Chip Ganassi Racing will be at Portland International Raceway this weekend, and the NTT IndyCar Series championship prospects are completely unprecedented and completely familiar.
Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson and Alex Palou remain within two races of points leader Will Power. This is the first time in Ganassi’s proud history that Ganassi has fought a season in such depth with three title-qualifying cars. Team His Penske also has his three title-qualified drivers (Power, Joseph Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin), but it’s his second in five years (Newgarden, Helio Castroneves, Simon He said Pagenaud won his 2017).
While winning 14 championships in the last 32 years (including 6 by Dixon), Ganassi has had dynamic contender duos (Alex Zanardi/Jimmy Vasser, Dixon/Dan Wheldon, Dixon/Dario Franchitti). but the trio never shot for the crown. So far in the closing stretch.
Indycar in Portland: NBC This Weekend, The Peacock Schedule And How To Watch
Preparing three championship-caliber cars without prioritizing resources and staff to one or two entries (and placing Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Dallara Honda) was a Ganassi workload. How will it affect the Indianapolis store?
“No,” Mike Hull, Ganassi’s managing director, told NBC Sports. “It doesn’t apply to us and never has. For me with Chip, it goes way back to the beginning.”
NTT has two races left. @indycar In the SERIES season, the four drivers are only 17 points apart!
See you in Portland on September 4th @NBC When @peacockTV! pic.twitter.com/6gWZmB05io
— NBC’s IndyCar (@IndyCaronNBC) August 21, 2022
Shortly after being hired by team owner Chip Ganassi in 1992 to manage the two-car race, Hull said the team’s top-down mandate of standardization over specialization was clear.
“Even if we were making test parts, we had to make everything twice for two cars,” says Hull. “Chip said he’s not going to get one driver something different than the other. Also, when testing he makes parts, sometimes he only wants to make one set. But That was not the case with him.
“It carries over everything we’ve done here from Indianapolis, whether it’s Indycars, sports cars, or whatever else we’ve been doing. And Chip’s belief is that if all drivers and all team members feel that everyone is equal, sharing is less selfish. Luckily there are people who grew up in that system, mentoring the young people who work here, and it understands how we do things. We take it for granted, we don’t question it, we’re not worried about it.”
Drivers also seem unconcerned despite (or perhaps because of) a season marred by weeks of contract disputes.
Palou, the defending series champion and winner of the race at Portland, is embroiled in a lawsuit with Ganassi over his future.
But six races since announcing his move to McLaren Racing, the Spaniard remains competitive. And while his remote access to Ganassi’s data and engineering is limited, Palou is confident he has the same title chances as Dixon and Ericsson.
“100%,” Palou said after finishing third in Nashville (where he had a short conversation with Ganassi after the race). “I think there’s a lot going on, but at the end of the day Chip will be very happy if he wins the championship. He wants one of his cars to win the championship. All three can’t win, but he wants one car to win. Yeah, I think we certainly have a fair shot.”
Dixon said: everyone is trying to win. That’s what I’ve loved about this team all along. Clearly, this is a strange situation, and it hasn’t changed for Chip. The pre-race meeting is the same, all the cars are trying to win this championship. I know Alex is trying to win this championship as best he can. It’s in all of us, so it’s in his best interest. Yeah, some things are a little awkward here and there, but we’re all here to win. ”
IndyCar’s rulebook also simplifies Ganassi’s efforts for equality among the four cars.
IndyCar has used a common chassis since the DW12 Dallara was introduced ten years ago. Five years ago, with the implementation of the universal aero kit, the series further increased its “spec” and standardized by further reducing suppliers. (NASCAR has taken a similar direction with its next-gen cars this season.)
“I think you’ll see it in other forms of motorsport outside of IndyCar, but it’s much closer than it used to be because the sanctioning bodies have tightened the specs on the cars,” Hull said. “They are no longer team specific. The cars are more spec and series specific.
“So even if the information is mostly finite, it gives us more information. It helps us climb the grid together much more effectively than before. The team values input from the intellectual property that the cars generate, and the altruistic interactions between the drivers and engineering groups and the managers who run those cars.From the first track walk to the race. It goes on all the way to the last lap.”
There may be advantages to running an organization with four cars in lockstep, but Hull says he wants the team because “the race people are competitive and they’re always looking for an advantage.” I acknowledged that lining up can be a problem.
Despite specification limitations, the team is able to create aerodynamic parts for use on all four cars. Ganassi is committed to measuring on-course effectiveness and instantly revealing those results via in-house radio communications.
“If we think it’s the right configuration, but a driver goes out on the track and says, ‘That doesn’t work for me, I’m not going to tell anyone,’ then we do it. No way,” Hal said. “Let everyone understand that you tried something and explain why it didn’t work.
“What we are trying to do is reinforce the fact that advantages come from working together rather than dividing each other.”
Comments
Post a Comment