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IndyCar Race Preview: Firestone 550k

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by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

I do weekly Fantasy Pick'Em columns here at OPR, as well as the occasional opinion and analysis piece. I also provide the IZOD IndyCar Series coverage. For more on that, head to my site, OpenWheelAmerica.com. My Twitter handle is @christopherlion.

June 5, 2010 3:06 pm UTC No Comments

Ryan Briscoe and Dario Franchitti will make up the front row for tonight’s Firestone 550k at Texas Motor Speedway, and both drivers are looking to continue trends that would bring them to the winner’s circle.

Since joining Team Penske, Briscoe started and finished third in the 2008 race, and started and finished second in 2009. His pole suggests that he might be able to continue that trend this year. Franchitti, meanwhile, will look to be the third Indianapolis 500 winner in a row to also triumph at Texas.

Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing-owned cars will, unsurprisingly, make up the top five starters, with Will Power (Penske), Scott Dixon (Ganassi), and Helio Castroneves (Penske) starting 3-4-5. Shocking, however, will be Alex Lloyd‘s sixth-place start for Dale Coyne Racing; it comes on the heels of his fourth-place start at Indy, and Milka Duno‘s shocking sixth-place run in Texas practice. (She’ll start back in 17th, though.)

Lloyd is the highest qualifying rookie, with Takuma Sato next best in 11th. None of the other four rookies qualified inside the top 20 of the 26-car field.

Tomas Scheckter, replacing the injured Mike Conway in Dreyer & Reinbold Racing‘s No. 24 Dallara-Honda, qualified 18th. Scheckter led laps in last weekend’s 500, as did two of the other three DRR drivers, only to fall to 15th and a lap down when the checkers waved. Scheckter hasn’t been guaranteed the ride beyond this weekend, but a strong showing may keep him in the car; on three occasions he’s led more than half of the Texas race, meaning he could be a threat for victory. In fact, Scheckter’s most recent IndyCar win came at Texas in 2005, when he drove for Panther Racing.

With two oval races completed, the Ganassi cars of Franchitti and Dixon lead the oval points, followed by Castroneves, Dan Wheldon of Panther Racing, Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti of Andretti Autosport, Power, Alex Tagliani of FAZZT Race Team, Briscoe, and Danica Patrick. Wheldon and Patrick are separated by only eight points, but from there the gap widens; Castroneves is 10 ahead of Wheldon with 69, Dixon is 22 ahead of Castroneves with 91, and Franchitti is 13 ahead of Dixon with 104, bolstered by a 64-point Indy 500.

Filed under: Chip Ganassi Racing, Indy Cars, Penske Racing, Texas Motor Speedway 

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IndyCar Race Review: Indianapolis 500

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by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

I do weekly Fantasy Pick'Em columns here at OPR, as well as the occasional opinion and analysis piece. I also provide the IZOD IndyCar Series coverage. For more on that, head to my site, OpenWheelAmerica.com. My Twitter handle is @christopherlion.

May 31, 2010 10:31 am UTC No Comments

Dario Franchitti took his second Indianapolis 500 checkered flag in the past four years after easily leading more than two thirds of the event.

Franchitti’s victory, taken under caution over Dan Wheldon and Marco Andretti, made team owner Chip Ganassi the first owner to win the crown jewels of American stock car and open wheel racing in the same season.

This time, Franchitti managed to hang on in a full-length race, after winning a rain-shortened contest in 2007. He did more than hang on, though – until pit stops in the second half of the race shook up the running order, he utilized clean air to dominate much of the event.

The two major early stories of the race were Tony Kanaan and pit crew failure. Kanaan started 33rd after a disastrous qualifying weekend, but worked his way up through the field quickly. Meanwhile, the pit crews of Will Power, Scott Dixon, and Raphael Matos all made crucial errors in the first third of the race, with Power driving off with part of his fuel assembly and Dixon and Matos losing wheels on the same set of pit stops.

Blocking was also at issue during much of the event. Graham Rahal was black-flagged after blocking Franchitti and later Dan Wheldon. Wheldon was actually the victim of two huge blocks early in the event, with the other coming from John Andretti. A handful of drivers received black flags over the course of the race for blocking others, with a late-race penalty sabotaging the chances of Townsend Bell to score a good finish.

Turn two victimized a handful of cars over the course of the event, including Davey Hamilton, Bruno Junqueira, and Matos, not long after his pit issues. Franchitti continued to hold the point, however, with very few challenges – polesitter Helio Castroneves didn’t lead at all until the latter stages.

