Chip Ganassi Racing is fielding five full entries in the NTT IndyCar Series this year, the first time it has ever done so.
Many were surprised when the team announced in September that Kyffin Simpson would be joining the team, as four other drivers had already been announced.
Questions immediately followed about how CGR planned to ensure that all of its entries would have the staff and support needed to run the largest team in the series.
The team’s veteran drivers were quick to point out ahead of the season that the personnel were able to easily handle the task, and Chip Ganassi related virtually the same message at last weekend’s St. Pete opener.
“Yeah, going with five cars with the team of people we have, I don’t think it was a huge challenge,” said the experienced team owner. “We had the people. We had to augment each team with one person or so, two people sometimes.
“We don’t look at it as a big challenge. We run multiple cars out of our race shop. In some sense it’s almost easier when they’re all at the same place as opposed to two or three different places. We’re not in Extreme E this year.
“We have plenty of people on the team that understand our system and how we work. So far it’s seamless. It’s a lot of work, but it’s seamless.”
Ganassi has been competing in CART and IndyCar as a team owner since 1990. In that time he has fluctuated between one and four drivers per year, with an occasional fifth being brought in for the Indy 500 alone.
To add a fifth full time entry with relative ease this season speaks to how mature his race organization is, and how well he keeps every aspect of the operation staffed.
The 65-year-old even went so far as to say this year’s setup is easier to manage than last year, simply because all five cars are going to one event.
“We’ve run multiple cars,” Ganassi continued. “We run multiple cars out of our race shop. The fact that instead of three going here and two going here, all five going one place, it’s somewhat easier from a logistics point of view.
“Whether the team expands and contracts, a lot of times it’s dependent on driver situations, sponsor situations. But if the opportunity is there, if there’s a good opportunity for us to take advantage of it, we do.
“I think everyone can see we have two really solid, solid veterans that can win at any racetrack we go to. So it’s nice to have this group of younger guys coming up that they’ll have the opportunity to work with Alex [Palou] and Scott [Dixon], learn from them.
“So it’s a great opportunity. I challenge anybody to say that it’s taking anything away from anybody by going from four to five. It’s just not the case.”
In addition to his large IndyCar squad, Ganassi also runs a team with Cadillac factory support in the top level prototype class of IMSA, often allowing his drivers to compete in both series for a portion of the season.
