, and Kentucky, and teammate Wheldon finishing 4th overall after winning at Kansas again and at Iowa. Shortly before the conclusion of the season it was announced that Wheldon would not return as Dixon's teammate in 2009, a role taken by 2007 IndyCar Champion and Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti of Scotland. Franchitti teamed with Dixon for the non-championship race at Surfers' Paradise at the end of 2008.
The Target Chip GanassiTarget Ganassi Racing Sponsors car driven by Franchitti won the 94th running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday May 30, 2010.
For 2011, Ganassi expanded, to add an additional 2-car team for Graham Rahal and Charlie Kimball housed in the race shop of NHRA drag racer Kenny Bernstein.
Ganassi announced that in 2012, all 4 cars would be powered by Honda engines after the series decided to have multiple engine manufacturers (Honda, Chevrolet, and Lotus) for the first time since 2005.
The Ganassi cars driven by Franchitti and Dixon came in first and second in the 2012 Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 27, 2012. It was Franchitti's third Indianapolis 500 win and his second win with Ganassi. Rahal left Ganassi following the season for his father's team, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. In 2013, the team was dominant for the second half of the year, with Kimball's first win at Mid-Ohio, and Dixon adding four wins to overtake Hélio Castroneves for his third IndyCar title. The team also ran a fourth car, the No. 8, at Indianapolis for Briscoe, sponsored by NTT DATA. Despite the title, Ganassi was dealt a major blow when Franchitti was medically forced into retirement following a crash at Race 2 in Houston. Alex Tagliani replaced Franchitti at Auto Club.