Ganassi reflects on merger, changes and state of sport

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- One year after he merged his Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates organization with Teresa Earnhardt's Dale Earnhardt Inc. operation, Ganassi can look back on a year in which he put one of his cars into the Chase for the first time.

Looking ahead to 2010, he has a newly-minted driving tandem of his veteran and former open-wheel champion Juan Montoya and Jamie McMurray, who returns to the Ganassi fold after four years with Roush Fenway Racing, where he won twice.

On the eve of stock car Speedweeks, Ganassi sat down to talk about his new teammates, how he nurtures success throughout his organization, his NASCAR experiment with IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti and some of this season's new regulations for the Sprint Cup Series.

Q: Jamie McMurray's back in the family, so is anything different with him or has he gone away and come back as the same guy?

Chip Ganassi: I think in some respects he's the same guy and in some respects he's not. Maybe he got his post-graduate degree with Roush, where he maybe got his undergraduate degree with us. It's given him a lot of perspective ... but he's still the same old good, fun guy to have around. He's energetic and he's fast and he wants to be a part of the team.

Q: Jamie said he had his first chance to work with crew chief Kevin Manion at a test last year and that it was a revelation to him. In your management role, what works about those guys and what's the best aspect of that relationship, moving forward?

Manion

Ganassi: That's a great question and I'm not sure I have a great answer for you because I've been with the two of them a lot but not really in a working environment. I will tell you this: like-minded people can get along and find common ground very easily.

I think they've both been pleasantly surprised at the level of interaction that they get, thinking maybe before that there wasn't that level of commitment. I think both of them see that level of commitment and level of interest that they maybe didn't know was there before. I think they both have a real respect for each other.

Q: You've got a lot of history with both Juan and Jamie, so now that they're teammates, what don't we know about them that makes you think they'll be particularly successful as teammates?

Montoya and McMurray

Ganassi: I think they're both enjoying each other so far. Obviously there's a lot of speed in having a good teammate. With everything that the sport's been through and the shakeout, or a sifting if you will -- and at the end of the day what you have is a situation where the people that are here today really want to be here.

They know the sport, they respect the sport [and] they appreciate the sport. And these guys know it's not about who has the bigger motorhome or the better jet. That's not what this is about. I think it's about racing and both of those guys know that.

Q: A year after the merger with Dale Earnhardt Inc., Juan made the Chase and Martin Truex Jr. certainly ran well enough that if they'd been consistent they could've made it as well; so one year later, what's been the biggest plus about the merger?

Ganassi: The biggest plus was making the move to Chevrolet. That was a big part of the merger, which also brought a lot of intangibles, in people and in attitude that you can't get. That merger also happened right in the middle of this financial shakeout and again it's what Dale Earnhardt was all about. He was all about racing.

Yeah, he certainly had his fun [things], his boats and airplanes and things, but the fact of the matter was, that at the end of the day he was a racer -- and that's the highest compliment you give to anybody in this sport, I think.

Q: You've got a big organization spread across three racing disciplines: NASCAR, IndyCar and Grand-Am. They seem happy and winning races and championships is part of that, but do you organize any special events to keep the company morale up or foster togetherness?

Ganassi: The cars may be different and the engines are different but it's still all about people -- drivers and tires and engineers and physics -- it's kind of all the same.

I'm telling you, I'm the luckiest guy on the planet to be able to do this for a living, believe me. It's every kid's dream -- at least when I was a kid.

We forget that 25 or 30 years ago you could count the people on one hand, or on two hands that were making an honest living in this business. But today it's a bona fide business. (Continued)