Indy often can reward the perseverance of the less prominent teams in the sport with a legitimate shot at glory. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing had three of its four cars lead parts of the race, with Tomas Scheckter, Mike Conway, and Justin Wilson all briefly helming the point. Scheckter faded as better cars passed him, while Conway and Wilson had to pit for fuel.

Conway was the victim of a spectacular last-lap wreck that handed the race to Franchitti. He barrelled into Ryan Hunter-Reay‘s car coming out of turn three and flew into the catchfence, in an incident scarily similar to Kenny Brack‘s 2003 wreck at Texas and Alessandro Zampedri‘s incident on the last lap of the 1996 500. Luckily, Conway suffered only a broken leg, compared to the more serious injuries of those two drivers.

Indy can also victimize some of the best teams in the sport. Penske Racing, which attempted to win its 16th Indianapolis 500 as Castroneves went for his record-tying fourth, had a miserable day. Ryan Briscoe, who held a fuel advantage after his last pit stop, wrecked almost instantly after to finish 24th. Power and Castroneves came home 8th and 9th, respectively. Power led early before his pit issue, and Castroneves led with as few as nine laps to go before needing to pit.

After Conway, Wilson, and others had to pit for fuel within the last 20 laps of the race, Franchitti reinherited the lead over Kanaan, who was looking to become the first driver to win the race from the last row. Such a victory would have been redemption for Kanaan, especially considering that he had nearly missed the race this year, and considering his history of bad Indy luck. But he had to pit with a handful of laps to go, handing the bridesmaid position to Wheldon for the second year in a row. It was also the third consecutive year that Panther Racing finished second in the 500.

Andretti, who had been blowing through his Honda Push to Pass allotment all race, came home third after first being classified in sixth. Originally, Alex Lloyd had been classified third, Scott Dixon fourth and Danica Patrick fifth. But all three were ruled as having passed Andretti under caution on the last lap, and his position was returned to him, and those three drivers were knocked down one spot apiece.

Two rookies finished on the lead lap – Mario Romancini in 13th and Simona de Silvestro in 14th. They both got by Franchitti as he attempted to conserve fuel on the final lap. The best finishing Indy 500 special was that of Rahal, which placed 12th.

Filed under: Chip Ganassi Racing, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indy Cars 

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NASCAR History: Car Number 41 and Chip Ganassi Racing

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by JamesJ, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

Sundays of my youth consisted of NASCAR racing and cold bottles of Mountain Dew. Thirty years later not much has changed for me. However, nearly everything has changed in NASCAR.

January 4, 2010 11:32 am UTC 2 Comments

Over the next several weeks we’ll be featuring car numbers in NASCAR history. We started with #50 and are working our way down the line. With each car number we’ll take a brief look at a couple stats related to the featured car number, but we’ll primarily spotlight either a driver, sponsor, car owner, manufacturer or other significant subject closely tied to the car number of the day.Reed Sorenson in car number 41

I’m gonna venture out of my comfort zone just a bit in today’s spotlight. “The Great American Race” is the Daytona 500, but today I’m going to use car #41 as as segue of sorts to do my first spotlight on a NASCAR team. This team’s owner, Chip Ganassi, attempted to transplant two open-wheel championship drivers, and winners of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” (the Indianapolis 500) into stock car racing.

Stats for all cars running the #41:

Chip Ganassi

  • Number of Races: 930
  • Number of Wins: 22
  • Number of Top 5s: 93
  • Number of Top 10s: 182
  • Number of Poles: 19

Check out current NASCAR race statistics here at On Pit Row!

Spotlight Subject: Chip Ganassi Racing

I’ll start by saying I’ve never been a huge open wheel fan. That’s not to say I haven’t watched my fair share of INDY 500 races though. As a Rusty Wallace fan, I was automatically a Team Penske fan no matter what sort of racing was going on. Roger Penske wasn’t the only car owner playing in both IndyCar and NASCAR. Chip Ganassi has both raced in and fielded cars as an owner in IndyCar, CART, Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series and NASCAR.

Chip Ganassi Racing has competed in Sprint Cup racing since 2001 after purchasing 80% of Felix Sabates’s SABCO Racing. For the 2009 NASCAR Cup season, Chip Ganassi Racing merged with Dale Earnhardt Inc.. Only one driver from Ganassi Racing- Juan Pablo Montoya -would move over to the new organization.

