FIVE BIG FACTORS IN GANASSI’S FAVOR
Pole-winner Dixon and his imposing teammates raise owner’s odds of new Indy glory
INDIANAPOLIS — Chip Ganassi skipped his 1982 graduation ceremony at Duquesne to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. The Pittsburgh native made the field but turned out to be just an OK race car driver.
His strengths were outside the car and inside the boardroom. In the 40 years since, he has built one of the top open-wheel programs in North America. He has collected 14 championships and won four Indy 500s as a team owner, although the last one for Chip Ganassi Racing was a decade ago.
That’s a drought the boss doesn’t find at all acceptable.
“It’s been 10 years since we won here. We should be trying to win this thing,” Ganassi said Friday.
Come Sunday, the Indy 500 appears to be his race to lose. He has not one, not two, not three, but five thoroughbreds in the stable, and Ganassi cars have been untouchable for nearly two weeks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Six-time IndyCar champ Scott Dixon starts from the pole for the fifth time in his career as he continues his determined quest for a second Indy 500 win. The New Zealander won from the pole in 2008 but has fallen short 18 other times. Dixon has been runner-up three times, and his loss to Takuma Sato in 2020 stings the most. The race ended under yellow, and Dixon had to helplessly follow Sato across the finish line. Over the last week, he set an Indy 500 pole-winning record in qualifying with laps over 240 mph and now is chasing the item atop his to-do list.
“I just want to win — that’s all it comes down to,” Dixon said. “When you are younger, you don’t really give a [crap]. The first championship? The first Indy 500? I had no idea. It took some [crap] years for it to actually sink in what big achievements those are.
“And so those close misses, those are the ones that leave you [ticked] off. Those are the ones that make you keep knocking on the door, and winning another Indy 500 is top of the list. Out of everything, that is what matters most at the moment.”
The competition will come from within his own camp: Ganassi driver Alex Palou, the reigning Indy Car champion and last year’s Indy 500 runner-up, starts second. Dixon and Palou are both 13-2 favorites.
Ganassi drivers Marcus Ericsson and Tony Kanaan, the oldest driver in the field at 47, start fifth and sixth, respectively, and were fastest in Friday’s “Carb Day” final practice.
And back there in 12th? Why, it’s Jimmie Johnson, the seven-time NASCAR champion making his Indy 500 debut. He’s achieving his childhood dream at 46 after proving to his wife that Indy cars have dramatically improved in safety. Johnson knows his way around Indianapolis Motor Speedway — he won four times at the track in NASCAR — and if not for a bobble that led to a remarkable save in qualifying, he would be starting much closer to his Ganassi teammates.
Ganassi is quick to point out that trophies aren’t awarded in practice and that his fivecar fleet has accomplished nothing yet.
“I like our chances. We’re as prepared as we can be,” he said. “You’re always hesitant to feel good about the race at this place, but I probably feel as good as any car owner going into the race.”
The race is the first at which Roger Penske will be able to fully open the gates since he purchased the speedway in early 2020. His first Indy 500 was held without spectators, and last year he could only admit about 150,000. Speedway officials expect to fall 5,000 tickets shy of a sellout, which would still put more than 300,000 on the grounds for the second-biggest 500 in decades.
The crowd will also see Pato O’Ward, 23, who signed an extension Friday with Arrow McLaren SP that makes him the star of the team. McLaren also brought back two-time Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya for a second year, encouraged by Helio Castroneves’ record-tying fourth 500 win at age 46 last year. Castroneves is back again to try for a record fifth with the bolstered Meyer Shank Racing Team. His 22nd start gives him the most of all drivers in the 33-car field.