INDIANAPOLIS — When it comes to NASCAR, Chip Ganassi and A.J. Foyt have a lot in common.
Both men won some very big races, but neither reached the pinnacle of stock car racing. In Foyt’s case, he was never a full-time NASCAR competitor. He remains the only driver to win the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in his career.
Foyt won seven Cup Series races in 128 starts over 34 years. When Foyt showed up at a NASCAR race, it added another world-class competitor to a field that included Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Bobby and Donnie Allison, Darrell Waltrip and later in Foyt’s career, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon.
While Foyt was the ultimate part-timer in NASCAR, Ganassi took a different approach. He was “all-in” by becoming a full-time team owner, first with Felix Sabates as his co-owner beginning in 2001.
Ganassi was already a highly successful CART and Indy car team owner, winning CART championships with Jimmy Vasser (1996), Alex Zanardi (1997-’98) and Juan Pablo Montoya (1999).
Ganassi returned to the Indianapolis 500 with the Indy Racing League in 2000 and Montoya whipped the field, leading 167 laps in the 200-lap contest.
In Ganassi’s first NASCAR season, he nearly won the championship as Sterling Marlin battled for the NASCAR Cup Series title before finishing third with two victories.
In 2002, Marlin led the Cup Series standings from the second race of the season until the Sept. 7 event at Richmond (Va.) Int’l Raceway.
Ganassi’s championship bid ended when Marlin suffered a cracked vertebra in a Sept. 29 crash at Kansas Speedway.
Marlin was replaced by a Missouri kid named Jamie McMurray, who went on to enjoy a successful career with Chip Ganassi Racing.
“That season was more of a reflection on the team that Felix Sabates put together than what I did for it,” Ganassi said.
That was the closest Ganassi’s NASCAR team came to winning a Cup Series championship.
But the team scored a lot of big victories.
From 2009 to ’13, Ganassi merged his team with Dale Earnhardt Inc. to become Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing.
In 2010, Ganassi’s entire racing operation enjoyed a season for the ages. McMurray won the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the same season.
Overall, Ganassi’s 2010 season was even better. Dario Franchitti won both the Indianapolis 500 and the third of his four NTT IndyCar Series championships. When McMurray won the Daytona 500 and Franchitti topped the Indianapolis 500, Ganassi joined Roger Penske as the only team owners to win both major races in the same season. By winning the Brickyard 400 later that year, he became the first team owner to win all three races in a single season.
Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas won nine of the 12 starts in Grand-Am and claimed a fourth championship.
It was Ganassi’s most successful season, with two titles, victories in Daytona and Indianapolis and 19 wins across IndyCar, NASCAR and sport cars.
“The 2010 season is tough to beat for anybody,” Ganassi told SPEED SPORT. “Everybody points to winning Daytona and winning the Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Daytona and the Brickyard.
“What everybody forgets about 2010 is we had nine drivers and every driver found victory lane that year. We had 19 wins that year and every driver in our team in every series drove to a victory. How many teams do that?
“You could spend the rest of your life trying to be 2010. You never know when lightning is going to strike and it did in 2010, many times.”
Ganassi’s success in IndyCar and sports car racing continued. Scott Dixon has won six NTT IndyCar Series championships and is battling for a record-tying seventh this season.
When Ganassi announced on June 30 that he was selling his NASCAR team to Justin Marks and Trackhouse Racing, it was shocking because nobody — including Ganassi — expected it.
“The team wasn’t for sale, but at the same time, if somebody comes and wants to buy it, you listen,” Ganassi said. “I’ve always said if you have your largest two or three assets and somebody wants to buy them, you need to listen, whether it’s your car or house or business. If somebody wants to buy that stuff, you have to look at it because you can always buy another one.
“It wasn’t for sale. I didn’t have a ‘For Sale’ sign out. It was the right time.
“Nobody does something like that for a reaction; you do it for a business decision. I didn’t talk to anyone else about selling the team. I didn’t talk to any other buyers.
“Justin and I talked, and we made a deal.”
It reminded Ganassi of the time 20 years earlier when he united with Sabates to enter NASCAR racing.
Ganassi’s racing empire continues, but after this season it will no longer include a NASCAR team. Chip Ganassi Racing will still field a four-car NTT IndyCar Series team, a top-level IMSA sports car team and an Extreme E program.
“I got into NASCAR because it was great racing,” Ganassi said. “I wouldn’t trade my 20 years of NASCAR for anything. I had a great time while I was there. Made a lot of great friends and had a lot of great friendships. I had some ups and had some downs, just like any other business.
“Looking back, it was pretty positive.”