Most Recent Drivers for Chip Ganassi Racing:

Scott Pruett

Chip Ganassi and Scott PruettFor several years Chip Ganassi tapped into the talented Scott Pruett as a “road course ringer” when the NASCAR circuit made it’s way to Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glenn International. Much of Scott’s talent was exercised in open wheel racing during the 1990s in the Champ Car series where he logged 2 wins in 145 starts. Since 2001, Scott has been called upon nine times to either substitute for the regular Cup driver, or pilot an extra car for the Ganassi Racing team. In those eight races Scott posted 3 top five and 5 top ten finishes, giving him an average finish of 18.3 for all starts with Ganassi Racing. In 2007 Scott was on the receiving end of a “bump-n-run” in a much publicized Busch series finish. It came when Ganassi’s newest driver, Juan Pablo Montoya, booted him out of the way to steal a win in the Telcel-Motorola 200 in Mexico City.

Juan Pablo Montoya

NASCAR driver Juan Pablo MontoyaEnter Juan Pablo Montoya. In 1999 he took home open wheel’s CART Championship and Rookie of the Year titles. The next year he would add to his trophy case by not only taking Rookie of the Year honors in IndyCar, but also the coveted Indy 500 trophy! Next on his list of things to conquer, NASCAR. He came onto the NASCAR scene in 2007 and as evidenced in the story above with Pruett, he was determined to succeed at almost any cost. In doing so, he in part set himself up for quite a bit of the negative reception he received in the Cup series. His answer was to exceed precisely where most thought he would do well, on the road course. With over a four second lead on second place, Montoya scored his first Sprint Cup win at the Infineon Raceway. Four races later the Cup series would roll into Indianapolis for the Brickyard 400. Montoya would make it an all Ganassi front row by putting his #42 Texaco Dodge on the outside pole while teammate Reed Sorenson put his #41 Target Dodge on the pole. Though he wouldn’t lead a lap during the race, he would bring it home in second less than 3 seconds behind winner Tony Stewart. 2009 was a great year for Montoya where enough consistency was shown (7 top fives, 18 top tens) to result in a Chase berth.

Dario Franchitti

Dario FranchittiIn 2008 Chip Ganassi tweaked his formula for success by fielding another open wheeler, Dario Franchitti. Dario finished in second place in the 1999 CART series championship to his new teammate at Ganassi Racing, Juan Pablo Montoya. While they both finished the season with the same points total, Montoya’s 7 wins bested Franchitti’s 3 wins. Dario has multiple wins in various series such as IndyCar, CART, and the British Formula Three Championship to name a few. Perhaps the most coveted is his 2007 Indy 500 win. Ganassi positioned Dario behind the wheel of the #40 for Sprint Cup competition. However, failure to qualify for races, poor performance, an ankle injury, and a lack of sponsorship closed the lid on Dario’s NASCAR career.

Reed Sorenson

NASCAR driver Reed SorensonReed Sorenson piloted the #41 for Chip Ganassi Racing from 2006 through the 2008 Cup season. Despite having zero wins in Cup, he was the veteran Cup driver amongst Ganassi Racing’s trio. Interestingly enough, Reed has one pole and it came in the 2007 season in the Allstate 400 at Indianapolis. Reed finished that race in 5th place, which gave Ganassi two cars in the top five.

His position at Ganassi Racing was a peculiar one. How does a 21 year old with more stock car experience than his teammates fit into the organization when those teammates bring such grand achievements? Imagine yourself at 21 years of age being teamed with two older drivers with huge celebrity status and elite success in open-wheel racing– including Indy 500 and series championships!

Reed had tremendous pressure to perform in 2008. The pressures on these drivers are great anyway, but my admiration for this young man went up quite a bit when considering his teammates. Unfortunately, the performance wasn’t there and when Chip Ganassi Racing merged with Earnhardt Racing for the 2009 season, Reed was let go and took a ride at Gillett Evernham Motorsports.

Filed under: Chip Ganassi Racing, James Jones, Juan Pablo Montoya, NASCAR, NASCAR History, Reed Sorenson 

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A Tale of Two Race Teams: Bass Pro Shops’ Dilemma

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by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

I do weekly Fantasy Pick'Em columns here at OPR, as well as the occasional opinion and analysis piece. I also provide the IZOD IndyCar Series coverage. For more on that, head to my site, OpenWheelAmerica.com. My Twitter handle is @christopherlion.

