Even more impressive than the large margin by which Scott Dixon earned pole for this year’s Indianapolis 500 was just how strong the entire Chip Ganassi Racing camp was.
All five drivers from the Ganassi team advanced past the first round of qualifying and were able to make runs on Sunday. For the final Fast 6 shootout, an incredible two-thirds were Ganassi drivers.
Even the Indy 500 rookie Jimmie Johnson was able to tame the high speeds and earn a position on the fourth row of the grid, and he will have the entire rest of his team ahead of him at the green flag.
This dominant performance is in no small way attributed to the degree to which the team shares information among all of its drivers.
It is a foregone conclusion that each time one of the team’s drivers is on track, benefits will come to the whole team. And each run after that will be better from having all the shared information available.
“We obviously know what everybody is running, and we all share what we are feeling and how the balance was,” said Alex Palou after qualifying second. “I think that’s what makes us stronger.
“I think if we would just hide everything, we wouldn’t be with six cars in the Fast 12, or four cars in the Fast 6. Yeah, we were sharing everything.
“That’s what I was a bit scared as well when Scott was behind me [in the qualifying order], but it was good. That’s why I think I’m in the front row today.”
Dixon was the final car to make his last qualifying attempt, and he his team had the knowledge of all the previous runs available in order to make final adjustments to the car to suit the track conditions.
Even more granular than that, his crew knew what settings Palou had run just a few minutes prior, and was able to ensure their man would be able to put the #9 car on pole.
“It’s open book,” said Dixon, reiterating how easily information is shared throughout the team. “I think everybody does a good job of that, and you have to buy in.
“You have to be willing to share, and I think that’s always been the environment since, well, 20 years ago since I joined this team. Some drivers were not always the easiest on it, but I think the environment in the last ten years has been very open like that.
“I asked a little bit just going through the sequence of the Fast 6 of what the #1 car had done, what the #8 had done after they had left and gone out.
“Yeah, everybody is sharing. We kind of have a program that constantly updates each stand of the changes that are going on as well.”
It’s not just the increased odds of running more cars that will give Chip Ganassi Racing a better shot at winning the Indy 500 this year.
Shared knowledge among all five cars will continue to provide a large advantage over the competition heading into one of the biggest racing events in the world.
