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.

Q: With Danica Patrick about to take a shot at NASCAR, how do you reflect on your 2009 IndyCar champion, Dario Franchitti's NASCAR attempt in 2008 and with him saying he would be game to try it again -- but not until he's off the pace in the IRL?

Franchitti

Ganassi: I look back at that whole thing fondly. Sure, it didn't turn out like we wanted it to, but I'll tell you what -- it made us all grow. It was good for our team and it was good for him. Did it turn out like we wanted it to? No. But it was a learning experience that in the end everything worked out.

With him coming back to the IRL and winning the championship, a movie writer couldn't have done a better job at scripting that. I think too many people look at success or failure in wins and losses in this business.

Certainly you've got to have wins and you've got to be at the front if you're going to be around this business for any length of time. But there are a lot of good stories and a lot of successes in NASCAR that Hendrick and Gibbs don't have a monopoly on. There are a lot of successes out there that you don't read about or you don't hear about.

There's only one winner, but that doesn't mean there's only one story. I certainly think success can be measured in other ways.

Q: What do you feel is the most significant issue facing the sport in 2010?

Ganassi: I think the biggest issue facing the sport [of racing] is the biggest issue facing all of sports. Can all sports stay relevant during a downturn in the economy?

I think all sports are going to pay, somewhat, for the off-season trials and tribulations of Tiger Woods. Basically the rest of the world is finding out what a lot of us in sports know already, and that is that all these athletes are real people.

We all like to look up to them and we all want to worship them or we all wish we could perform like they do. At the end of the day, though, when you're involved in sports you realize that they are just humans also.

I'm a fan of Tiger Woods for his golf, and I never really gave his home life a second thought. Apparently some people find that interesting.

Q: As you talk with your stock car competition people, what do they feel the impact of this upcoming spoiler change is going to be?

Ganassi: The one thing I've not heard anybody say about going to a spoiler on the new car is that a wing and a spoiler both give downforce to a car. A wing is more efficient downforce because a spoiler is just that -- the reason they call a spoiler a 'spoiler' is because it spoils the air.

A wing gives you downforce but it's much cleaner air. The air flows over the top of a wing and underneath it smoothly. I think the spoiler is going to improve the racing because it's going to punch a bigger hole in the air.

I think what [NASCAR] realized is that with these wings the cars don't punch as big a hole in the air and that's why you see, on a lot of these mile-and-a-halfs that clean air is your friend and dirty air is not your friend. The further you get back in the pack, the dirtier the air is. With the spoiler, it'll make more dirtier air near the front of the pack and my guess is it'll bring the pack closer together. I applaud NASCAR for saying 'hey, let's change it.'

Q: What's your thought on the rules in place for Speedweeks and the Daytona 500, including relaxing restrictions on bump drafting and increasing the size of the restrictor plate?

Ganassi: Let's face it, that's probably a question better asked of a driver than a team owner. I don't care what configuration we've come to, and I've only been around this sport since 2001 or something -- but it seems like whatever configuration you come to Daytona or Talladega with, the fact of the matter is you're trying to hang on and stay in one piece until you can get to the white flag lap [laughing].

And then all hell seems to break loose. I'm just trying to get my cars to the end of the day at those places.

Q: How are you looking at the Budweiser Shootout, where you've got both your cars in? Are you looking to work on anything in particular, where it's the first time for Jamie and Juan to race as teammates?

Ganassi: I feel very fortunate that both guys are in the Shootout and again, that's going to be one more way to learn things that you can apply during the [Daytona] 500. I've said this before, learning in this business is like laying bricks: It's one brick at a time.

You can't skip five rows. You have to go each row on top of each row on top of each row. There's no fast way to do it, it's never changed and that's what I like about it.

Q: What's your take on the Chase for the Sprint Cup format? Going into the season it's pretty hard to pick 12 guys who'll make it when legitimately as many as 20 have a great shot at it.

Ganassi: I've been on both ends of it. I think it's good in that someone developed a playoff format for racing. A purist would say 'no, we want to go to the old way of doing things.' And someone that's interested in the sport would say 'you've got to stay with this playoff format.'

It's probably like what someone said about a democracy one time: 'It's not the best form of government, but I can't think of a better one.'

Do I feel it's the best playoff format? No, but I can't think of a better one [laughing], so...