November 3, 2009 6:16 pm UTC No Comments

The sponsors of NASCAR teams are obligated to pay the bills in order to plaster their logos on the cars. They’re obligated to stick with a team through the length of their contract, for better or worse, and make the best of what the race team can provide them. But that doesn’t mean that when the situation is less than stellar and the contract is approaching its final year, the sponsor isn’t going to look for a quick out; they’ve also got an obligation to look for the greatest return on their investment.

Bass Pro Shops has been a major primary sponsor of a car in one of NASCAR’s top two series since 2003, when they debuted on the hood of Hank Parker Jr.’s Chance 2 Motorsports Chevrolet at a then-Busch Series race in Atlanta. They stuck with that team for the next two seasons, when they won championships with driver Martin Truex Jr. and crew chief Bono Manion.

In 2006, the whole team moved up to the Cup series, and they made the Chase in 2007, with Truex taking his maiden Cup win at Dover. But in 2008 and 2009, the wheels started to fall off: the team failed to make the Chase again in 2008, it was forced to merge with Chip Ganassi‘s team in the offseason, and right now is mired at 24th in the standings, while teammate Juan Montoya challenges for victories week in and week out. In response, Bass Pro Shops has scaled back its sponsorship of the car, with a presumptive 26 races this season and only 20 next year.

Right now, that car is vacant for the 2010 season, with Truex heading to Michael Waltrip Racing to replace its namesake in their flagship car. New owner Ganassi wants to put Jamie McMurray in the car, out of a combination of history (McMurray never finished worse than 13th in points in three years spent with Ganassi) and “best available”; the sponsor isn’t so sure that McMurray fits their image.

In a FoxSports.com article, Lee Spencer mounts a weak defense for McMurray, saying that last week’s winner “will go above and beyond for his sponsors whether it’s Bass Pro or anyone else.” Duh. Name me one successful driver this side of Stroker Ace who hasn’t.

Former champion Bobby Labonte is available to Ganassi, and he fits the sponsor’s image much better, but two things stand in the way of that marriage: TRG Motorsports is working to keep him on board with their team, and Labonte is having the worst season of his illustrious career, lingering at 30th in points.

The other available drivers, Reed Sorenson and Casey Mears, are other Ganassi castoffs who never did anywhere near as much with that team in the past (or with other teams as of late) as McMurray did.

The other, more desirable option that Bass Pro Shops has is to find a way out of their contract with Ganassi and head to Stewart-Haas Racing, where they would fill out the gaps in the schedule on Ryan Newman‘s car left by the U.S. Army. It’s been an open secret for a while that the match makes a lot of sense; the sponsor occupies a B-pillar spot on owner Tony Stewart‘s car, they’ve had an association with him for years, and Stewart-Haas is a step up from Ganassi in almost every way.

Back in April, Hermie Sadler reported on SPEED that there is no “out” in Bass Pro Shops’ contract for the 2010 season, just a day after Fox Sports posted rumors of the sponsor switching teams due to a performance clause. But sometimes, ripping up a contract makes more sense for both sides.

Ganassi, through Target as well as his team’s other partners, could probably find enough sponsorship to field McMurray for the full season if Bass Pro Shops were to be let out of its contract. Before the merger with Dale Earnhardt Inc., Ganassi had a commitment from Target that would have allowed him to run two full-time cars in 2009. This year, Target and its partners combined to sponsor 18 races for Truex and Aric Almirola, besides the full schedule for Montoya (who had other Target partners on his car for four races).

Running a two-car Target program in Sprint Cup could work similarly to Ganassi’s IndyCar Series program with Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti. This year, Dixon drove a Target car all season, while Franchitti’s car carried a multiplicity of sponsors who marketed through Target for the majority of the year.

It’s hard to convince an existing sponsor to expand its support in this economy, but given Target’s 20 years with Ganassi, McMurray’s solid history with the team, and the fact that his personality fits Target’s marketing programs much better than those of a hunting outlet, it seems only plausible. That would then free up Bass Pro Shops to fill out Newman’s schedule, strengthening Stewart’s new team even further.

Of course, this only works out as well as it does when you keep the monetary figures away – I don’t know that a buyout would be worth it for either Ganassi or Bass Pro Shops, or that Target would really be willing to expand its Sprint Cup participation. But for the sponsors, being involved in racing requires a return on the money they’ve invested. The way that things stand right now, everybody stands to be more successful if things get switched around.

