Lexington, Ohio — After telling the world to withdraw from NASCAR, Chip Ganassi returned to Pittsburgh and enjoyed a sushi dinner with drivers Kevin Magnussen and Renger van der Zande for a week between sports car races. ..
After that, Ganassi returned to work and the first stop was Watkins Glen, NY.
Magnussen and Van der Zande did not win the IMSA race — “the first loser, P2,” said Ganassi — before Ganassi headed for the Mid-Ohio Sportscar course and spent July 4th with the IndyCar team. It was P2 again, but Marcus Ericsson, IndyCar Championship leaders Alex Palou and Scott Dixon finished 2-3-4 to show the strength of the organization.
Justin Marks and Trackhouse Racing acquired Ganassi’s NASCAR team at the end of the season, but for a 63-year-old lifelong racer, the weekly grind of motorsport doesn’t stop.
“There are a lot of races we’re still involved in in this world,” Ganassi said in Mid-Ohio. “Looking at the calendar gives me a little free time, but not so much.”
Ganassi built one of the top motorsport organizations long before he set foot on NASCAR in 2001, when sports became so popular. His car won 19 races in the nation’s top stock car series, but had no title. Ganassi came closest to the championship in 2002, leading Sterling Marlin for 25 consecutive weeks in a shortened season due to injury.
His 20 years in the series weren’t bust. Ganassi made a friendship with NASCAR Chairman Jim France and gave the driver a chance. He brought Juan Pablo Montoya back from F1 to the United States, raced at NASCAR and gave a series shot to Dario Franchitti, who won the Indianapolis 500 three times.
In 2010, Jamie McMurray won both the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400, while Ganassi also won the Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar titles at Franchitti. All six drivers won at least one race and won a total of 19 Ganassi wins in three different series.
“How many people do it?” Ganassi said. “No one holds such statistics, but they can spend the rest of their lives better than in 2010.”
When NASCAR’s commercial market began to collapse, Ganassi suffered as much as any other organization. He lacked the opportunity for business-to-business transactions that his rivals with major companies used to adapt to the new sponsorship model. After 27 years of partnership with Coors Light, Texaco / Haborin, Reglaze, and 27 years of partnership, all sponsors such as Flagship Baccano’s Target have withdrawn.
“I did a lot of body blows,” said Ganassi.
He’s been back in the last few years and the hits don’t seem to stop. Ganassi was forced to dismiss Kyle Larson, a driver Larson developed at the age of 19, when sponsors threatened to stop using Larson’s racist terms in 2020.
Larson, who is currently driving Hendrick Motorsport, has won four cup series wins and is a title candidate that is gaining increasing interest from money-spending companies.
DC Solar was scheduled to become a major sponsor in 2019, but was attacked by the FBI in December 2018. The financial impact has passed the courtroom and Ganassi may have to repay some of the money the team received.
He is also in the contract year with Kurt Busch, who is tied to the primary sponsor Monster, and can raise money with him if he leaves after the season. If the monster moved, Ganassi would have had a huge shortage of funds to fill in 2022.
New ownership is skyrocketing in NASCAR. Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, Marks and Pitbull are two of the three new teams this season, with other teams likely to arrive in 2022. Decades of attempt, and young new owners are now on their way.
Ganassi became the middle class and there was no safe way to join the elite.
“You look at it and it’s like” What am I doing? ” Is it because of the masses of racing that put this at risk every year? Are all my winters nervous about looking for sponsors? Ganassi asked. “I’m very tired of it.”
Decided to sell all parts of NASCAR to Marks — Ganassi will essentially give him the key to the store after the November season finale — a bomb that no one has ever seen, but that makes a lot of sense It’s good.
Rival owner Roger Penske said after Joseph Newgarden was the only driver to defeat Mid-Ohio’s Ganassi camp, “I don’t know where Kurt is going, so I have a lot of questions and someone asks him. I have made an offer that I cannot refuse. ” on Sunday.
“He has a lot of choices and NASCAR is neither his only life nor his only racing activity. He thought of it as a businessman and said,” Hey, where should I go? I participate in the race. We wanted to and built a reputation for this brand, but not everything was built with NASCAR, “Penske said. “What he’s doing is continuing to nurture the awesomeness he had in IndyCar. Surprisingly, all the facts are probably a good move.”
And there is a lot to do.
Ganassi said he would like to move Magnussen from IMSA to IndyCar and expand to a fifth if he finds a sponsor for a former F1 driver. Magnussen himself asked Ganassi about Pittsburgh sushi if the sale of the NASCAR team freed up seat funding.
Ganassi is also awaiting plans for General Motors’ new LMDh car, which will allow the IMSA team to return to the Le Mans 24-hour race in 2023. This is the first season for the Extreme E team and has a championship to win the IndyCar. He has survived the remaining 16 races of the NASCAR season and hopes that both Bush and Rothschild will qualify for the playoffs.
While the NASCAR team wasn’t for sale when Marks made a cold call, Ganassi applied a firm business belief in assessing the emotional side of the deal.
“I’ve always said that if you have up to two or three assets and someone wants to buy it, whether it’s your car, your home, or your business, it’s it. Someone wants to buy something like that, you need to see it, you can buy another at any time, “Ganassi said. “There are many reasons to make this seem like the right time. I had a great time there. In retrospect, I think it was all very positive.”