EXCLUSIVE: Tony Kanaan Poised to Join Ganassi

IndyCar

EXCLUSIVE: Tony Kanaan Poised to Join Ganassi

SPEED's Robin Miller reports Chip Ganassi is poised to snap up the 2004 IRL champion for next season.

Robin Miller | Posted August 06, 2008 Indianapolis, Ind.

Tony Kanaan is the most valuable player at Andretti Green Racing, but he’s also the most valuable free agent in American open-wheel racing and Chip Ganassi is poised to snap up the 2004 Indy Racing League champion.

SPEEDtv.com has learned that Ganassi has made a multi-year offer for Kanaan to join Scott Dixon at Target/Ganassi Racing starting in 2009 and the 33-year-old veteran is expected to sign the contract in the near future.

Repeated phone calls and text messages to Kanaan the past three days were not returned, while Ganassi, reached at his Pittsburgh home on Wednesday night, offered the following when asked about trying to sign Kanaan.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “But feel free to give him (Kanaan) my phone number.”

But, when pressed to address the likelihood of pursuing someone of Kanaan’s caliber, Ganassi then replied: “I think you’d have to look at it. You have to do the right thing for your team and your sponsors.”

It’s believed that Ganassi covets Kanaan over Dan Wheldon because the IRL is adding more road courses and street races -- where T.K. clearly has out-performed the 30-year-old Brit.

The repercussions of this deal would be massive on both sides.

First off, Wheldon would be out of a ride and the 2005 IRL and Indy 500 champion is one of the highest-paid drivers in the series (just under $3 million), so the only IRL teams able to meet his financial needs would be Roger Penske and AGR, the team that jump started his career in 2004. Obviously, Tony George could also afford to hire the driver currently ranked No. 3 in the IndyCar standings. Penske is set with Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves for ’09 and Wheldon, like ’07 IRL king Dario Franchitti, did not leave AGR on the best of terms, so his return to that operation would be doubtful. It’s possible there could be a second seat open up at Rahal Letterman or HVM for Wheldon, and George could always add a third Vision entry.

Page 1 of 2