Filed under: Chip Ganassi Racing, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Jamie McMurray, Martin Truex Jr., NASCAR, NASCAR Rumors, Ryan Newman, silly season, Stewart Haas Racing 

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NASCAR’s Most Improved Driver: Casey Mears?

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by Charlie Turner

Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. The best NASCAR and IndyCar news and opinion, exclusive pictures and video. I'm Charlie Turner. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

January 29, 2009 4:10 pm UTC No Comments

NASCAR’s 2009 Sprint Cup Series is revving up all the usual suspects picked by someone to grab the France Family jewels. But who is your version of the Phoenix – the legendary bird that rises from the ashes?

Bram that sage Scottish Racer of Backstretch Motorsports acclaim asked just that over at the BenchRacers forum . Who has the chance to be most improved? Here’s a bit of Bram’s answer to his own question…

“no one stands a better chance at brass-covered tin-ring than Casey Mears.. he’s fully funded and from all outward signs, has a much stronger support system behind him at the Welcome, NC shops as opposed to the ‘and we must mention…’ status he got at Hendrick.. and this is his last chance…”

Is this Casey Mears’ last chance in Cup? It’s hard to argue that logic. Mears has had what seemed at the time, to be very good rides. The second car at Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates Racing and then the No 5 car at Hendrick Motorsports. But, the results of the Ganassi team show that they have been annually overrated and Hendrick has never gotten the fourth car up to the level of the No 24 or 48.

Mears seems the perfect fit for Richard Childress Racing. He reminds me of Jeff Burton, in fact. I’ve had to opportunity to interview Mears and it would be tough to come away from that experience with anything but hope for his success.

It would seem that all is in place for Casey to have that “Most Improved Driver” kind of season. The caveat is that RCR has never run four cars for a full season. It can be argued that only Jack Roush has done so successfully. I like Casey’s chances though.

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler - ON PIT ROW

Filed under: Casey Mears, Chip Ganassi Racing, Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, NASCAR, Richard Childress Racing, Sprint Cup Series 

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Opportunities Ripe for Change Throughout NASCAR

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by Steve Wronkowicz

I am co-host of the syndicated radio show: ON PIT ROW. Over ten years on the air and three on the net; see what can happen when I don't let the facts get in the way of my opinions.

January 26, 2009 9:33 pm UTC 2 Comments

Things are starting to come together for all the teams trying to make the Daytona 500.

The big four have been set for a while.  Rick Hendrick Motorsports has his four cars all set with Mark Martin coming on board to run the full season.  Jack Roush has had his five teams ready since getting the UPS sponsorship lined up at the  end of the 2008 season.  Richard Childress Racing has expanded his group to include a fourth car with Clint Bowyer moving over from the #07 to the new #33 car with General Mills sponsorship.  Joe Gibbs Racing has the kiddie corp  of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and ROTY contender Joey Logano ready to hit the track.

After those four owners has been where all the craziness of the off season has revolved.  It has been well documented the strife a mergers that have surrounded Chip Ganassi, Dale Earnhardt, Inc, Gillet-Evernham and Petty Enterprises.  For better or worse success or failure will follow the mergered teams depending on their ability to adapt to their new surroundings, management teams and driving team mates.

With the loss of teams like Bill Davis Racing and part time seasons from Furnature Row and The Wood Brothers, the bottom feeders saw much of the change  revolve around them.  There has been an odd resurgence of single car–privateer teams spearheaded by Tommy Baldwin‘s new entry in the Sprint Cup.  While many if not most of these new teams may not even make it past Daytona; it would seem to make the fields easier for the big boys to become bigger.

Less competition outside the top four teams could make it easier for a first time winner in both the 500 and the championship.  Which leads us to this week’s BUZZ ON PIT ROW:

Will 2009 be the magical season that Mark Martin wins the Daytona 500 and/or the Sprint Cup championship?

Let us know what you think and your comments could be used on this week’s ON PIT ROW radio show.  Listen live at www.onpitrow.com from 5 to 7pm ET.

photo credit: Icon Sports Media

Filed under: Bill Davis Racing, Brad Kesolowski, Chip Ganassi Racing, Clint Boyer, Dale Earnhardt, Inc., Daytona 500, Daytona International Speedway, Denny Hamlin, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Gillett Evernham Motorsports, Hendrick Motorsports, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, NASCAR, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, Richard Childress Racing, Sprint Cup Series 

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